According to a report, CIO Flint Waters will be stepping down from the state on Sept. 23 in order to join Silicon Valley giant Google. He will join the company’s Google for Work team and help build partnerships with public-sector clients.
Waters was named one of Government Technology’s Top 25 Doers Dreamers & Drivers of 2012 for his work helping bolster the state’s cybersecurity stance. He has continued this work of protecting the state’s data most recently by helping state agencies and local governments ensure they have appropriate data security guidelines in place.
One of the most common issues in data security is that often all of the data is not properly accounted for. Frequently separate agencies will silo off certain data sets.
“In many cases, we’re finding government entities, through some legislative or reporting or audit mandate, have gathered additional data sets from other entities, and now they have workforce and transportation and education data sitting at the Department of Health,” Waters said at the RSA Conference in San Francisco earlier this year. “So we’re trying to go through and inventory all that.”
During his tenure, he also oversaw Wyoming's effort to establish broadband for all schools and government offices in the state through partnerships with existing providers.
Waters was first appointed state CIO by Gov. Matt Mead in April 2011.
