The deputy undersecretary for cybersecurity position was created by the reorganization of the NPPD last month, prompted by the departure of Phil Reitinger, at that time the directorate’s only deputy undersecretary, who joined Sony as chief information security officer (CISO) after several high-profile data breaches at the company.
Undersecretary Rand Beers decided to divide Reitinger’s responsibilities among two deputies – one responsible for cybersecurity and the other responsible for the rest of the directorate’s work, including critical infrastructure protection, federal facilities security, and the US-VISIT biometric identification system.
Weatherford is replacing Greg Schaffer, who was serving as the acting deputy undersecretary for cybersecurity. Schaffer will retain his post as head of the Office of Cybersecurity and Communications under Weatherford. Suzanne Spaulding, a principal at the Bingham Consulting Group and former congressional staffer, was named as the other deputy undersecurity.
Prior to serving as the NERC CTO, Weatherford was the CISO in California’s Office of Information Security, and the CSO for the state of Colorado, where he helped establish the state’s first cybersecurity program. Weatherford is a former naval cryptologic officer, where he led the Navy’s computer network defense operations and computer incident response team.
Weatherford is expected to start his new job in mid-November, according to DHS.