Katie Arrington named Chief Information Security Officer at Department of Defense

Katie Arrington has been appointed CISO at the Department of Defense. She previously served as CISO at the DoD between 2019 and 2022, and most recently held leadership roles at supply chain and risk management company Exiger.

A biography on docs.house.gov says Arrington served as Deputy CIO for Cybersecurity, supporting the DoD CIO on all cybersecurity matters. In that post she was responsible for the DoD-wide cybersecurity program and partnered with industry on information sharing and cybersecurity, the biography says.

At Exiger, Arrington held the title of Senior Vice President of External Affairs and mobilized issues including national security, Artificial Intelligence and supply chain visibility, the Department of War biography says. Exiger announced Arrington as its Vice President of Government Affairs, noting that she had led the COVID-19 Supply Chain Task Force for Acceleration at the White House. According to the Department of War biography, she was the first DoD CISO serving the Undersecretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment and worked to enhance cyber security within the Defense Industrial Base. Exiger says that as the Undersecretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment's CISO, Arrington launched the NDAA 889 Task Force, the Trusted Capital Program and the Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification.

According to Exiger, she held a board seat at the Charleston Defense Contractors Associations and served two terms in the South Carolina House of Representatives. Exiger says Arrington started the consulting firm LD Innovations and was Dispersive Technologies' Vice President of Sales and Operations. The docs.house.gov biography says her more than 15 years of cyber experience came from positions at Dispersive Networks, Centuria Corporation and Booz Allen Hamilton. The Department of War biography says she ran in 2022 for South Carolina's 1st Congressional District seat in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Exiger says its software and tech-enabled solutions help corporations, banks and government agencies navigate risk and compliance in their supply chains, customers and third-parties. Exiger says it has 550 customers across the globe, including over 50 government agencies and 150 in the Fortune 500.