CompTIA Sharkbytes

Jon Walton brings over 25 years of experience in the field of Information Technology and has a diverse background in both public and private sectors, setting innovative technology standards and providing visionary leadership for numerous organizations. Under his leadership, Jon implemented a countywide shared digital public safety radio system, a hyper-converged SDN datacenter, a multi-jurisdictional high-speed fiber network, and the migration of key enterprise applications to the Cloud. In addition, he oversaw the launch of SMC Public Wi-Fi to help bridge the digital divide within the County.

A discussion with Dan Lohrmann, Chief Strategist & Chief Security Officer at Security Mentor, Inc. – former CISO and CSO, State of Michigan.

Dan Lohrmann led Michigan government’s cybersecurity and technology infrastructure teams from May 2002 to August 2014, including enterprise-wide Chief Security Officer (CSO), Chief Technology Officer (CTO) and Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) roles in Michigan. During his distinguished career, he has served global organizations in the public and private sectors in a variety of executive leadership capacities, receiving numerous national awards including: CSO of the Year, Public Official of the Year and Computerworld Premier 100 IT Leader.

Recently recognized by StateTech Magazine as one of the 30 State and Local Government IT Influencers Worth a Following in 2020, Dr. Jonathan Reichental has recently found himself in the news with the publication of his new book, Smart Cities for Dummies and has been active on Twitter and LinkedIn on smart city topics, including the benefits of cloud services in city government and how to measure progress in implementing smart city plans.

The title of Chief Information Security Officer is relatively new within local government and is quickly raising in stature and importance. Unfortunately, all too often, the CISO is viewed as all about “doom and gloom” by colleagues. I was pleased to have the opportunity recently to sit down with two of the leading CISOs in the local government tech community and to hear their concerns, their worries, and more importantly, their strategies to maintain effective security practices in their organizations.

Durham County was hit with a ransomware attack in early March - at the start of the pandemic and the move to remote work and virtual services. In a way, the perfect storm. This session goes into all decisions the CIO and CISO had to deal with during the first24 hours. The session takes us to the conclusion and what it took to bring the county back to “normal” and more importantly – lessons learned.

Miami-Dade is one of the largest counties in Florida with nearly 3 million residents and over 35 municipalities within its borders. Protecting the public enterprise is no easy task. With a staff of 28, Lars shares his approach towards protecting both the county and elections infrastructure.  And add all the implications stemming from the pandemic the responsibility of the CISO has never been greater.

Having had highly successful career as a CIO in the private sector, Carolyn was seeking some new challenges in the public sector and wound up in Sonoma County where she began working with the Director of the Department of Health Services, forming a strategic bond of innovation and enabling technology to support the ACCESS initiative. This meant working closely with the Safety Net Collaborative to find a solution that would bring their disparate data into a centralized hub that could be accessed by the IMDT and specialists. Then came COVID-19.

Virtual First and the New Next – is perhaps a better term than the over-used the New Normal! Wendy will explain the concept she hopes to apply to Loudoun County. This initiative focuses on local governments as they consider lessons learned – as governments responded to the pandemic and millions of government employees moved to working remotely and governments moved more services online. Wendy will share some priorities to consider as she takes a strategic approach towards moving forward.

As the son of longtime Charleston Mayor Joe Riley, Bratton was brought up in a family committed to public service. To this day Bratton continues in the family tradition as a civic and business development leader who maintains a passion for the betterment of our communities.  Through this podcast we will learn about how and why chatbots are being utilized from the smallest to largest local government entities. Bratton brings a unique perspective to understanding issues facing local governments and the barriers of citizen communication.

Bratton received a degree in history from the University of  Virginia, as well as a JD and MBA in International Business from the University of South Carolina. He is an esteemed Liberty Fellow; an incubator for exemplary leadership in South Carolina in conjunction with the Aspen Global Leadership Network.

Greg Useem joined the city in 2012 and has been responsible for improving service delivery through measurement and analysis. Before coming to Alexandria, he served as director of budget and policy for Wake County, N.C., and in Prince George's County, Md., as the planning and accountability officer. Having been on the job for some eight years Greg has done an amazing job in the area of performance measurement. He led the effort to develop a rather comprehensive dashboard which can be viewed by going to: https://www.alexandriava.gov/performance/info/dashboard.aspx?id=105407 (https://www.alexandriava.gov/performance/info/dashboard.aspx?id=105407)

Learn from Greg’s experiences and gain insights as to where one might start in replication a similar operation.