City hires new chief information security officer

The city has announced the hiring of a new chief information security officer, Shirley Erp. As CISO, which falls under the direction of Assistant City Manager Rey Arellano, Erp will be “responsible for the citywide information security program that covers safeguarding the city’s information, data, and technology infrastructure, and for overseeing the information security governance committee. The CISO will also support cross-departmental issues and engage external stakeholders as it relates to the six Strategic Outcomes.” Arellano said in the announcement about the hire, “I’m very happy to have Shirley join our team. Her experience is a powerful asset to the work we do to protect our information security and risk management efforts.” Erp has more than 20 years of experience leading large organizations and a strong background in “building cybersecurity operations centers for real-time monitoring, threat response and breach prevention.” She added, “I am excited about moving the city of Austin information security program to the next level to further mature the system by collaborating citywide and engaging departmental participation to leverage resources, increase knowledge, and expand our incident response capabilities.” Erp’s new job starts June 1.