{"id":70842,"date":"2025-05-05T14:30:14","date_gmt":"2025-05-05T18:30:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/statescoop.com\/?p=70842"},"modified":"2025-05-05T14:31:06","modified_gmt":"2025-05-05T18:31:06","slug":"maryland-james-saunders-ciso-2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/statescoop.com\/maryland-james-saunders-ciso-2025\/","title":{"rendered":"Maryland names former federal agency CISO as state’s new cyber chief"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Maryland\u2019s technology department on Monday announced it\u2019s hired James Saunders, a former federal technology official, to serve as its new chief information security officer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Saunders, who started as acting CISO on Monday and will become the state\u2019s permanent cybersecurity chief after a Senate confirmation, most recently served as deputy chief information officer of the Office of Personnel Management. He also spent nearly three years as OPM\u2019s CISO and nearly three years in various security roles at the Small Business Administration, including one year as its CISO.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a press release, Maryland Gov. Wes Moore said Saunders\u2019 hire is a \u201cbig deal\u201d in light of his administration\u2019s new strategy<\/a> to create new cybersecurity apprenticeships, with the aim of filling  thousands of open cybersecurity jobs and bolstering the economy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Saunders in the press release called himself a \u201cbig advocate\u201d for emerging technologies and partnerships, while Maryland CIO Katie Savage noted the growing cybersecurity threat of agentic AI<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In an interview<\/a> with FedScoop last year about his role at OPM, Saunders said AI can be used to help the government more quickly detect network anomalies and respond to threats. He said AI can also be used to improve cybersecurity training.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe want to leverage AI to defend ourselves against those same AI attacks and threats,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As Maryland\u2019s top cybersecurity official, Saunders is responsible for setting policy that secures the state\u2019s IT systems, infrastructure and private data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Saunders also served for eight months at the Agency for International Development and has held numerous private sector jobs, including spending nearly three years as the chief technology officer of a company he founded called CodeOrange Security. His LinkedIn profile<\/a> shows he held roles with Raytheon Foreground Security, the investment management firm T. Rowe Price and the professional services firm CACI International.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Maryland, he replaces Greg Rogers, who stepped down in February to freelance as a cybersecurity adviser.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Maryland has named James Saunders, a former federal technology official, to serve as its new chief information security officer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":205,"featured_media":68820,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"disable_grayscale_images":true,"grayscale_contrast":0,"sponsored_content":false,"display_author_bio":true,"story_type":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4677],"tags":[248,2222,12178,15958,16536,25131,25380,25587],"people":[],"special-report":[],"authors":[4696],"class_list":["post-70842","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-state","tag-maryland","tag-opm","tag-ciso","tag-state-officials","tag-cybersecurity","tag-technology-news","tag-state-government-news","tag-james-saunders","author-colin-wood"],"yoast_head":"\nMaryland names former federal agency CISO as state's new cyber chief | StateScoop<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Maryland has named James Saunders, a former federal technology official, to serve as its new chief information security officer.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/statescoop.com\/maryland-james-saunders-ciso-2025\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Maryland names former federal agency CISO as state's new cyber chief | StateScoop\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Maryland has named James Saunders, a former federal technology official, to serve as its new chief information security officer.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/statescoop.com\/maryland-james-saunders-ciso-2025\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"StateScoop\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/StateScoop\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-05-05T18:30:14+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-05-05T18:31:06+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/statescoop.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2025\/01\/GettyImages-2192272626.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1300\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1040\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Colin Wood\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@State_Scoop\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@State_Scoop\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/statescoop.com\/maryland-james-saunders-ciso-2025\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/statescoop.com\/maryland-james-saunders-ciso-2025\/\",\"name\":\"Maryland names former federal agency CISO as state's new cyber chief | StateScoop\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/statescoop.com\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/statescoop.com\/maryland-james-saunders-ciso-2025\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/statescoop.com\/maryland-james-saunders-ciso-2025\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/statescoop.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2025\/01\/GettyImages-2192272626.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-05-05T18:30:14+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-05-05T18:31:06+00:00\",\"description\":\"Maryland has named James Saunders, a former federal technology official, to serve as its new chief information security officer.\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/statescoop.com\/maryland-james-saunders-ciso-2025\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/statescoop.com\/maryland-james-saunders-ciso-2025\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/statescoop.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2025\/01\/GettyImages-2192272626.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/statescoop.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2025\/01\/GettyImages-2192272626.jpg\",\"width\":1300,\"height\":1040,\"caption\":\"Maryland Gov. 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