Homeland Security’s Top Cybersecurity Official Moving to Google

CyberScoop is reporting that Jeanette Manfra, the Department of Homeland Security’s assistant director for cybersecurity, will be joining Google.

Google has been trying to gain traction acquiring federal cybersecurity contracts. Manfra will offer a big boost in that area, as she will take on the role of “global director of security and compliance as part of a new security team at Google Cloud,” according to Google’s statement to CyberScoop.

“She will lend her considerable experience in cybersecurity toward helping our customers, particularly those in regulated industries, build and maintain the highest levels of security and trust into their technical infrastructure and services,” a Google Cloud spokesperson went on to say.

Manfra is well respected in the cybersecurity community and, as CyberScoop points out, has been praised by politicians for her role in election security. Her name alone will lend gravitas to Google’s efforts to make headway in the field.

She will stay on at her post at DHS’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency through the end of December, before beginning her new role with Google in January.