Former Federal CISO DeRusha lands at Google Cloud

Chris DeRusha, the former federal chief information security officer and deputy national cyber director, is joining Google Cloud to lead the tech giant’s global public sector compliance work, according to a Tuesday press release.

DeRusha, who left the federal government last month after more than three years as the federal CISO, will lead the expansion of Google Cloud’s suite of artificial intelligence, cloud computing and security products within the public sector, both in the United States and abroad.

DeRusha will report to Jeanette Manfra, Google Cloud’s global director of security and compliance, who said in a statement that the ONCD veteran’s “unparalleled experience designing and implementing cutting-edge security and critical infrastructure programs in both the private and public sectors will be invaluable to our Google Cloud team and our global public sector customers.” 

Manfra, who previously served in the Department of Homeland Security and as the White House’s director for critical infrastructure cybersecurity, added that DeRusha’s experience in the federal government provides him with “a unique vantage point into national security challenges facing governments and specific industry sectors.”

During his time as federal CISO, DeRusha played a key role in the development of the White House’s artificial intelligence executive order, as well as the Biden administration’s 2021 EO on cybersecurity and the subsequent national cybersecurity strategy and implementation plan. He also led the 25-member council of agency CISOs, oversaw agencywide implementation of multifactor authentication and coordinated broader federal cybersecurity strategies in his role at ONCD.

Speaking at the Google Public Sector Forum last October, DeRusha said that the Biden administration was embracing the shift from addressing legacy modernization issues to taking on “massive” long-term challenges on everything from AI strategy to battling ransomware.

“We’ve taken on pretty much every big challenge that we’ve been talking about for a couple of decades,” DeRusha said. “And we’re taking a swing and making” progress.

DeRusha’s move to Google Cloud represents a return to the private sector for the first time since 2018, when he spent a year as Ford Motor Company’s manager of enterprise vulnerability management and application security. Prior to his stint at Ford, DeRusha served nearly six years at DHS and another two as the White House’s senior cybersecurity adviser. 

After leaving Ford in 2018, DeRusha spent two years in top security jobs at the state of Michigan, followed by a CISO role with President Joe Biden’s 2020 presidential campaign and then his appointment to the federal security chief position in January 2021.