VA’s Council names NASA exec as new CISO
The Department of Veterans Affairs will get a new chief information security officer — a federal IT veteran who has worked in information security at NASA, the Department of Homeland Security and the International Finance Corporation.
Roopangi Kadakia will start work as VA CISO July 24, CIO Laverne Council said in an email to staff Tuesday.
Kadakia “comes to us with a broad background spanning information management, governance, and security operations — both in the Federal Government as well as private industry,” Council wrote.
She joins VA from NASA, where she led one of the federal government’s largest cloud deployments as the agency’s web services executive. Prior to that she was NASA CISO — a job she also held at IFC and DHS’ science and technology division.
“As we prepare for our next sprint toward our transformation goals, Ms. Kadakia’s unique experience will help us eliminate IT as a material weakness for VA, safeguard our employees’ and Veterans’ data, move some of our own systems to the cloud, and strengthen security and oversight of our IT assets, systems, and applications, all while ensuring all employees have the privileges and resources they need to perform their jobs,” stated Council.
She added Kadakia’s background “reflects a successful career focused on service, perhaps the most crucial characteristic we could find in any executive.”
