Chief Information Security Officer for Acquisitions Katie Arrington delivers a keynote speech during the Military Satellite Communications Digital Week, the Pentagon, Washington, D.C., Dec. 8, 2020. (DoD photo by Lisa Ferdinando)
WASHINGTON — Former chief information security officer (CISO) for acquisition and sustainment at the Department of Defense is headed back to the Pentagon — this time as DoD’s CISO — following her previous suspension from the department for allegedly disclosing classified data.
Katie Arrington served as a state lawmaker for South Carolina and had an unsuccessful bid for Congress before taking her post in 2019 as the chief information officer for A&S during President Donald Trump’s first administration. She played an active role in standing up the department’s Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (CMMC) program before she was put on administrative leave in May 2021 after the National Security Agency suspended her security clearance for allegedly sharing top secret information to a defense contractor.
Arrington announced her new role on Tuesday night with a LinkedIn post.
Following Arrington’s suspension, she resigned in February 2022 because of the DoD’s decision to move the CMMC program from the office of acquisition and sustainment to its Chief Information Office, according to a resignation letter obtained by SC Media. She contended in the letter that her suspension was “politically influenced” and maintained that such claims of disclosing classified information were false.
The day after Arrington resigned from the Pentagon, she announced a second bid for Congress which she subsequently lost to Republican South Carolina House lawmaker Nancy Mace.
The DoD did not immediately respond to a request for comment regarding the status of Arrington’s ability to obtain a security clearance or the status of the investigation into the accusations that she shared classified information. The department also did not respond to comment on Arrington’s claims that the investigation was “politically influenced.”
The NSA deferred to the DoD for comment.
According to a 2022 report from Federal News Network, Arrington’s attorney, Mark Zaid, said Arrington was, as of then, still challenging the government’s decision to suspend her security clearance and the following effort to permanently revoke it.
