John Cleveland was most recently chief of security operations for the California Department of Technology (CDT) before his promotion this month. He reports to state CISO Vitaliy Panych, who held the deputy role under former state CISO Peter Liebert until Liebert left that role and entered the private sector. Panych was acting CISO for two years before his appointment was made permanent in January. The deputy position had remained vacant until Cleveland’s appointment this month.
As CDT’s chief of security operations, Cleveland has been serving as manager of the Statewide Security Operations Center for the past two years, according to a CDT spokesperson. Cleveland’s previous state positions include security and compliance chief for the Employment Development Department, CISO for the Department of Child Support Services, and chief technology officer for the Contractors State License Board.
“He has been instrumental in his previous roles devising and implementing security operations strategies and has built security controls for some of the state’s largest benefit-based systems,” the spokesperson told Techwire in an email.
“John’s prior work building security operations practices that enable large-scale business applications to operate in a secure and resilient manner made him the right choice,” Panych told Techwire in an email. “As the new deputy state CISO, we will continue to benefit from his significant security knowledge, experience and insight in being able to mature, streamline and operationalize the state’s cybersecurity practices.”
Cleveland worked in the private sector for more than 20 years, specializing in information security and technology management, including roles as service delivery manager for Banyan Systems, consulting manager at Lucent Worldwide Services, and principal consultant and owner of his own security consulting business.
He is an Iraq war veteran with over 10 years of military service.
In a statement to Techwire, Cleveland said: “I am honored and excited to serve in this role. Over the past few years, I believe the state has come a long way in its information security efforts, but there is still much to be done. I look forward to working with our partners to foster a unified team approach to risk management, centralizing security defense capabilities where appropriate, improving cybersecurity maturity, and minimizing overall risk to the state.”
Cleveland, a Rancho Cordova resident, attended Mansfield University in Pennsylvania, majoring in computer science and mathematics. According to his LinkedIn profile, he is a ham radio enthusiast.
