New Jersey names new homeland security chief

New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy last Friday said that Laurie Doran, a former CIA agent, will serve as the acting director of the state’s Office of Homeland Security Policy, following the departure of longtime homeland security chief Jared Maples.

Doran, who had been the homeland security office’s director of intelligence and operations, will eventually be nominated for her new role, which is subject to confirmation by the state Senate, and join Murphy’s Cabinet, the governor’s office said. Before joining state government in 2018, Doran spent 32 years at the CIA, mostly as an operations officer serving overseas, officials said.

Laurie Doran (State of New Jersey)

Maples, who was appointed in 2017 by former Gov. Chris Christie, started Monday as executive vice president and chief security officer of the National Hockey League. In a press release, Murphy said that “our loss in Jared is the NHL’s gain,” and credited Maples with setting “a standard of excellence, integrity, and honorable service that I am confident Laurie will continue to uphold.”

In addition to traditional functions like counterterrorism and emergency preparedness, New Jersey’s homeland security office counts cybersecurity among its core missions, a rarity among states, most of which make it part of the broader IT operation. (Arizona recently followed New Jersey’s lead when its chief information security officer, Tim Roemer, was put in charge of the state homeland security department.) As homeland security director, Maples worked alongside state CISO Michael Geraghty to lead the New Jersey Cybersecurity and Communications Integration Cell, a fusion center that shares advisories and intelligence with local governments and the private sector, and coordinates with federal agencies including the Department of Homeland Security and the FBI.

Last year, the NJCCIC also stepped up its monitoring of online domestic violent extremism and disinformation, releasing a report last September on the threats that Maples said in April fueled the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol. Maples, a CIA veteran like Doran, was also a frequent speaker at cybersecurity conferences and on Capitol Hill. Earlier this year, he pressed lawmakers to include cybersecurity funding in a federal infrastructure package.

In the press release from Murphy’s office, Doran called Maples an “incredible leader, mentor, and friend.”