Oklahoma names former Washington-state official as new cyber chief

Daniel Langley, who most recently served in Washington state’s information technology bureau, has taken a role as Oklahoma’s chief information security officer.

Langley spent more than two years at Washington Technology Solutions, where he served as deputy CISO for security operations, before announcing last month on LinkedIn that he would move eastward. He heads IT security policy for the state under CIO Dan Cronin, who warned in a press release last week that, despite Oklahoma’s progress in this domain, “cybersecurity is an ongoing journey that requires constant adaptation to emerging threats.”

Langley’s arrival in Oklahoma, which was first reported by Government Technology, continues a career in technology that has included service as CISO of the Washington state lottery and nearly a decade in the U.S. Army, where he completed his service as a captain in the Signal Corps, which designs and supports communications technologies ranging from satellites to video conferencing.

Oklahoma’s previous cyber chief, Michael Toland, stepped down over the summer for a role at the California cyber firm Anomali. In an interview last April, Toland pointed to the state’s use of agentic artificial intelligence as a “scary” but necessary tool to help keep pace with cyberattacks that were also using AI. “You tell it what to do, and it will decide how to do it. And anyone who’s had children knows the fear of handing control over,” Toland said.

Langley’s arrival coincides with other administration changes at the state’s Office of Management and Enterprise Services, which houses the state’s IT functions. Gov. Kevin Stitt announced last month that Rick Rose, OMES’s executive director and statewide chief operating officer, was stepping down after just over a year with the office.

His arrival also coincides with October, which the Department of Homeland Security many years ago designated as National Cyber Security Awareness Month. (October is also National Adopt a Shelter Dog Month, Liver Awareness Month and National Popcorn Poppin’ Month, according to an extensive list on Wikipedia.)

According to a press release published by Stitt’s office last week intended to draw attention to cyber awareness, Oklahoma Cyber Command, the cyber division inside OMES, works “around the clock” to protect the state’s data from “tens of billions of threats annually,” including business email compromise attacks, “email-borne viruses” and other malware.

Oklahoma is also home to the Oklahoma Information Sharing and Analysis Center, or OK-ISAC, which provides real-time threat monitoring, vulnerability, incident response and other free services to its members.

Stitt’s recent announcement also encourages people and organizations to “make cybersecurity a daily habit” through four key practices: reporting phishing attempts, using strong passwords and a password manager, enabling multifactor authentication on applications and updating software regularly.