Steve Hodges

As of November 2023, Steve Hodges is the State Chief Information Security Officer for the State of Georgia, a role he began in January 2023 with the Georgia Technology Authority.

Career path

Hodges's public-sector career began at the Georgia Department of Administrative Services, where he worked first as a contractor and later as a state employee, serving as an enterprise network engineer manager from 1996 to 2001.

He then spent roughly 21 to 22 years at the Georgia Department of Revenue, holding roles including Server Platform Manager, Network Support and Security Manager, IT Operations Manager and Database Support Manager, and taking on responsibility for business continuity and disaster recovery planning.

His most recent position at the Department of Revenue was Disclosure Officer and Senior IT Security Manager, in which he oversaw the agency's IT service delivery, IT governance program, information security office and information disclosure program.

Earlier in his career he was part of a team that developed one of the first commercially marketed disk encryption and access control systems for IBM-compatible computers.

Georgia CIO and GTA Executive Director Shawnzia Thomas named Hodges State CISO in January 2023.

"I am looking forward to the opportunity to serve the citizens of the State of Georgia in this new role," Hodges said.

Hodges holds professional certifications including Lean Six Sigma, Dante Networking, Dell \ EMC Clariion and Novell CNE.

Remit

As State CISO, Hodges leads enterprise cybersecurity strategy, governance, operations and modernization across Georgia's state government environment.

His work has increasingly focused on the organizational conditions that let an enterprise act quickly during an incident, including trust, decision rights and relationships across organizational boundaries.

He has written about Continuous Incident Response, describing the need to build trust, authority and alignment before an incident begins rather than after an attacker is already active.

Public engagements

Hodges speaks at cybersecurity and government technology events including SecureWorld, Info-Tech LIVE, AWS Public Sector Innovation Day, StateScoop's Cybersecurity Modernization Summit and the Georgia Digital Government Summit.

In November 2023, he took part in a cybersecurity roundtable hosted by U.S. Representative Buddy Carter alongside state and federal officials, including representatives of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation's Cyber Crime Center and the Federal Law Enforcement Training Centers.