Steven Hernandez

As of January 2025, Steven Hernandez is the chief information security officer and deputy chief information officer of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), a role he took on that month after joining the agency.

Career path

Before USAID, Hernandez served as CISO at the Department of Education and, earlier, worked in information security at the Department of Health and Human Services' Office of Inspector General.

At HHS, his full title was CISO for the Office of Inspector General and director of the OIG's Information Assurance Division, where his team was responsible for protecting a trillion-dollar portfolio from fraud, waste and abuse.

Before joining HHS, he held senior information assurance positions at the Department of Education, the Department of Agriculture, and a National Security Administration Centre of Academic Excellence Research Institute.

At the Department of Education's Office of Inspector General, he held a series of roles including CTO, CIO, CISO, Senior Official for Privacy and Chief Services Engineering Officer before serving as CISO and Director of Information Assurance Services.

Since October 2018, Hernandez has served as co-chair of the Federal Chief Information Security Officer Council, which facilitates cross-agency conversations among federal CISOs, a role he continues to hold at USAID.

He also serves as government chair of the ACT-IAC Cybersecurity Community of Interest, sits on the Board of Directors for (ISC)², has served on the (ISC)² Government Advisory Board for Cybersecurity, and has judged the Government Information Security Leadership Awards.

Published work and public remarks

Hernandez is the lead author and editor of the third edition of the (ISC)² Official Guide to the CISSP CBK and the (ISC)² Official Guide to the HCISPP CBK, alongside other published work on international information security.

He has spoken publicly in his CISO roles, including as a featured speaker at the Nextgov event Cyber Defenders: The Road Ahead.

While co-chairing the Federal CISO Council and serving as Department of Education CISO, he helped release the Federal Zero Trust Data Security Guide, a joint deliverable of the CDO Council and CISO Council developed with more than 30 federal agencies.

On that release, Hernandez said, "To meet the moment of the security paradigm shift to zero trust, the Federal Government is transforming how we work."