The Department of Parliamentary Services has appointed the Australian Taxation Office’s acting cyber security chief Toby Amodio as its new chief information security officer.
Amodio will join the department as its permanent cyber security assistant secretary at the start of next week, replacing former CISO Ian McKenzie.
McKenzie left the top job after 18 months in October 2020 to take up a position in another federal government agency.
DPS first created the CISO role following a cyber attack against the parliamentary computing network in 2019 that saw a limited amount of non-confidential data stolen by a state-based actor.
A spokesperson told iTnews that Amodio, who has 10 years’ experience “running cyber capabilities at scale”, was appointed following a “high competitive recruitment process”.
“He is committed to improving cyber security across government and the greater Australian digital ecosystem,” the spokesperson said.
Amodio has spent the past three-and-a-half years at the ATO, most recently as acting CISO, having assumed the position following the departure of former CISO Jamie Norton in April.
Prior to that, Amodio spent more than three years as the ATO’s deputy CISO. He also held a number of other IT security roles at the ATO between 2009 and 2016.
At DPS, Amodio will lead a small team of 25 cyber security specialists that provides cyber security guidance and ensures compliance with government policies and other regulations.
He will commence as DPS CISO on October 18.
A spokesperson for the ATO said Mitchell White will now act in the CISO position while it recruits a permanent CISO.
