DHS promotes from within to fill cyber deputy assistant secretary role

Rick Driggers, one of two deputy directors at the Department of Homeland Security’s 24-hour watch operation, the National Cybersecurity and Communications Integration Center, has been promoted to be DHS deputy assistant secretary for cybersecurity and communications, a DHS official confirmed Monday.

Driggers is taking over the post vacated by DHS veteran Danny Toler, and once held by former Federal CISO Greg Touhill.  The official told CyberScoop Driggers “will gradually assume the responsibilities of his new position over the next few weeks.” In his new position, Driggers reports to Assistant Secretary for Cybersecurity and Communications Jeannette Manfra.

In a brief statement emailed to reporters, Manfra said she was “extremely grateful” to Toler. “He has done a great job keeping the ship afloat as the acting assistant secretary.  His contributions to the organization over the past five years will endure.  I believe the department is in a better place as a result of his work, and I will personally miss his wise counsel.”

Toler last week announced his retirement after almost four decades in the federal government.

As NCCIC deputy director for operations, Driggers was responsible for events and response — leading, among other elements, the hunt and incident response teams, the National Cybersecurity Assessment and Technical Services team and the exercise team, which helps plan cyber drills across the government. NCCIC was reorganized last year to create a second deputy director, focussed on threat detection and analysis, and leading  both the U.S. Computer Emergency Response Team, US-CERT, and the Industrial Control Systems, or ICS-CERT.

Driggers’ promotion was first reported by Politico’s Morning Cybersecurity e-newsletter.

This article has been corrected to reflect that Morning Cybersecurity was the first publication to report Driggers’ promotion.