Suffolk Hires New Cybersecurity Chief

HAUPPAUGE, NY — Suffolk officials announced the hiring of the county's first Chief of Information Office on Monday afternoon, as part of the ongoing efforts to crack down on cybersecurity in the wake of the September ransomware attack.

Kenneth Brancik will be tasked with setting cyber security policy, procedure, risk management, and governance, along with advancing an enterprise-wide security architecture for the entire county, officials said in a news release.

County Executive Steve Bellone said that as officials "work to move away from the decentralized IT structure that failed this county," Brancik will be "absolutely critical to creating an enterprise-wide security architecture that will be responsible for a stronger and more resilient network.”

Brancik has "decades of experience at large and complex organizations," and is "uniquely qualified to serve the security needs of our many diverse departments and agencies.”

Brancik, who earned his doctorate in computing from Pace University, be accountable for the development, oversight, and enforcement of policies and programs to protect the county’s data, systems, and technology, Bellone said.

He will lead initiatives and programs for cybersecurity requirements and strategy at an enterprise level across all departments and agencies with the county, according to Bellone.

Brancik is a leader in information security technology, who spent many years as a federal bank regulator, a corporate IT audit manager and consultant. Most recently, Brancik served as the chief information security officer for Mount Sinai Health system, and before that, worked as an executive director for JPMorgan Chase as a cyber security architect.

He has also worked for Verizon Business, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, Citigroup, Northrop Grumman, and the U.S. Treasury Department.

Northrop Grumman senior leadership selected Brancik to receive the highly prestigious technical fellow title in 2019. In 2019, he was nominated to participate in the coveted Federal Bureau of Investigation Academy in Quantico in Virginia.

Suffolk received a total of 30 applicants for Brancik's position, 15 of which were interviewed. Candidates were reviewed by a panel of IT and government leadership employees and the process included multiple rounds of interviews.

Bellone’s 2023 operating budget created a new Chief Information Security Officer, along with several new titles related to cyber security. In addition to Brancik's position, the budget added 10 new cybersecurity analyst positions.

Suffolk was hit with a ransomware attack on Sept. 8, forcing the county's departments nearly 20 years back to the days of paper filings.

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