Dragos policy executive to be CISA’s chief of legislative affairs
Sydney Phoenix/DHS
In a recent interview, Kate Diemidio said she wanted government-industry information-sharing mechanisms to improve and for CISA to deliver more actionable data back to the private sector.
Kate Diemidio, the head of public policy and government affairs for industrial cybersecurity firm Dragos, is joining the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency next Monday to serve as legislative affairs chief, the agency confirmed.
Diemidio has been at Dragos since 2023, with past policy and government affairs experience at SecurityScorecard and the North American Electric Reliability Corporation. She also has prior federal experience, having served as a policy analyst and senior adviser at the Department of Homeland Security, where CISA is housed.
The legislative affairs office oversees the planning and development of all CISA’s engagements with Congress, according to the agency’s website. In her new role, Diemidio will likely focus on major cyber policy issues like renewing the Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act of 2015 and policies related to cybersecurity incident reporting rules.
In a recent interview with Nextgov/FCW at the RSAC Conference in San Francisco, Diemidio said she hoped faster threat information-sharing mechanisms could be put in place between industry and government.
“I think one of the things that there was criticism of CISA in the past for was it being a place where information goes in, but not a whole lot comes back out that wasn’t already known,” she said at the time. “So I think that’s going to be key for agencies: How can they use the mechanisms they have in place, improve them, improve their collaboration with industry, to not only take in the information that industry has — and it’s really been willing to share for the past few years — but then turn that back around out to industry and make something that’s useful to help better protect, detect and respond [to cyberattacks]?”
Diemidio also stressed the need for improved collaboration between the public and private sectors, saying “I think there’s a recognition that a lot of the subject matter expertise resides in industry, not just in government, so that collaboration is essential.”
Her hiring comes as CISA makes plans to reduce its workforce in line with the Trump administration’s downsizing efforts while simultaneously awaiting a permanent leader to be installed. President Donald Trump nominated Sean Plankey to lead CISA, but his pathway to confirmation is currently blocked by Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., who plans to lift the hold once the cyber agency releases a 2022 report on telecom industry security vulnerabilities.
A representative for Dragos did not return a request for comment.