Sean Connery, who has led many of the federal government's major cybersecurity initiatives over the past decade, is leaving his federal job.
Mr. Connelly's official title is Senior Cybersecurity Architect and Trusted Internet Connectivity (TIC) Program Manager at the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, where he is responsible for developing concepts from key parts of the TIC program lifecycle. He has contributed to everything from development and advancement. Behind Zero Trust is the integration of these efforts with others such as Einstein and Continuous Diagnostics and Mitigation (CDM) programs.
Federal News Network has learned that Mr. Connelly's last day will be April 19.
He is retiring from the federal workforce after 11 years at CISA and more than seven years as a contractor at the State Department and NOAA.
Mr. Connelly will join Zscaler to work on Zero Trust from an international compliance perspective, according to people familiar with the matter. He plans to build on his experience with federal agencies to help governments outside the United States transition to his Zero Trust architecture.
Connelly is the second federal cyber executive to leave to join Zscaler in the past two weeks. Brian Conrad, former acting director of the Federal Risk Authorization and Management Program (FedRAMP), joined the cyber firm in early April to lead Zscaler's international cloud security compliance program.
During his time at CISA, Connelly was the face and brains behind the TIC and Zero Trust programs.
He has led the development of the TIC architecture over the past decade, including the 3.0 update and use cases that became critical during the pandemic.
While CISA modernized its TIC program, Connelly also began developing the first Zero Trust maturity model. His team released his April 2023 Updated Maturity Model, allowing agencies to order the stages as “traditional, early, advanced, and optimal.”
He is also a co-author of National Institute of Standards and Technology Special Publication 800-207, published in August 2020, which details the components of a Zero Trust architecture.
Most recently, Connelly helped launch the CISA Zero Trust Initiative Office, which provides cyber-preparedness training and resources to government agencies.
In addition, Connelly played a major role on the Technology Modernization Fund Board, helping evaluate and award funding for cybersecurity projects. In fiscal year 2023, the TMF Board invested a total of $114.2 million in 10 projects for cyber projects. Overall, the board invested in 18 projects last year worth $177 million.
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