Mock has been CIO since November 2024, following the May 2024 resignation of former CIO Kuldip Mohanty. Prior to that, Mock was a member of the state’s House of Representatives from December 2008 to December 2024.
Since his start as CIO, there has been a change in administration and a move to bring people back to the office, so it has been a time of transition, Mock said, and the IT team’s role is to support agencies through this period.
A significant technology accomplishment in the state, Mock underlined, is that the state is on track to be the first in which every home and business can access high-speed fiber Internet — slated for 2028 completion.
The work to reach this milestone dates back to the 1990s, Mock said, and through partnerships with telecommunications cooperatives and private-sector companies, officials created the backbone infrastructure, a fiber-optic network. Communities, he said, have demanded fiber. The technology has been dubbed the gold standard, and Mock said officials wanted to avoid treating smaller or harder-to-reach areas differently. Fiber is more reliable against things like storms, and that reliability helps attract businesses to the state, he said.
Another major connectivity-focused project in North Dakota is the Statewide Interoperable Radio Network, due to be finished in 2027. This network is intended to provide the necessary infrastructure for first responders to communicate in rural parts of the state.
Part of network connectivity is network security, and the state has a comprehensive approach to cybersecurity. Although federal funding sources for cyber have changed this year under the Trump administration, from the Multi-State Information Sharing and Analysis Center (MS-ISAC) to the State and Local Cybersecurity Grant Program, North Dakota’s cyber posture remains strong with a whole-of-government approach.
“The change in federal funding did not have a direct impact on what we were providing for services,” Mock said, emphasizing that the state’s strong foundation in cybersecurity will help it withstand any federal changes. That being said, he noted that “everybody could benefit from additional support.”
The state’s security foundation includes North Dakota’s in-house information-sharing consortium with other states. There is also the North Dakota State and Local Intelligence Center. With strong partnerships in place and support from state lawmakers, Mock said the state will “weather these changes” around federal funding without feeling the impact.
A lot of the state’s cyber work in the last year has focused on education, from Cyber Madness to CyberCon to a “Stay Cyber SMART “ campaign during Cybersecurity Awareness Month. After a breach last year, education and outreach increased to share best practices for cyber hygiene, because as Mock indicated, “a breach for one is a breach for all.”
Connection goes beyond networks, though. North Dakota Information Technology works with other state government agencies, namely the Office of Management and Budget and the Office of the Governor: “We are the triumvirate of back-of-house services.” Mock said he expects more shared work between these three entities over the next year to support every other state agency.
Looking ahead to 2026, Mock said work will continue on the ND Gateway portal, which simplifies access to government services. Officials are also focused on using an internal dashboard to better monitor state government applications and services to improve service. There, staff track metrics like application inventory, service ticket responses, strategic goals and IT project performance.
Leaders have done some foundational work around data readiness, modernization and governance, but Mock said the goal is to build on this initial work to the next phases of data maturity. The state’s data hub is still in its early phases, but Mock said he is hoping to set the stage in 2026 to advance that work.
Data work is important, Mock said, to improve government efficiency and public transparency about the work being done and how tax dollars are being used. It will also support the state’s future work to implement AI technologies.
Mock said he views AI as a tool that employees can use, and the state is focused on adoption that can deliver quick wins for efficiency. Employees could, for example, use Microsoft Copilot safely without risks to the state’s network or data. The state has AI policies to ensure its safe use. Now, they’re exploring a proof-of-concept in which AI technology from GitHub could “crawl code” to reduce the time needed to document applications during modernization — letting people focus on quality control and developers spend more time building new tools.
The state has made, and is continuing to make, Mock said, “steady progress” on long-term modernization.
