The announcement came via the official Twitter feed of Oklahoma’s Office of Management and Enterprise Services (OMES), where Singleton was head of the Cyber Command team.
“Today we bid adieu to our cyber commander Matt Singleton!” the tweet reads. “Thank you for all your hard work at OMES Oklahoma Cyber Command to continuously protect Oklahomans. You will be missed, and we wish you good luck in all your future endeavors! We know you will continue to #GetStuffDone!”
At attempt to reach Singleton was unsuccessful, but according to an email message to Government Technology from Caden Cleveland, OMES director of legislative and public affairs, Singleton is leaving for the private sector, though Cleveland said he did not know where.
“It’s bittersweet to see Matt move on to his next challenges in the private sector,” Cleveland wrote. “He’s been a faithful and hugely impactful public servant for the State of Oklahoma and we are so appreciative of his willingness to serve our citizens for over 20 years. In his role as chief information security officer, he showcased an enthusiastic spirit of collaboration that has advanced Oklahoma’s cybersecurity posture to be among national leaders. We wish Matt all the success and happiness as he takes on new challenges in his future endeavors.”
Singleton took over as CISO in July 2019.
According to a list on his LinkedIn profile, his work included crafting “Oklahoma’s first cybersecurity strategy and develop[ing] GTM strategies and offerings for cybersecurity services supporting state agencies and affiliates,” creating a third-party risk management program, boosting cybersecurity to enable 32,000 state employees to work remotely and overseeing “the security elements required for the state’s $111 million disaster recovery project.”
Before his CISO job, he worked as chief operations and accountability officer for OMES.
In an interview with Government Technology right after he was hired as Oklahoma’s CISO, Singleton said he planned to establish a statewide cybersecurity strategy, improve data sharing capabilities, deploy a privacy practice and create a culture of security, accessibility and privacy.
As for OMES, it said in a press release from earlier this year that Singleton “helped 110 state agencies transition to enterprise technology service, realizing over $875 million in cost savings. His insistence on forward progress is imperative to the role.”
The state recently launched a fresh IT strategic plan that includes further modernization of legacy systems, the completion of agency risk mitigation projects, elimination of system duplication and many other goals, according to OMES.
Editor's note: This story has been updated with a comment from OMES.
