In 2024, the Legislature passed SHB 1947, which eliminated the Office of the Chief Information Officer (OCIO) and incorporated all duties and responsibilities to Washington Technology Solutions (WaTech), as well as renamed the agency from Consolidated Technology Services (CTS) to WaTech. Previous references to the OCIO or CTS should be understood to refer to WaTech.
Washington Technology Solutions (WaTech) has launched a new website - WA.gov - to improve the way residents and visitors find information about and access Washington state government. The new site replaces Access Washington, a website portal developed in 1998.
WA.gov features an updated look and feel, and new features such as "how-to" guides that will make it easier to do…
Washington state CIO and WaTech Director Bill Kehoe is launching a new vlog, "Coffee with Bill", where he will address state strategic initiatives, share updates on projects, and talk about technological advancements. The first of the series - Connected Government - is available to watch now. In this first episode, Bill talks about WaTech's role in advancing Washington's connected government…
Chief Privacy Officer Katy Ruckle talks about the importance of her role in looking for "blind spots" in IT projects on this week's episode of StateScoop's Priorities podcast. Ruckle, who joined WaTech in 2020, says she's "not the privacy officer of no" nor is she there to tell people they can't do things. Her goal is to help businesses accomplish what they need to while incorporating privacy…
Congratulations to Washington! The National Association of Chief Information Officers (NASCIO) just published a report [external link] on state privacy programs and found that Washington's privacy office is the only one in the country with a legislatively-funded budget, demonstrating the value that our state leadership has in respecting privacy and the importance of incorporating privacy…
In my interim role as the state Chief Information Security Officer, I wanted to touch base on our efforts to improve and maintain our cybersecurity posture.
The Office of Cybersecurity (OCS) is an essential division within WaTech and provides critical enterprise security services to the state and our agency partners. However, like any enterprise service…
