HHS chief information security officer Chris Wlaschin has resigned and will leave the post at the end of March. He had held the position since January 2017.
Wlaschin was involved in the late-2017 removal of two HHS officials, Leo Scanlon and Maggie Amato, who led the government's Healthcare Cybersecurity and Communications Integration Center, a repository of cybersecurity information. Notably, the center helped share information during the WannaCry ransomware attack last May.
According to Scanlon, he and Amato were ousted after HHS employees badmouthed the pair due to disagreements about the center.
There had also been anonymous complaints that the two were bribed into creating outside contracts with HHS—actions that the two deny.
Meanwhile, lawmakers worried about how the center would deal with information sharing and security.
Wlaschin came to HHS from the National Research Corporation. He was previously associate deputy assistant secretary for security operations for the VA. HHS officials were not immediately available for comment.
