Jane Edwards 
Knox Systems has appointed Hemant Baidwan, former Department of Homeland Security chief information security officer, as executive CISO.
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Baidwan will lead cybersecurity strategy across Knox’s artificial intelligence-driven cloud platform, focusing on strengthening security, advancing automated compliance and supporting secure federal cloud adoption, the company said Monday.
He will also guide customers through the Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program, or FedRAMP, process, by leveraging Knox’s platform designed to accelerate authorization within 90 days and reduce costs.
Knox CEO Irina Denisenko said Baidwan will help drive technical excellence and support the delivery of secure, FedRAMP-compliant platforms to government customers.
Who Is Hemant Baidwan?
Baidwan is former CISO and acting deputy chief information officer at DHS. His work at the department included driving zero trust implementation; developing a unified cybersecurity maturity model to modernize risk management and improve enterprise risk visibility; introducing the Hack DHS vulnerability disclosure program; and contributing to federal AI cybersecurity policy and cyber supply chain security efforts.
He also served as an inaugural member of the FedRAMP Board and as vice chair of the Federal CISO Council.
“Drawing on my experience leading federal cybersecurity and FedRAMP initiatives at DHS, I’m excited to join Knox Systems and help customers deliver secure, innovative cloud solutions to government and defense agencies,” Baidwan said.
What Is Knox Systems?
Knox Systems helps agencies accelerate software as a service and AI adoption by delivering FedRAMP-authorized cloud infrastructure, automated remediation and continuous compliance monitoring capabilities.
The company offers a pre-authorized environment intended to reduce upfront and ongoing compliance costs and accelerate the authorization process. It holds authorizations to operate across multiple federal civilian and defense agencies, including DHS, the Department of Health and Human Services, and the Department of Commerce.
Knox recently raised $25 million in Series A funding to scale its managed cloud platform and partnered with Carahsoft to bring its SaaS capabilities and AI tools to the public sector.
