New Mexico has appointed its first senior advisor for cybersecurity and critical infrastructure.
New Mexico Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham announced the appointment of Annie Winterfield Manriquez on Friday
Manriquez will work with key players throughout the private sector and government to improve New Mexico’s cybersecurity infrastructure and systems. She will also be tasked with developing state standards and best practices for communication, information exchange and incident response.
“A robust cybersecurity framework has never been more important, and we are already seeing more sophisticated cyberattacks being carried out in New Mexico and the rest of the country,” said Lujan Grisham.
“It is critical that the state continues to act to ensure that we are as prepared and protected as possible, and Annie is the leader the state needs.”
Winterfield Manriquez graduated from the University of California, Santa Barbara, and began her career as a Research Assistant at the James Martin Center for Non-Proliferation Studies in Monterey, California.
Prior to accepting her new position, she worked for The MITER Corporation, Head of the Intelligence Analysis and Strategy Department, and worked with agencies across the executive branch to renovate multi-billion-dollar programs, including cyber systems.
Previous roles taken by Winterfield Manriquez include appointments at the Woodrow Wilson Center for International Scholars, where she is a National Security Colleague, and in the Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration.
“I am grateful that the governor asked me to take on this role,” Manriquez said in a news release.
She added: “There could not have been a better time – protecting New Mexico’s vast intellectual and physical capital from rapidly evolving cyber threats has never been more urgent.”
When announcing the rendezvous, Lujan Grisham cited the invasion of Ukraine and the federal government’s pressure on states to strengthen their defenses against increasingly complex cyber attacks.
“As the current geopolitical situation in Ukraine escalates and state-sponsored cyber-attacks targeting critical infrastructure in the United States become more sophisticated, the White House and federal agencies responsible for cybersecurity and critical infrastructure protection have called on states to take immediate steps to “Defending against potentially serious Russian cyberattacks,” the governor’s office said in a press release.
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