Adam Miller, deputy director of the Office of Information Security and Cyber Defense, breaks down how it will centralize threat response and modernize safeguards, while helping to grow the state’s workforce.
State officials offered deeper insight into how this centralized division will operate, and its leader, the first-ever OISCD Deputy Director Adam Miller, revealed more about his mission.
Miller, a cybersecurity veteran with experience at the U.S. Army and U.S. Cyber Command, said his federal background prepared him to lead OISCD by teaching him how to “blend strategic policy with real-time threats” in fast-moving, high-stakes situations. He’s now applying that approach to a state of smaller size, but with a similar urgency.
“My goal is to bring that federal discipline — structured playbooks, multi-agency coordination and teamwork, rigorous after-action reviews — scaled to a state environment,” Miller said via email.
One of the first major goals for the new office is building a statewide Security Operations Center (SOC) — though what that will look like is still being determined. The University of Nevada in Las Vegas (UNLV) is helping research the matter, Miller said, indicating years of conversations will inform what makes the most sense. Regardless of the final model, he said the goal is to provide a statewide solution that serves all Nevada agencies and localities alike.
In tandem with planning the SOC, the state is also exploring public-private partnerships to strengthen its cybersecurity capabilities. These include efforts to share threat intelligence with critical infrastructure sectors like energy and health care, and chances to test emerging security technologies before broader implementation.
The new deputy director emphasized the importance of addressing long-standing vulnerabilities within state systems. He pointed specifically to legacy identity systems that rely solely on passwords, calling them “low-hanging fruit for attackers.” To mitigate these risks, he said the office is prioritizing multifactor authentication, privileged-access management and encryption-at-rest for sensitive data.
From an operational standpoint, Nevada CIO Tim Galluzi said the goal is to ease the cybersecurity burden on individual agencies. OISCD, he said via email, will “centralize the heavy lift” of 24/7 monitoring and advanced threat hunting, allowing agency IT teams to focus on delivering services rather than duplicating efforts already managed at the enterprise level. Day to day, he said, agency IT teams will be expected to designate a security liaison, adopt the minimum-security standards OISCD publishes, and plug into the shared SOC for real-time alerts.
“Our vision is that once we get a statewide SOC up and running, local governments can opt in to our SOC feed, threat-intel portal and vulnerability-scanning service at no cost as we develop our long-term self-sustaining rates,” Galluzi said.
Workforce development will be a critical pillar of the office’s long-term strategy, Miller said. Internships with universities and the expansion of the Department of Defense SkillBridge program are expected to help the office attract transitioning service members and build future talent. Growing talent from within while attracting new graduates, Miller said, will be key to building a sustainable cybersecurity pipeline for Nevada.
And supporting these OISCD initiatives is a funding model focused on resilience. According to Galluzi, the office is primarily state-funded to ensure functionality “even when federal dollars ebb and flow.” While Nevada is actively pursuing federal grants, he said, those funds will serve to accelerate — not dictate — the state’s cybersecurity road map.
As the new division moves forward, its main focus will essentially be on centralizing core cybersecurity functions and working with both public and private partners to strengthen Nevada’s overall digital infrastructure.
Ashley Silver is a staff writer for Government Technology. She holds an undergraduate degree in journalism from the University of Montevallo and a graduate degree in public relations from Kent State University. Silver is also a published author with a wide range of experience in editing, communications and public relations.
