Department of Veterans Affairs Chief Information Officer LaVerne Council announced Nov. 6 that Brian Burns has accepted an offer to become the agency’s next chief information security officer.
Burns takes over for Dan Galik, who has served as acting CISO since Stan Lowe retired in August. Burns will also continue in his role as deputy director of the Interagency Program Office (IPO) established jointly by the VA and the Department of Defense, to lead the implementation phase of the agency’s enterprise cybersecurity strategy.
“Brian’s leadership and expertise will be needed as we make a strong push to eliminate our Material Weakness and secure our employees and Veteran’s data,” Council wrote in an email obtained by MeriTalk.
The appointment was expected by some insiders, especially following the October announcement by Council that Burns would lead the agency effort to carry out its enterprise security strategy. The VAdelivered the new strategy to Congress on Sept. 28, one day before the deadline set by Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., the ranking member of the Senate Committee on Veterans Affairs.