Energy CIO Tom Pyke to retire Feb. 27
Energy Department Chief Information Officer Tom Pyke announced his retirement in a note to staff.
Energy Department Chief Information Officer Tom Pyke has told his staff he is retiring after 46 years of federal government service and his last day on the job is Feb. 26, according to published reports..
“I am proud to be leaving the Department of Energy on a high note!” Pyke wrote in a note to Energy employees published by The DorobekInsider. “Our IT capital investment process shows all green on the Dashboard. Our cybersecurity protection of systems and data is solid. And our IT service customer satisfaction is at an all time high.”
Pyke noted that he just completed 46 years of federal service, including four years at Energy. Pyke also said that 50 years ago he started work as a summer student National Bureau of Standards, now the National Institute of Standards and Technology.
Pyke has been CIO at Energy since November 2005, capping a career that spans more than 30 years in government information technology. He recently spoke about opportunities with cloud computing and retention of contractors at Energy.
When Pyke first took the role, he came into a dispersed agency that had recently suffered high-profile security breaches. In a 2006 interview with Government Computer News, he explained how his cybersecurity plan put the officials at each of the department's facilities, including the far-flung national laboratories,in charge of security at their facilities, while centralizing the coordination of the efforts.
"Cybersecurity is all about risk management," he said in that interview. "In conducting C&As, our certifications and accreditations of individual systems, we look at the threat as part of a risk assessment, apply appropriate technical and management controls, then determine the residual risk. And there's a designated accrediting authority who makes the decision to go operational with each system.
"We apply this risk-based approach to the management of cybersecurity, and what each under secretary is given in their charge, in their appointment as the leader for cybersecurity for their part of the department, is to take a risk-based approach to managing cybersecurity in their organization."