FBI taps 8-year vet for CIO post

Gordon Bitko was named by FBI Director James Comey to the CIO post, which was posted in January.

Wikimedia image: Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) logo.

FBI Director James Comey has picked Gordon Bitko, a Rand Corp. scholar and current FBI employee, to be the agency's CIO, an FBI spokesperson confirmed.

Jerome Pender stepped down as CIO last August. Brian Truchon, a 30-year veteran of the Bureau, has been acting CIO since then.

Judging by a January posting for the CIO job, it will require not only playing the traditional managerial role of the CIO but also going out in the field to understand the FBI's operational and tech needs.

The FBI is seeking $85 million in added cybersecurity funding for fiscal 2017, part of which will go to upgrading hardware and software.

Among the projects under Bitko's charge will be the Sentinel case management system, an estimated $500 million project once plagued by delays but which the bureau's CTO now claims as a success story in agile development.

Federal News Radio was first to report Bitko's appointment.