The search for the FBI's next chief information officer appears to be over.
The FBI confirmed on April 14 that bureau director James Comey has tapped Gordon Bitko to be its next CIO, replacing Jerry Pender, who left in August to join an investment management group.
Federal News Radio broke news of Bitko's selection after obtaining an email where Comey said Rand fellow and FBI employee "thinks well about technology, knows up close the great and less than great ways we use technology today and has proven that he can get hard things done."
Brian Truchon, acting executive assistant director for the Information and Technology Branch, had been serving as interim CIO since Pender's departure.
The FBI posted an opening for a permanent CIO in January, saying it was looking for someone "responsible for overseeing the acquisition and integration of the FBI's information resources and will provide IT portfolio management, recommend IT program improvements and coordinate and review the agency's IT budget to both ensure technology initiatives are aligned to FBI objectives and sufficiently agile to adapt to the evolving needs of FBI operations."
Bitko is listed as a research fellow at the think tank Rand, where he authored several papers exploring the uses of Radio Frequency Identification as well as a multinational global satellite navigation system.
The FBI has been bringing in a host of new cyber and IT expertise of late, announcing Randall Coleman as its Criminal, Cyber, Response and Services Branch chief in December.
The bureau's role in cyber investigations and mitigation capabilities are on the rise in the wake of high-profile attacks like last summer's OPM breach that exposed the information of 21.5 million federal employees.
FBI officials told Federal Times there would be an official announcement of Bitko's selection in a few days.
