VA picks cybersecurity chief

VA Office of Information and Technology

The Department of Veterans Affairs has named Bruce Brody to help secure the agency's systems.

Brody started his job this week as associate deputy assistant secretary for cybersecurity. Most recently, he was director of the Defense Department's Information Superiority Investment Strategy, which was responsible for making budget recommendations for DOD's information superiority efforts.

The VA is "among a handful of agencies" that have hired a senior executive to lead cybersecurity efforts; it indicates the attention being given the issue, said Robert Bubniak, the VA's associate deputy assistant secretary for telecommunications.

Brody will work under the VA chief information officer.

The agency also has named a new acting CIO, Guy McMichael III, who has been the chairman of the VA's Board of Contract Appeals. McMichael joined the VA in 1997 as its general counsel and previously was general counsel for the Senate Veterans' Affairs Committee.

Bubniak, who had been the acting CIO, will be working full-time heading the agency's telecommunications operations.

Edward Meagher, special assistant to the secretary on information and technology, will be adviser to McMichael, VA officials said.

The VA CIO job is a political appointment.