Pentagon deputy chief information officer goes to OPM

The Pentagon’s deputy in charge of securing its information networks is heading to the Office of Personnel Management to strengthen its networks. 

David De Vries will become the chief information officer at OPM in coming weeks, the agency announced Tuesday.  

{mosads}De Vries helped the Pentagon transition to a single, secure department-wide architecture, which the OPM is currently implementing. 

He will also help the office stand up the National Background Investigations Bureau, a new agency that will handle federal background checks. 

His hiring at OPM will help create a bridge from the Pentagon to the agency, said Defense Department’s Chief Information Officer Terry Halvorsen. 

“Dave will be missed by DoD, but DoD isn’t losing his expertise,” said Halvorsen. “As DoD and OPM continue to improve current IT systems and begin the development of the new IT services and environment to support the NBIB, he will play a key leadership role, ensuring integration between OPM and DoD.”

“Dave will have the ability to bring expertise from DoD into OPM, and ensure that DoD understands how lessons learned from the new IT can be applied within DoD and the other Federal agencies. This will be a win that improves IT information sharing across all federal Departments and agencies,” Halvorsen said. 

The OPM has undertaken a number of steps to strengthen its networks after it was infiltrated by Chinese hackers in 2015, which exposed the information of more than 22 million former and current government workers.