Nuke Agency Hires New CIO

The National Nuclear Security Administration has named Robert Osborn as chief information officer to fill a vacancy created last February when the former CIO took a job at the Naval Criminal Investigative Service. James Cavanaugh, associate principal deputy administrator, had been serving as acting CIO.

The agency, which manages the U.S. nuclear weapons stockpile, has endured a number of embarrassing data breaches over the years.

"I am pleased that Bob has agreed to take on this very challenging assignment, and welcome him to our NNSA leadership team," NNSA Administrator Thomas P. D'Agostino said in a statement. Osborn, a 26-year Marine Corps veteran, was previously the deputy director for Command, Control, Communications and Computer Systems for the U.S. Transportation Command at Scott Air Force Base, Ill.

Among the difficulties he will confront is overseeing a fleet of supercomputers that researchers use to simulate the aging of the stockpile without testing nuclear materials underground. A December Government Accountability Office report found serious weaknesses in the agency's plans for recovering and reconstructing classified supercomputing systems in the event of a disaster or service disruption.

Also, NNSA has tangled with a series of information security lapses dating back to 1999. That year, a scientist transferred classified information from computer systems at the agency's Los Alamos National Laboratory onto unmarked discs and then removed the discs from the site. Another instance: In October 2006, evidence seized during a drug-related investigation in Los Alamos, N.M., revealed that classified information on a thumb drive had been improperly removed from the lab.

Osborn's predecessor, Linda Wilbanks, served from Oct. 2004 until early last year, before leaving to become the CIO of NCIS. "She was a highly valued senior executive that took the opportunity for greater challenges elsewhere in the federal government," NNSA spokesman Damien LaVera said.

The new CIO will advise NNSA leaders on hardware and software acquisitions, as well as oversee the agency's information management and cybersecurity efforts. He holds a master's of science degree in information management from Syracuse University.