Senior Department of Energy cyber official to step down
Bruce Walker, who has served as a senior Department of Energy official focused on cybersecurity since 2017, is leaving his post later this month to work at a security nonprofit, CyberScoop has learned.
As an assistant Energy secretary, Walker has been a key player in the department’s efforts to protect U.S. utilities from state-sponsored hacking threats. He also has helped implement a White House executive order in May that keeps federal agencies and companies from installing risky foreign-owned equipment in the electric sector.
Walker confirmed to CyberScoop that he will continue some of this work in the nonprofit sector by joining a new resiliency organization — dubbed the Analysis & Resilience Center — that helps financial and energy companies protect themselves from cyberthreats. Walker previous spent nearly two decades at New York utility Con Edison.
At the Department of Energy, Walker has worked closely with Alexander Gates, a National Security Agency veteran who was installed as the department’s top cybersecurity official as part of a shakeup in February. In the last four years, the department has invested heavily in projects to help secure U.S. energy infrastructure, including through a threat-sharing agreement and a new strategy to reduce the risk of power-supply disruptions resulting from cyber-incidents.
