Mike Witt

Mike Witt is NASA’s Senior Agency Information Security Officer (SAISO) and Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) for Cybersecurity and Privacy. He joined the agency on February 5, 2017 as the Deputy SAISO. Prior to NASA, he served with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and also held multiple roles at the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) including Director, Computer Security Incident Response Center, where he was responsible for the agency’s incident handling, analysis, and vulnerability management. While at the IRS, he was detailed to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) as the interim Chief Information Security Officer during the bureau’s initial formation to develop and implement the cybersecurity program for this newly created agency.

Before joining the IRS, he served as the Director, United States Computer Emergency Readiness Team (US-CERT) within DHS. There he also played a pivotal role in the creation of the EINSTEIN Program, Trusted Internet Connections (TIC) initiative, National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Special Publication 800-61 Rev 1, National Security Presidential Directive 54, and Homeland Security Presidential Directive 23.

Witt’s military experience includes more than 10 years with the United States Army providing information systems and technology support to the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Defense Information Systems Agency, and various Army commands. He is a recipient of the 2021 FedScoop 50 Cybersecurity Leader of the Year Award, 2021 CyberScoop 50 Government Leadership Award, 2019 NASA Silver Achievement Medal, 2009 IRS CTO Medal and 2008 Federal CIO Council Leadership Award.