Gary Buchanan

Mr. Gary Buchanan is the Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) and Director of the Cybersecurity Office at the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency based in Springfield, Virginia.

Named to the position in February 2021, Mr. Buchanan is responsible for the tactical and strategic implementation of NGA’s cybersecurity program and oversees a $120 million-plus budget to protect and secure NGA's critical missions and information enterprise. Mr. Buchanan also serves as the Occupation Manager for the cybersecurity workforce, guiding the tradecraft for more than 120 civilian cybersecurity personnel. He leads a combined civilian, contractor, and military workforce of approximately 400 cyber professionals serving at multiple NGA operating locations across the country.

Prior to this position, Mr. Buchanan served as chief of the cyber integration division, where he managed NGA’s external cyber reporting to the DOD and IC.  He was also responsible for NGA’s cyber policy development, maintenance, and execution, the cyber web presence on the agency’s classified common operating environment (COE) and Sensitive but Unclassified (SBU) networks, and cyber business intelligence.

Mr. Buchanan has worked as a civilian in cybersecurity at NGA for ten years, including a five-year joint duty assignment with the National Reconnaissance Office.  At both agencies, he served as a cyber-risk executive, balancing the mission needs of each agency with the cyber risks to determine whether or not existing and future IT systems were viable for implementation.

Mr. Buchanan has more than 20 years of experience in information security and technology management conducting extensive interagency work across the Intelligence Community with duties including information assurance strategy, systems security engineering, policy and planning, vulnerability assessments, cyber defense, and risk management.