Accenture nabs former CIA cloud whiz for new cyber role

The man who took the CIA into the cloud has a new job at Accenture Federal Services — heading up their cybersecurity practice.

It’s a new position at AFS and former CIA Chief Technology Officer Ira “Gus” Hunt told FedScoop he’s excited to take it on.

“It’s a chance to build something new, build something a little different and bring to bear some thoughts that I’ve had for a while about what needs to happen in the cyber environment and put it all together with a great company,” he said.

AFS’ cyber practice “offers its clients a portfolio of key cyber capabilities including strategic consulting, data-centric security technologies, secure transition to the cloud, and operational security such as cyber hunt and incident response,” the company said in a statement announcing the appointment Monday.

Gus Hunt (Accenture)

Hunt said the post was a good fit.

“AFS has been doing cyber a long time with a wide variety of customer sets in the federal government,” he said.

He added that his CIA background gave him a particular take on the cyber topic. “The focus on security [at CIA] has always been acute and absolute. If security is breached, people die,” he said

There are “capabilities [like cloud computing] that have matured dramatically over the last few years,” that the federal government could “bring to bear to elevate its security game across the board.”

Prior to his new job, Hunt was chief architect for Bridgewater Associates, a hedge fund located in Westport, Conn., where he was set up the company’s enterprise architecture. Prior to joining Bridgewater he was president and CEO of Hunt Technology LLC, a private consulting practice “focused on strategic IT planning, cyber and data-centric security, big data analytics and cloud computing,” according to the statement.