Summer 2007

Alumnus Ed Roback Oversees Information Technology At Treasury Department

As a student at Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology, Ed Roback (’84) decided that he wanted to combine his interests in computer science and mathematics with a career in government service. More than 20 years later, Roback is fulfilling that goal in an information technology management role that is vital to our nation’s cyber security.

Roback now provides leadership in all areas of information technology management and security for the U.S. Department of the Treasury. In January, Roback was named Acting Chief Information Officer. His management responsibilities are extensive and include a $3 billion information technology (IT) portfolio. Roback is responsible for capital planning, information management, enterprise architecture, headquarters IT support, the department- wide telecommunications system and cyber security.

Roback is also involved in the E-Government program to leverage IT solutions to modernize and web-enable government services to increase government response to citizens and business, and enhance government-wide efficiency and effectiveness.

With such an extensive list of responsibilities, Roback says his day-to-day schedule varies, although a few areas are always given priority. “Security, privacy, investment management, and headquarters IT support tend to be at the top of the list,” says Roback, who earned his bachelor’s degree in mathematical economics and computer science.

Roback’s introduction to government service came at the end of his junior year at Rose-Hulman during a summer internship with the U.S. Department of State’s information systems office. After earning a master’s degree in political science from the University of Illinois in 1985, Roback returned to the Department of State as a Presidential Management Intern.

“I began my Federal career by accepting an offer in the Department of State’s information systems security office, which was still a rather novel idea at the time,” Roback recalls.“In many ways it was an ideal blend to use my computer science education from Rose in the arena of international affairs in government \service. While there I wrote computer security policy for the department and conducted computer security assessments overseas,” said Roback.

After four years at the State Department, Roback joined the staff of the Commerce Department’s National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) in Gaithersburg, Maryland. Roback would become chief of the Computer Security Division at NIST where he was responsible for supporting the agency’s role in protecting sensitive Federal information and promoting security in commercial information technology products.

During his tenure at NIST, Roback also worked to promote security in commercial information products which resulted in improvements to encryption standards that strengthened cyber security for ATM banking transactions and improved security for information on laptop computers. Roback was part of a team that was presented with a Gold Medal from the Secretary of Commerce for creating of the widely acclaimed Advanced Encryption Standard to enhance the security of E-Commerce and E-Government applications.

In 2005, he joined the Department of the Treasury as Associate Chief Information Officer for cyber security. In this capacity, Roback served in an IT leadership position responsible for formulating security policy and procedures for protecting classified and unclassified systems, addressing the security challenges of the President’s Management Agenda, promoting cyber security training and awareness, managing the classified IT security program, supporting cyber critical infrastructure protection, and operating the Treasury Computer Security Incident Response Center.

Roback said rapid changes in technology as well as its everincreasing complexity create daily challenges to his responsibilities in the cyber security area. “With security it’s not only important that the security in an IT product operate as intended, but also that the product not operate in unexpected ways that could harm security,” Roback advised.

“One can readily see the challenge of this by looking at operating systems which have lines of code. How can one possibly know that it won’t do something unexpected?” he asked. “That is still a great challenge and, in many cases, we just have to rely on past experience in use of the product to help assess its security risk.”

Roback says two of the lasting benefits of his Rose-Hulman education are the value of effective communication and the need to be a lifelong learner. “One of the key things I learned at Rose was the importance of clear writing and being able to present information, findings and recommendations in a sound, logical and persuasive manner. I also learned about the need to continually stay on top of developments in one’s field. This was something professors at Rose sought to accomplish and demonstrated by example,” he noted.