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Bureau of Meteorology CIO lured to Digital Transformation Agency

Bureau of Meteorology CIO lured to Digital Transformation Agency

Lesley Seebeck to join DTA as its chief investment and advisory officer

The Bureau of Meteorology’s IT chief, Lesley Seebeck, will join the federal government’s Digital Transformation Agency as its chief investment and advisory officer.

A DTA spokesperson confirmed Seebeck’s new role, which will begin in October. At as the Bureau’s CIO Seebeck has “overseen a transformation of the ICT function in the agency,” the DTA spokesperson said.

The spokesperson cited as highlights during Seebeck’s tenure at the Bureau her role in responding to a 2015 cyber attack, the launch of the BOM Weather app and the rollout of the agency’s new supercomputer.

Seebeck joined the Bureau as its deputy director, information systems and services, in 2014. Earlier this year she was appointed group executive data and digital, and chief information and technology officer.

Craig Rice has filled the DTA chief investment officer role in an acting capacity since the departure of Radi Kovacevic.

During Seebeck’s tenure at the Bureau she led the organisation’s response to what Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull described as a “significant cyber intrusion” that took place in 2015.

A 2016 report from the Australian Cyber Security Centre revealed that the attack was identified after the Australian Signals Directorate detected suspicious activity from two computers on the Bureau’s network.

“On investigation, ASD identified the presence of particular Remote Access Tool (RAT) malware popular with state-sponsored cyber adversaries, amongst other malware associated with cybercrime,” said the ACSC report, which was released in October.

The report attributed the incident to a “foreign intelligence service”.

Seebeck was also responsible for overseeing the the rollout of the Bureau’s new $77 million supercomputer.

The Cray XC40 supercomputer is around 16 times faster than the Bureau's previous 104 teraflop system.

The supercomputer is paired with a Cray Sonexion 2000 storage system, offering more than 12 petabytes of storage.

Cray has said that the new system allows the Bureau to run eight times as many daily forecasts and deliver a five times improvement in global model resolution.

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Tags careerschief information officer (CIO)Bureau of Meteorology (BoM)Digital Transformation Agency (DTA)

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