Out of This World Cybersecurity

John Mullane is Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) of NASA’s Langley Research Center in Hampton Virginia. Under the Office of the Chief Information Officer (OCIO) and the Cyber Security and Privacy Division (CSPD), his primary responsibilities include ensuring the security of Langley’s information technology systems, providing guidance and direction to the organization on cybersecurity matters, and developing and implementing security policies, standards, and procedures to protect the organization’s information assets, ensuring they align with the enterprise as a whole.

John started his NASA career as a contractor in 2013 as Systems Administrator in the Air Traffic Operations Laboratory at NASA Langley. Working up to Senior Systems Administrator and Subject Matter Expert, John briefly left NASA for a year for the opportunity to join an international startup known as Blackphone (later absorbed into Silent Circle) as a Senior Systems Engineer/Network Architect. Returning to NASA Langley, John was responsible for Systems Architecture for the Air Traffic Operations Lab (ATOL) and Systems Administration for the Configuration Aerodynamics Branch (CAB) at NASA Langley Research Center. His role in this position required him to work closely with the research teams, identify the IT requirements and provide advanced IT solutions to support the research activities.

In 2018, John joined Langley’s IT Security team as a NASA Civil Servant, leading the center’s Red Team and vulnerability management program. John eventually took on additional duties as Langley’s Incident Response Manager in a Cybersecurity Core Operations Team Lead role. Transitioning to an Agency-level position, John worked as Interim Service Element Lead of NASA’s Enterprise Cyber Logging efforts and Service Element Lead of Data Analysis, Reporting, and Examination as part of NASA’s Cyber Security and Privacy Division. Taking the opportunity of becoming a member of Langley Research Center’s CIO Leadership Team in 2022, as Service Integration Lead, John was responsible for supporting integration and customer relationship management related to the enterprise capabilities and center requirements to meet the NASA mission.

John holds a Master’s degree in Cybersecurity and Information Assurance from Penn State University and a Bachelor’s degree in Applied Networking and Systems Administration from The Rochester Institute of Technology.

Jon Welters serves as NASA’s Lead Information Systems Security Manager for Mission Cyber Integration. He has expertise in RMF, Space Systems Cyber, Digital Forensics, and National Security Systems.