After almost 40 years of federal government work, Dennis Heretick will step down at the end of the week. Heretick, who has been the Justice Department’s chief information security officer for more than four and a half years, will retire after a career at the center of federal information technology for decades.

An IT security advocate, Heretick most recently led Justice’s efforts to automate the processes necessary for certifying and accrediting federal information systems. During his watch, Justice has created tools that many agencies have already begun to use to automatically monitor information security controls, making aspects of Federal Information Security Management Act reporting easier and bolstering reciprocity among disparate information systems.

He plans to work as a consultant for the Office of the Director of National Intelligence’s chief information officer on a program to transform and establish a unified federal approach to certification and accreditation.

“I’m at the point in my life when I’d like to work with the intelligence community,” he said.

Kevin Deeley, currently Heretick’s deputy, will be acting CISO until a permanent replacement is named.

Heretick said that the CISO position at Justice was a dream job, but that he’s already stayed longer than the three years he planned to serve.

“It was an opportunity for me to share what I had learned and done in [the Defense Department] and work in the federal side and work downtown,” he said.

Heretick said he is most proud of the work he did at Justice in identifying data access controls to help employees get access in a more secure way. Heretick also said the biggest challenge was limited resources.

Prior to his work at Justice, Heretick was chief of the information assurance division at the Defense Logistics Agency.

Heretick was selected for the Federal CIO Council’s Leadership Award in 2005 for his accomplishments in implementing a comprehensive IT security program and for the Federal 100 Award in 2006.