Top NSC cyber official returns to academia

For the last year, JD Work was a high-ranking official working on cyber policy within the White House National Security Council.

JD Work, one of the National Security Council’s top cybersecurity policy officials, left his post at the White House earlier this month, according to two people familiar with the matter.

Work has returned to teaching at National Defense University’s College of Information and Cyberspace, one of the people said. The exact reasons for his White House departure are unclear. But one factor, according to the second person, involved higher-ups denying a request to extend his time there.

Both sources spoke on the condition of anonymity to freely discuss the development.

Work is a former intelligence official who taught at NDU before joining the National Security Council about a year ago working under Alexei Bulazel, the NSC’s senior cybersecurity director. His intelligence operations career has spanned some ...