Lou Eichenbaum, who has led numerous technology security efforts over 23 years of service at the Department of the Interior, has stepped down as the agency’s chief information security officer (CISO) and is heading to the private sector.
Eichenbaum has joined ColorTokens – a zero trust software microsegmentation firm – as the company’s federal CTO.
“I will now have the chance to help all federal agencies truly implement resilient ZT architectures, this is what I want to do,” he told MeriTalk.
Eichenbaum first disclosed his plans in a LinkedIn post in which he said, “all good things must come to an end.”
“I can’t express in words what those 23 years have meant to me,” he said, adding, “DOI has been my home. The people I worked with have been my family. Literally, I met my wife there.”
“Working there taught me the value of public service,” he said. “I have never worked with a more hard-working, dedicated and mission-focused group of people who cared nothing more but to deliver the best possible services to the citizens of this country.”
Eichenbaum became the Interior Department’s CISO in March 2025, and from 2022 to 2025, he was the agency’s zero trust program manager. Before that, he was also CISO for the agency’s Bureau of Land Management and Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement, among other positions.