Mike Barcomb ’87: On the Frontline of Cybersecurity for IBM

A little over a year ago, IBM Security tapped Mike Barcomb ’87 to lead a new Cyber Incident Command Response team at IBM X-Force to handle pandemic-level cybersecurity attacks. A prestigious threat-intelligence division, IBM X-Force comprises top cybersecurity experts who monitor, analyze, and respond to security issues facing organizations around the world. Although Barcomb had never been directly involved with cybersecurity, his particular combination of enterprise-level IT leadership and military experience seemed perfect for the position. 

A retired colonel in the U.S. Army, who served on Active Duty and Reserve, Barcomb received a Bronze Star during a 10-month tour of duty in Afghanistan (2004-2005) for leadership in maintaining a 250-user classified network, upgrading systems for military-intelligence sharing, and using tools to analyze biometric information about enemy combatants.

In his civilian career, he had grown with IBM for more than a quarter century, working first with the Lotus Domino server throughout the 1990s and 2000s, and later with the firm’s leading-edge artificial-intelligence platform, Watson. 

It all started at Saint Rose, where he majored in a technology field because “computers were becoming the big thing.” 

Read more about Barcomb’s story here.