Finally, a Cyber-Czar

A new year brings a new ally in the federal government’s fight against cyber-intrusion. With the winter holidays approaching, President Obama named Howard A. Schmidt, a former Microsoft and eBay executive, to serve as the nation’s cyber-security coordinator.

The choice of Schmidt, who offers a resume deep with industry and government credentials, has been 10 months in the making and arrives at the end of a reportedly snag-filled selection process. According to Forbes.com, at least three other candidates had declined offers for the position before Schmidt accepted (one possible deterrence: the authority the job entailed had been stripped “in an effort to ensure that new cyber regulations didn't hamper economic recovery,” Forbes reports).

On the campaign trail, Obama laid out his vision for the cyber-czar’s position, one built on the responsibility of protecting the nation’s cyber-infrastructure and given the bureaucratic privilege of reporting directly to the president. The actual chain of command is not so simple, Forbes reports. Schmidt will answer both to the National Security Council and the National Economic Council, though, as MSNBC.com suggests, “Schmidt will have regular and direct access to the president for cyber security issues,” according to an official speaking on the condition of anonymity.

Schmidt brings to the table impressive industry and government credentials: he heads the non-profit Information Security Forum. He's the “chief executive of R&H Security Consulting and serves on the board of several security companies including PGP, Fortify, and BigFix. He's served as vice chair of the President's Critical Infrastructure Protection Board and as chief security strategist for the US CERT Partners Program under the Department of Homeland Security,” according to Forbes.

What kind of agenda can we expect the cyber-security czar to pursue? Computerworld offers a nice run-down of Schmidt’s positions on securing smart phones, alerting the public to social networking threats, and more. Schmidt’s job goes beyond the realm of identity theft and into the protection of national databases from cyber-spies, an increasingly important mandate given that, as MSNBC puts it, “U.S. government computer systems are being attacked or scanned millions of times a day.”