Wednesday, February 27, 2008

Analysis: New Cyber Chief Faces Capitol Hill Anger

Shaun Waterman writes for UPI:

The new job of Scott Charbo, the man President Bush has picked to head up the protection of U.S. computer networks, involves countering threats from Russian hackers, Chinese cyber spies and Internet Jihadis. But perhaps his most immediately dangerous adversary is the chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee.

The two men will be face to face Thursday, when Charbo, the deputy undersecretary for the National Protection and Programs Directorate at the Department of Homeland Security, is to testify on Capitol Hill about the Bush administration's much-awaited cybersecurity initiative.

Earlier this month, less than 24 hours after Charbo, until then the department's chief information officer, was promoted into his new job, committee Chairman Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., fired off an angry letter to his boss.

The veteran federal official had been guilty of "an incredible and unacceptable dereliction of duty" while in charge of the department's information technology systems, Thompson wrote Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff.

More here.

posted by Fergie @ 2/27/2008 07:12:00 PM

1 Comments:

At Thu Feb 28, 04:58:00 AM PST, Anonymous Anonymous said...

I led one of the largest security programs in the Department for the past five years. The word "cyber" is thrown around and there is very little that National Protection Programs Directorate does in the area of what we would traditionally think of as information security. Research and development efforts are run out of the Science and Technology branch of DHS. True infosec is operationally run out of the component agencies and the current policies imposed on industry are weak.

I would also say that good leaders are not always experts in their fields. Often times, they are charismatic leaders that simply pull together the right group of talented people.

I neither approve nor disapprove of the appointment of Charbo to the post, however, given the hierarchy in the Federal Government do you really think its likely that he is hacking away at a computer in his basement tracking Chinese Hackers???

If you want to take issue; take issue with the mid-level leaders that run programs like NCSD. They are the ones making the difference..

 

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