[Infowarrior] - Homeland Security fills top cybersecurity post

Mon Sep 18 21:52:56 EDT 2006

Homeland Security fills top cybersecurity post

By Declan McCullagh
http://news.com.com/Homeland+Security+fills+top+cybersecurity+post/2100-7348
_3-6116975.html

Story last modified Mon Sep 18 17:23:19 PDT 2006

More than a year after Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff publicly
promised to bring in a top cybersecurity specialist, he finally hired one.

Chertoff said on Monday that Gregory Garcia, who has been working at a
Washington-area trade association, would become the department's first
assistant secretary for cybersecurity, with responsibility for advising
agencies and the private sector.

The announcement ends a vacancy at Homeland Security that lasted more than
14 months and a wait that drew criticism from members of Congress, who it
said demonstrated that Chertoff has not taken the topic seriously.

"Quite simply, our nation has been without adequate leadership on
cybersecurity," Rep. Zoe Lofgren, a Democrat, wrote in an opinion article
that CNET News.com published in July. Republicans have also recently
criticized Homeland Security's cybersecurity efforts, and a series of
government reports has painted a picture of bureaucratic ineptitude.

Chertoff acknowledged last year that he had "initial concerns" about raising
the profile of cybersecurity in a bureaucratic culture that had focused on
physical threats since Sept. 11, 2001. It took a formal vote last May in the
U.S. House of Representatives to create the position--and an expected one in
the Senate--to prompt Chertoff to acquiesce two months later.

Garcia, who prior to accepting his new position was a vice president at the
Information Technology Association of America, will succeed Donald "Andy"
Purdy Jr., a two-year contract employee on loan from Carnegie Mellon
University. Purdy, who has been criticized for taking the job of running a
department that awarded at least $19 million in contracts to his university
employer this year, was the acting cybersecurity chief.

It's not clear what took Homeland Security so long to fill the job, but some
industry watchers have characterized it as having high-profile
responsibility but little day-to-day authority over either the federal
government or the private sector. (Johns Hopkins University Professor Avi
Rubin said: "I sure wouldn't take that job--it only has a downside.")

In an appearance before Congress, Chertoff said last year that the assistant
secretary "should not sit at the center of all federal agencies and direct
and control their policies on information sharing and cybersecurity."

Washington veterans who know Garcia applauded Monday's announcement. It's "a
year late but a positive development," said Shannon Kellogg, director of
government and industry affairs for RSA, the security division of EMC. "To
me, it's worth the wait. They really have someone who can get the job done."

Previous cybersecurity "czars" have been, besides Purdy, Richard Clarke, a
veteran of the Clinton and first Bush administrations who left the post with
a lucrative book deal. Clarke effectively was succeeded in quick succession
by Howard Schmidt, also known for testifying in favor of the Communications
Decency Act, then Amit Yoran and Robert Liscouski.

Garcia will join an already complicated and sprawling hierarchy at the
Department of Homeland Security. There's also an undersecretary for
management, an undersecretary for science and technology, an assistant
secretary for policy, an undersecretary for preparedness, an assistant
secretary for intelligence and analysis, and assistant secretary for
legislative affairs, an assistant secretary for public affairs, an assistant
secretary for transportation security, an assistant secretary for
immigration and customs, and an undersecretary for FEMA.

That's not counting a multitude of directors and commissioners (including
the head of the U.S. Secret Service) who also report to Chertoff (click here
for PDF of a departmental organizational chart).