[Infowarrior] - U.S. cybersecurity czar has his marching orders

[Richard Forno]

U.S. cybersecurity czar has his marching orders

By Joris Evers

Story last modified Tue Feb 20 04:38:28 PST 2007

The top U.S. cybersecurity official wants Congress to come up with ways to
promote adoption of security technologies, and he sees a tax break as one
possible incentive.

Greg Garcia was appointed by Homeland Security chief Michael Chertoff in
September, after the position went unfilled for more than a year. He's the
first U.S. cybersecurity czar to hold the title of assistant secretary. The
elevated position is important as it comes with more power; a lack of
stature is part of the reason why his predecessors failed, Garcia says.

His self-described mission is hardly surprising, especially given his
background as an executive at the Information Technology Association of
America, a tech industry group.

For example, Garcia is asking for Congress to think of ways to promote more
purchases of security technology or technology with security already built
in. He's not asking for regulation of the industry. He opposes that, thus
going against some who have advocated backdoors in encryption technology so
law enforcement can read the encrypted files of criminal suspects.

Garcia is also working to connect private industry security watchdogs with
government ones, continuing the familiar call for cooperation between public
and private groups. He sat down with CNET News.com earlier this month.

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