[ISN] Schmidt to take greater role in U.S. cybersecurity

[InfoSec News]

http://news.com.com/Schmidt+to+take+greater+role+in+U.S.+cybersecurity/2100-7348_3-5406220.html

By Robert Lemos 
Staff Writer, CNET News.com
October 11, 2004

The United States' former cybersecurity czar, Howard Schmidt, has 
agreed to take a greater role in the U.S. Computer Emergency Readiness 
Team (US-CERT) as an adviser, he said Monday. 

Schmidt, the chief security officer of online auctioneer eBay, 
currently cooperates with Carnegie Mellon University's Software 
Engineering Institute and that group's Computer Emergency Response 
Team (CERT) Coordination Center to advise the nation's incident 
response team. The Department of Homeland Security has asked him to 
play a greater part, he said. He has agreed but is currently 
discussing the details with the Department of Homeland Security and 
eBay. 

"I will take a more active role," he said. 

Schmidt will probably help manage the communication between the 
government group and the private companies that own more than 80 
percent of the nation's Internet and communications infrastructure, 
expanding the role he has taken as a working group co-chairman in the 
National Cyber Security Partnership and as the founder of the Global 
CSO Council.

"The pieces that are in place are going to require more activity and a 
more in-depth role that you can't do by meeting only once a quarter," 
he said. 

The details are still being discussed, he said, adding that no title 
has yet been decided upon. He will not be working as part of the U.S. 
Department of Homeland Security, but rather with Carnegie Mellon's 
CERT Coordination Center. 


DHS officials did not immediately reply to requests for comment on 
Schmidt's role. 

Amit Yoran, who succeeded Schmidt as top cybersecurity official in the 
United States, resigned this month, a little more than a year after 
joining the Department of Homeland Security. He was tasked with 
carrying out a major part of the initiatives outlined in President 
Bush's cybersecurity plan, which some argue he couldn't accomplish 
because he lacked direct access to Homeland Security Secretary Tom 
Ridge. 

Schmidt worked as Microsoft's chief security officer and then, from 
January 2002 to April 2003, as the vice chairman of the White House's 
National Critical Infrastructure Protection Board.

Schmidt stressed that with this latest move, he is not "going back to 
government," but rather working with government and private industry.