Still Waiting on Cyber Czar

This was written by Michael Cheek on Thursday, November 19, 2009, 13:31.

It has now been close to 6 months since President Obama announced the creation of the position of cyber coordinator. Obama took the dramatic step of declaring cyber security as a national priority and yet, still no coordinator.

The two front runners (presently) are Howard Schmidt and Frank Kramer. Sources familiar with the discussions and search for the coordinator claim that Obama will be announcing the coordinator soon, maybe even next week. The sources allege that Obama wishes to keep the announcement relatively quiet, so as not to highlight the belated appointment.

Schmidt appears to be the most likely candidate. He has close to 40 years of experience in security fields in government and the private sector. He formerly served as the special adviser for Cyberspace Security at the White House under the Bush administration.

Chris Painter, currently acting director of cyber security policy at the White House, claims that not having a coordinator yet is not impeding government efforts to secure our cyber infrastructure.

A major stumbling block in appointed a coordinator is the ambiguous role of the coordinator. What will they be doing and more importantly, what types of powers will the position have? A number of individuals who were under consideration for the post have cited the ambiguity as a significant concern.