Cybersecurity adviser gets second-tier role in homeland defense

The nation's top cybersecurity adviser has been relegated to a second-tier committee on homeland security, but White House officials insist that the official, Richard Clarke, will be an integral part of any cybersecurity discussion.

On Monday, the administration released its first organizational chart of the White House Office of Homeland Security, detailing how it will ensure coordination between government agencies and the implementation of policy. Because Clarke reports to both Homeland Security Director Tom Ridge and National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice, he is not specifically mentioned on the organizational chart for the senior-level Principals Committee, an administration spokesman said.

But a presidential directive published Tuesday noted that Clarke will attend meetings of the sub-Cabinet Deputies Committee when cybersecurity is discussed.

"The President believes protecting our information systems is of vital importance to the national security of this country," a spokesman said when asked whether computer security is being given a high priority in homeland security.

In the past, cybersecurity experts have questioned the level of attention their issues have received from the White House. That could change depending upon how much emphasis the Bush administration places on cybersecurity.

Clarke has been named chairman of the President's new Critical Infrastructure Board, under which various agency heads or their designees report to him and are held accountable for cybersecurity in their agencies. Still, Clarke has the added burden of reporting to two senior White House officials--Ridge on homeland security and Rice on national security.

David McCurdy, president of the Electronic Industries Alliance, said Clarke faces several obstacles in implementing cybersecurity policies that may or may not be resolved under President Bush's new plans for the cybersecurity office.

"Part of the ineffectiveness in the past has been [cybersecurity's] lack of standing within the administration, the complicated organizational structure of the government with regard to terrorism and the cyber portion of it, and he had a very difficult role," McCurdy said. "When you look at the organizational chart, and I use it to show how the government works, it was an incredibly difficult structure to succeed in."

Meanwhile, Clarke is spending the next two weeks in Silicon Valley, talking with high-tech executives about cybersecurity and how the technology community can help, according to a White House spokesman.