Creation of cybersecurity post in administration appears imminent

The Bush administration appears poised to announce the creation of a position designed to ensure that cybersecurity gets high-level attention, officials said on Thursday.

Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge currently is seeking the best candidate and the choice "will be coming sometime soon," said Sallie McDonald, a senior official in the Homeland Security Department division focused on information analysis and infrastructure protection. McDonald spoke at an event of the Information Technology Association of America (ITAA).

But it is still unclear whether the new position will be focused on cybersecurity throughout the government or as it relates to the work of Homeland Security. Officials stressed that the issue will receive attention at both levels.

"At the department level, we will have a senior-level official working oncyber security," McDonald said after the event. She said the person would report directly to Ridge.

At the same time, cybersecurity is getting more attention at the White House. Paul Kurtz, who is working on critical infrastructure protection for the White House Homeland Security Council, formerly the Office of Homeland Security, is "very interested" in cybersecurity, McDonald said.

A tech industry source said the new Homeland Security Council, as an equivalent of the National Security Council, has a policy-coordinating role for homeland security issues. He said Kurtz is to be named a senior director to the council for critical infrastructure policy and as the special assistant to the president for critical infrastructure protection.

Kurtz is assembling a team that could include cybersecurity expertise, the source noted. But industry would like to see a senior adviser for critical infrastructure protection and cybersecurity at Homeland Security, too, he said.

Howard Schmidt, the White House special adviser for cybersecurity, is one candidate who appears to have the confidence of industry and government officials. "Industry strongly supports Howard as a principal cybersecurity adviser to Secretary Ridge or the White House," a software industry source said at the event.

The administration has received pressure from industry and Congress to separate and elevate its focus on cybersecurity since it eliminated the position of White House adviser on cybersecurity held by Richard Clarke.

"Just because Dick Clarke left doesn't mean the whole thing's going down the tubes," McDonald said. Instead, after the transition at Homeland Security is complete, the administration's ability to address cybersecurity will emerge stronger. "Just give us time," she said.

"That's the kind of strong signal I'm talking about," replied panel moderator Dan Burton, vice president of government relations at Entrust and co-chairman of the ITAA information security committee.

Sen. Robert Bennett, R-Utah, expressed comfort with the administration's progress on cyber security. He added that National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice is "eminently well-qualified," with a background in cybersecurity, to give the issue attention at her "very high level," as well as within Homeland Security.

Republican Reps. Sherwood Boehlert of New York and Tom Davis of Virginia said they support more cyber-security focus, though not necessarily by creating a departmental position.