Information Security News mailing list archives

Cyber Head Hunt Nears End


From: InfoSec News <isn () c4i org>
Date: Thu, 14 Aug 2003 04:10:33 -0500 (CDT)

Forwarded from: William Knowles <wk () c4i org>

http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,3959,1219087,00.asp

By Dennis Fisher
August 11, 2003 

As the Department of Homeland Security prepares to name a leader for 
its National Cyber Security Division, observers in Washington and the 
private sector say DHS' hiring process has set up the new NCSD head to 
fail.

"It's been the most closed process I've ever seen," said Harris 
Miller, president of the Information Technology Association of 
America, in Arlington, Va. "They asked for names, and we gave them 
some, but there's been no rebound. It's not clear how much respect 
security has in this administration."

From the time DHS Secretary Tom Ridge announced the creation of the 
NCSD in June, the security community has been buzzing with speculation 
about who would be picked to lead the division. DHS officials asked 
industry leaders to recommend candidates and promised to ask for 
feedback as they continued to narrow the pool. Many people praised the 
department for seeking outside input.

However, DHS officials never got back to any of the people who 
recommended candidates, and several people who were at the top of many 
lists for the job said they never heard from the department. With the 
search dragging on for more than two months so far, the shroud of 
secrecy has baffled many in the security community with whom the NCSD 
head will need to work closely.

In a television appearance last week, Ridge said that the appointment 
was imminent. "That name has been submitted to the White House, and it 
should be filled shortly," Ridge said, declining to name the 
candidate.

Among the people whose names are often mentioned in connection with 
the NCSD job is Guy Copeland, vice president of infrastructure 
protection programs at Computer Sciences Corp., in Falls Church, Va. 
Copeland said he was never contacted by DHS. Another, Mary Ann 
Davidson, chief security officer at Oracle Corp., in Redwood Shores, 
Calif., said she was approached by the department but told them she 
was not interested.

Another name that has surfaced recently is that of Amit Yoran, vice 
president of managed security services operations at Symantec Corp., 
in Cupertino, Calif. Yoran is a veteran of the Department of Defense, 
where he ran the Vulnerability Assessment and Assistance Program, and 
was president and CEO of Riptech Inc. when Symantec acquired the 
company last year.

Officials at DHS, in Washington, did not return calls for this story. 
But some former Bush administration officials criticized the DHS 
cyber-plan for lacking in specificity.

"The question is will [the NCSD head] be empowered to implement the 
national strategy and have the standing within the department to 
revitalize the public/ private cyber-partnership," said Roger Cressey, 
former chief of staff for the President's Critical Infrastructure 
Protection Board and now president of Good Harbor Consulting LLC, in 
Arlington, Va. "The IT industry has made it pretty clear to us that 
the administration sent several bad signals: no replacement for 
[former cyber-security chief Richard Clarke], creation of a 
cyber-division only after criticism and really nothing accomplished on 
the cyber-strategy since its publication. This explains why many 
people were reluctant to be considered for the job."

Part of the reason for the concern in the security community is the 
already- tenuous relationship between the government and private 
security companies and executives. The government has said it wants to 
improve relations, but the way DHS handled the NCSD hiring process has 
done nothing to aid that cause, sources in the security community 
said.


 
*==============================================================*
"Communications without intelligence is noise;  Intelligence
without communications is irrelevant." Gen Alfred. M. Gray, USMC
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