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Howard Schmidt Resigns As Cybersecurity Advisor

Posted by timothy on from the thanks-for-all-the-snacks dept.

scubacuda writes "CNN and others report that former Microsoft chief of security Howard Schmidt has resigned as White House cybersecurity adviser. 'With the historic creation of the Department of Homeland Security, the transfer of many of the responsibilities from the Critical Infrastructure Protection Board and the release of the strategy, I have decided to retire after approximately 31 years of public service and return to the private sector,' Schmidt said in his April 21 e-mail."

7 of 133 comments (clear)

  1. Wow! by stevens · · Score: 4, Interesting

    2 whole months!

    I wonder what really made him quit?

    1. Re:Wow! by rmarll · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Just a guess, but given his history I'd wager he was ignored or rendered inefectual by the exectutive branch. At this point in his life he probably wanted to do something that really mattered and got told to go play solitare and draw his salary while his duties were delegated away. Mabie to someone who was more interested in upgrading Carnivore than developing meaningful security.

  2. 31 years of Public Service? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

    "I have decided to retire after approximately 31 years of public service "

    HUh?? Okay he just came from Microsoft...where does the 31 years of Public service come from? I assume before he was at M$...He realy served the public by going to work for M$.

    Or does serving at Microsoft means Public service? Ahh..public open and hackable servers...i guess that would be public service, or at least offering services(and data) for free to the public.

    Besides that though, M$ has not been open for 31 years.

  3. Dept. of ? will save you by accident · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Isn't it odd that despite spending billions on DEFENCE for decades, none of that investment supplied _any_ defence that mattered on the day.

    Should this new entity be renamed dept. of Real Defence or should the dept. of Defence be renamed Dept. of Offence? who deserves the name most?

  4. resignation: related to DARPA/openBSD? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

    I wonder if there is any connection between his resignation and the decision by DARPA to pull funding from the openBSD project due to some remarks made by de Raadt?

  5. Good point -- severe corporate security issue by 0x0d0a · · Score: 2, Interesting

    That's a very good point.

    Business email authentication is frequently piss-poor, and the names and information on top-level execs is publically available.

    You probably wouldn't get someone fired, but you could cause absolute mayhem spoofing mail to lots of companies from various execs to other execs saying that an exec is resigning. Do so over Christmas, or some other time when people aren't immediately reachable for confirmation, and the impact could be quite nasty. /me wants PKI with whitelists to be universal...

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    May we never see th
  6. Re:What? by bludstone · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Hey, I know the administration has a plan for something. They have a plan for getting re-elected.

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