Slashdot Mirror
Obama To Name Melissa Hathaway Cybersecurity Chief
hargrand writes "President Obama has found the cyber tsar to head his new White House office of cybersecurity.
According to US press reports this morning, an announcement expected later today will confirm Melissa Hathaway is to come in as cyber chief, after being cyber coordination executive for the director of national intelligence."
President Obama has found the cyber tsar ...
Uh, shouldn't that be tsaritsa?
Or is there something you know about Melissa that we don't?
My work here is dung.
If she's related to Ann Hathaway, she's got my support..
MABASPLOOM!
How many cyber/cyborg tsars/chiefs/secretaries do we have now?
"Miss Hathaway, can you come into my office for a moment...?"
I'm trying to remember if I met her or not. If she's the person I'm thinking of then I don't think she is a good choice.
Gurlz iz rare in IT. The work/life balance sucks hard. I hope she knows that.
I piss off bigots.
... Jane Hathaway?
...welcome our new American cyber-overlords!
Am I the only one who *hates* the word cyber?
Is it a generational thing? Does it have something to do with Lawnmower Man?
If you don't know what AltaVista is (was), get off my lawn.
If she can somehow become the poster girl for geeky women and bring more of those into our line of work to lighten up the workplace, that'll be awesome. Now that's progress my friends.
I tsee what you did tsere.
Marcus Ranum myself.
This woman helped politic the CNCI into existence.
This editorial says more about the uselessness of that than I ever could:
http://duvet-dayz.com/archives/2008/07/21/805/
One of Obama's weakest appointments, and yes - I voted for him.
I read that to say "Obama to Change Name to Melissa Hathaway"...
They're mid-level federal pencil-pushers, at best- and the only reason she got the job was because she was a consultant at Booz Allen Hamilton, which is basically a government consulting group (aka glorified money sinkhole.)
If that's not a conflict of interest, I don't know what is.
Please help metamoderate.
The US government appointing delegates with huge powers to regulate and oversee entire swaths of industry with very little personal accountability (heaven forbid!), and the irony in calling them tsars.
Well when the "Land of the Free" finally stops being free, you won't be able to argue that you didn't see it coming.
Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
15/F/FL...
Honestly Cyber is charged word
Obama names another cyber post... despite poor economy.
'a';DROP TABLE users; SELECT * FROM DATA WHERE name LIKE '%'... if you're reading this, it didn't work.
Gurlz iz rare in IT. The work/life balance sucks hard. I hope she knows that.
Yes, because obviously being female and having only made it to a senior position appointed by the most powerful man in the world, she must be a clueless newbie in need of advice on work-life balance from Slashdot...
If you disagree, post your argument. (-1, Overrated) isn't your personal censorship tool for views you don't like.
Come on - a woman as head of cybersecurity? This is like trolling the entire male IT world. If there's any single woman who's computer is going to be the focus of internet attacks - it's going to be hers. :-)
It's not that I have anything with women in positions of authority, but this is different - I think Obama is underestimating the collective power of the patriarchal IT industry.
Rule 34 if she looks anything like that actress named Anne.
Melissa... Melissa... Cyber security... Now, where exactly did I hear that name?
Some of the things the Cyber Tsar will be responsible for are, worrying about intrusion at the manufacturing level. To quote: "What if malicious code were secretly installed during the manufacture or shipping of computer equipment, to be activated at some future date? How would we even know what threats we face?" -Microsoft and Intel have been doing this for years now. It's about time we catch them.
Proof please. oh... you are just a troll. Good to know
I think it's less trolling, and just a reasonable expectation taking into account past history (from the past 3 weeks) that she will either a) have a Tax issue or b) have lobbying (or lobby-like) ties to the industry she will be regulating. As Cyber-Security Czar is unlikely to regulate an industry, that leaves us with a).
Here's her bio, from the announcement for an event, 'Cyber Security Breakfast with Melissa Hathaway' held last month.
Melissa E. Hathaway is Senior Advisor to the Director of National Intelligence (DNI) and Cyber Coordination Executive. She chairs the National Cyber Study Group (NCSG), a senior-level interagency body that was instrumental in developing the Comprehensive National Cybersecurity Initiative (CNCI) aimed at substantially improving the ability of the United States to secure and defend its critical cyber national infrastructure. In January 2008, Ms. Hathaway was appointed the Director of the Joint Interagency Cyber Task Force (JIACTF), which coordinates and monitors the implementation of the broad portfolio of activities and programs that comprise the CNCI. In discussions at the highest levels of the U.S. Government, Ms. Hathaway has articulated a holistic, integrated vision to bridge offensive and defensive missions and capabilities to provide a full situational awareness of the Federal network environment and the global cyberspace environment. Her management of the CNCI ensures that this vision takes into account all of the U.S. Government mission areas, including law enforcement, intelligence, military, diplomatic, and homeland security.
Prior to her appointment as Senior Advisor, Ms. Hathaway was a Principal with the consulting firm Booz Allen Hamilton, where her responsibilities focused on leading two primary business units: information operations and long range strategy and policy support. Her consulting efforts supported key offices within the Department of Defense and Intelligence Community, including United States Strategic Command, United States Pacific Command, the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence, the Office of the Secretary of Defense for Net Assessment, the Central Intelligence Agency, the Defense Intelligence Agency and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. Her work included the design and development of novel techniques for mapping social, business process, and infrastructure relationships. She also led the design and development of a methodology for evaluating new force options across the electromagnetic spectrum. Some of the more significant long range strategy and policy studies on which Ms. Hathaway worked focused on biotechnology, power projection, Asia, and other national security issues.
Earlier in her career, Ms. Hathaway was employed with the consulting firm Evidence Based Research, where she performed research and developed databases to track economic and political issues in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union, developed a model to detect the routes and modes and to estimate the quantities of cocaine movement into the United States, and studied other key issues in support of the Intelligence Community.
Ms. Hathaway has a B.A. degree from The American University in Washington, D.C. She has completed graduate studies in international economics and technology transfer policy, and is a graduate of the US Armed Forces Staff College, with a special certificate in Information Operations.
- None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license. -- John Milton
Uh oh.
My blog
be your own tsar
Media that can be recorded and distributed can be recorded and distributed.
-kfg
Cyber? Seriously, anyone who names a person place or thing containing the word "cyber" is a fruit cake and probably knows horse crap about how to secure a computer to start with.
Yeah, I mean she obvious knows how to both give head to get ahead, AND keep from getting a belt buckle imprint that would be oh so un-photogenic.
Hah: Captcha was Satisfy.
Anyone else get the feeling they do some context checking on these captcha words?
As opposed to the political hacks from past administrations that compose the rest of Obama's appointees. So much for change. Industry leaders don't necessarily know the industry, they just won the back-stabbing contest.
President Obama. How about posting questions straight to slashdot, you might just get some true, no kiss-ass, answers for once from people who aren't trying to make points and kissing up to ambitions.
How about posting questions straight to slashdot, you might just get some true, no kiss-ass, answers for once from people who aren't trying to make points and kissing up to ambitions.
Of course, the advice from Slashdot would be completely neutral and have no bias at all... except where anything to do with software or databases was concerned, but I can't imagine how this role would be affected by that sort of contraint!
If you disagree, post your argument. (-1, Overrated) isn't your personal censorship tool for views you don't like.
Because it'd be fan-freaking-tastic if the geekiest guy in the office asked her, "Dr.Hathaway? Are you wearing makeup?" every freaking morning. Just sayin'.
Sucking cock is usually enough to get the position. Or would that be "taking the position is what it takes to get the cock" Damn it, I can never remember how it goes... Oh well.
Yeah, but does she have a MS Security Cert?
i shit out an obama
plop!
I thought we didn't have titles of nobility or royalty in America. FYI "Tsar/Czar" comes from "Caesar".
Or maybe it is appropriate these days...
So change it: develop open source governance.
You got to +5 insightful for saying the truth. If you were being sarcastic you'd have gotten +5 funny...
Gurlz iz rare in IT. The work/life balance sucks hard. I hope she knows that.
Yes, because obviously being female and having only made it to a senior position appointed by the most powerful man in the world, she must be a clueless newbie in need of advice on work-life balance from Slashdot...
It's not so unlikely, considering that her new boss is a clueless newbie desperately in need of advice from (somewhere not Slashdot, I think)...
Agreed. This couldn't be a political ploy to appear to be reaching across the gender isle to fill an ambiguous position with no real future impact on society, could it?
Modding me -1 troll doesn't make me wrong.
I think it's less trolling, and just a reasonable expectation taking into account past history (from the past 3 weeks) that she will either a) have a Tax issue or b) have lobbying (or lobby-like) ties to the industry she will be regulating. As Cyber-Security Czar is unlikely to regulate an industry, that leaves us with a).
Or c) runs a botnet.
Just sayin'...
Strat
Progressivism (aka US 'Liberalism'): Ideas so good they need a police/surveillance-state to enforce.
..paid her taxes...
If not, what qualifications does she have?
They're using their grammar skills there.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
Of course it could be that. I just think it's sad how many people around here seem to be assuming that it is that, just because this particular high-ranking official is female. I hope it's just a young male insecurity thing amplified by the profile of Slashdot posters, and not a reflection of how sexist society as a whole still remains.
If you disagree, post your argument. (-1, Overrated) isn't your personal censorship tool for views you don't like.
All military terms are honky
Then does that make all civilian terms niggar...dly?
For the love of $DIETY why the fuck is it that the government feels the need to call anything that has the slightest thing to do with information technology "Cyber." I'm cybersick of cybermorons in cybergovernment cyberthinking they cyberknow cyberanything about cyberanything.
Causation can cause correlation
'Gender Isle'. That's inadvertent genius.
Okay, seriously, she does have serious military training, pretty decent database chops, and she did create cocaine traffic flow models for the government in the past. That leads me to believe that:
Conclusion: Probably best to show a little respect.
Crumb's Corollary: Never bring a knife to a bun fight.
So, it's not me ?
Of the more than eight thousand appointments to government positions that Obama has made, a grand total of somewhere around fifteen to twenty have approached or passed the no lobbyist line he drew and two or three had tax issues*. So do enlighten me as to where making the strictest promise to fight lobbyist influence in history and then keeping it 99.75% (with another .2% not technically falling afoul) made the near-discontinuous jump into the idea that he's intentionally appointing foxes to guard henhouses the same way Bush did?
* Though I do find it most out of character that "no-drama Obama" missed that shit
appointed by the most powerful man in the world
What, Hu Jintao http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hu_Jintao appointed her?
~men are from earth. women are from earth. deal with it.~
you might just get some true, no kiss-ass, answers for once
...but you'll most likely be Goatse'd to Hell and back.
Squirrel!
pareidolia &c.
She's a political wonk and a holdover from the Bush homeland security team. The woman doesn't even have an IT degree (the closest thing she has is a "special certificate in Information Operations" from the military).
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
I started picturing in my mind...Mr. Drysdale yelling at her that she's spending too much money on her projects while she trys to garner Jethro's romantic insterests....and getting invited that evening for some of Granny's possum stew.
Oh well...it sure made thinking about the next 4 years more entertaining, that's for sure...
Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
How would you know? It didn't exist until a minute ago. It's certainly not cabinet-level, or there would be confirmation hearings.
My point is that most IT people, regardless of their gender, are "cybersecurity chiefs" -- that is, they're responsible for the security of their systems. What makes this one so special?
Most women are too smart to go into IT. As we all know from personal experience, it's a rotten job with too much responsibility, not enough authority, and zero upward mobility.
I piss off bigots.
I think it's worth mentioning that failing to vet isn't really an ethics violation either.
The people with tax problems whose he's suggested have not ended up in those positions, which isn't a 'ethics failure' so much as, um, an 'ethics success'.
Meanwhile, I find this level of scrutiny amazing. Bush had incredibly dodgy people in positions of power and no one seemed to say anything about it.
If corporations are people, aren't stockholders guilty of slavery?
If she can be judged on her achievements without mentioning her gender, that'll be real progress.
Wouldn't that be the end goal rather than progress towards it?
intentionally appointing foxes to guard henhouses the same way Bush did?
WHAT foxes? WHAT henhouses? Citations, please (far-left sources, bloggers and other mentally unstable conspiracy nuts don't count) or it never happened.
In times of universal deceit, telling the truth gets you modded -1 Troll
ROFL!!
In times of universal deceit, telling the truth gets you modded -1 Troll
I think generally you shouldn't appoint a guy with tax issues to run the IRS.
The people at the top of the chain rarely have any sort of degree within IT. For any business. It would be a total waste of their degree being in such a position, and would probably end up making them, if anything, unqualified for the position.
Earlier in her career, Ms. Hathaway was employed with the consulting firm Evidence Based Research, where she performed research and developed databases to track economic and political issues in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union, developed a model to detect the routes and modes and to estimate the quantities of cocaine movement into the United States, and studied other key issues in support of the Intelligence Community.
hmm... worked in relation to soviet russia... now is a tsar... and in breaking news russia is creating its own OS... coincidence? i think not.
Since we've been calling the previous people Czars rather than Tsars, the corresponding anglicization of a russianized roman title would be Czarina rather than Tsarina or Tsaritsa.
(Or "Ocarina" if you prefer? :-)
Bill Stewart
New Fast-Compression-only CPR http://preview.tinyurl.com/dy575ks
I mean modding the parent post "Informative" ? :)
If Google really cared they would fix Android Chrome to reflow text, instead of discriminating
<30 seconds of Google queries>
<5 minutes of sorting out the most egregious and obvious examples>
Named the senior lobbyist of the National Association of Manufacturers to head the CPSC
Named the former CEO of Goldman Sachs to head the treasury
Recess-appointed coal mine executive Richard Stickler to be mine safety czar
First energy secretary Spencer Abraham once called for the end of the Dept. of Energy
Among dozens of others chosen straight out of lobbying or industry positions to regulate the very things they lobbied for, or who wanted to destroy the agencies they were tasked with running, or who had no qualifications to be there outside of having business or sexual relations with other Bush cabinet members. Seeing as this is all a matter of public record, I'll let you do your own 30 seconds of Googling.
I find your willful blindness appalling.
So, with the exception of Spencer Abraham, he named people with actual experience and knowledge of the industry in question to watch over it.
(yawn)
I repeat the question: WHAT foxes? WHAT henhouses?
So far, all you've provided are examples of Mr. Bush appointing competent people. Why am I not surprised?
In times of universal deceit, telling the truth gets you modded -1 Troll
I find your willful blindness appalling.
And I find your refusal to think for yourself even more appalling. Before you call someone else "blind," check your facts. And read Plato's parable of the Cave while you're at it.
In times of universal deceit, telling the truth gets you modded -1 Troll
you can all but hear the sharp snap of fine gloves hitting cheeks in this thread...
http://i.cubeupload.com/T6cyLu.png