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...?"
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.
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.
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.
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.
Melissa... Melissa... Cyber security... Now, where exactly did I hear that name?
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
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.
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...
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.
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.
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