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Who Would Want To Be Obama's Cybersecurity Czar?
dasButcher writes "President Obama is expected to name a new cybersecurity czar sometime soon. This person will be charged with defending the digital boards from attack by hostile nation-states and terrorist organizations. But the question Larry Walsh asks is: Who really wants the job? The previous three people who held the post barely made a dent in solving the security problems. Government bureaucracy and private sector resistance make it nearly impossible to find any measure of meaningful success in this job, he writes."
Reader eatcajun contributes a related link to the long-awaited US cyberspace policy review.
...nuff said.
You are right. A group of people trained properly is about the only way to do this. Thing is to really be effective they would have to operate with little to no oversight. Essentially a black-ops for a cyber war.
That idea makes me squirm. Bad enough so many groups try this already with current laws, I wouldn't want to give that much power to a unmanaged group of people. If you want effective though, that's the way. A Czar is a waste of time really.
In this type of political postion reputation and personality are as important as your knowledge. Kevin has shown in his legal employment history an aptitude to address cyber security in a way that draws the necessary attention to the issue. His crimial history gives him the legitimacy with both sides of the issue.
"Of all the things I've lost, I miss my mind the most." ~Ozzy Osborne
I'd take this job in a second. The position has a track record of failure and thus, expectations are low. This is exactly the kind of job I'm looking for. If you succeed, you're a miracle worker, if you fail, nobody blames you, either way it's not bad. It looks even better when you add in the fact that the pay is good and you have an awesome title. I mean c'mon, you'd be a freaking czar, how many people can legitimately put "Czar" on their resume?
As a person who once held a Military Intelligence slot, I want to point out some things. Properly done, MI is all about capabilities, not intentions. That is, MI when it's working right will tell you if a possible enemy has artillery with a 55 mile range or not. Mi done right won't speculate whether the enemy has the intention of aiming it at an adjacent capital city unless the owner announces it, or at least positions it so there are no other targets that would make any sense.
It's supposed to be up to something called Civilian Oversight to ask the right questions and pick the targets for evaluation. If the civilian government asks if a drone plane Saddam was building could hit New York if launched from the Canadian border, MI will tell them whatever they know of the drone's range, but they won't ask how their supervisor thinks Saddam will get the drone to Ontario. If the civilian oversight asks if there is any known nuke small enough to fit in that drone's cargo compartment, MI will say yes, because the US, the former USSR, and several NATO allies all have such devices.
If the Secretary of State doesn't ask if Saddam has a third generation pony nuke (or any chance of making one in the next 10 years) before he talks to the UN about them, and jumps to a conclusion (or if he doesn't ask because he already knows the answer is a flat no), then the Civilian Oversight can deliver a report, and MI has no way of knowing if he got some parts of the report from somebody else (NSA maybe) or if he's lying. Then the MI operatives usually take the blame if any of the BS part becomes public.
If Civilian Oversight decides it's more important to investigate Mexico's submarine warfare progress than to keep an eye on the Chinese, then MI operatives will say "Yes sir, watching the Mexican Navy sir!", even if they think it's a stupid waste of resources. Civilians define who's the foe, not the military.
Who is John Cabal?
Obama HAS created new super-powerful positions, for example the new "Assistant to the President for Energy and Climate Change," aka the Environment Czar, to which he appointed Al Gore buddy Carol Browner. Never in White House history have cabinet members reported to a czar, but today the Secretaries of Energy and Interior, and the EPA Administrator don't report to the President but to a private citizen who has never been vetted by the Senate.
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