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Cybersecurity Czar Job Is Useless, Says Spafford
Trailrunner7 writes "It's been about seven months since Obama announced his plan to hire a cybersecurity coordinator, and the job is still vacant. Several prominent security experts have turned the position down, and in an interview on Threatpost, Purdue professor Gene Spafford says that the position is pointless. 'It won't have any statutory authority. It won't have any budgetary authority. That does not give it much authority of any kind. So when I hear that there are supposedly people who have been interviewed for this cyber coordinator job and didn't take it, I'm not surprised. It's not a winning position. I'm not at all surprised by the fact that it's empty. That position is a blame-taking position,' Spafford said."
...for me? It has Czar in the title, it has to pay more than what I make.
..won't have any statutory authority. It won't have any budgetary authority. But it WILL have FarmVille.
Someone who's actually paid to be the goat.
I can do that! Were can I get a job like that.
It's NOT me! It's the meds! I'm on 1000mg of Fukitol.
A real security czar would be the man or woman behind the curtain. With a limp, a raspy voice, and insist that they are always watching us watching them watch other people who watch Ebay watching people selling watches trying to find the best watch to buy. Even when the security czar knows that everyone just uses cell phones now instead of watches. Thats why he must watch the watch watchers.
Pennsylvania is a "minor" state? You realize it's the 6th most populous state, with the 6th most populous city and happened to be one of the key birthplaces of the American revolution, right?
I want peace on earth and goodwill toward man.
We are the United States Government! We don't do that sort of thing.
The last 8 years proved that the set of states in the Union are,
Not minor: Texas, East Texas, Dallas-FortWorth and California
Minor: the other states.
My coworkers are always volunteering me ... I'm (modestly) that good!
Here's a photo of me on the job: http://www.frogview.com/uploadimages/45f9f6b1c0ed04.86765571frogview-gallery.jpg
It could be my chance to move out of my mom's basement!
I'll take it. I've even worked in security, although as a programmer not as an executive or highly respected author and lecturer (e.g., Bruce Schneier)
That's okay. As far as I know, few highly respected authors and lecturers have been asked. And asked or not, several such people have preemptively refused the, er, honor.
which is what I imagine they want and will never get.
If they wanted, I imagine they would've asked more people who could do it.
Where do I send my resumé?
First print off a copy of everything you've ever said online and send it so they can check it for anything embarrassing. I gather that's what one of their pre-screening requirements was. Which is to say, they want people who have never used the internet for their security czar.
But the drug czars have failed to stop drugs, so therefore a cybersecurity czar would improve cybersecurity!
I finally understand government logic!
You realize it's the 6th most populous state, with the 6th most populous city...
And it happens to be the 6th largest emitter of carbon dioxide. Could Pennsylvania be, hmmm... SATAN!?!
Now that I think about it, I'm pretty sure everything I just said is completely wrong.