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White House Names Retired Air Force General As First Cyber Security Chief (reuters.com)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Reuters: The White House on Thursday named a retired U.S. Air Force general as the government's first federal cyber security chief, a position announced eight months ago that is intended to improve defenses against hackers. Gregory Touhill's job will be to protect government networks and critical infrastructure from cyber threats as federal chief information security officer, according to a statement. President Barack Obama announced the new position in February alongside a budget proposal to Congress asking for $19 billion for cyber security across the U.S. government. Touhill is currently a deputy assistant secretary for cyber security and communications at the Department of Homeland Security. He will begin his new role later this month, a source familiar with the matter said. Grant Schneider, who is the director of cyber security policy at the White House's National Security Council, will be acting deputy to Touhill, according to the announcement.
wiredmikey adds from a report via SecurityWeek.Com: The White House today announced that Brigadier General (retired) Gregory J. Touhill has been named the first Federal Chief Information Security Officer (CISO). Back in February, President Barack Obama unveiled a cybersecurity "national action plan" (CNAP) which called for an overhaul of aging government networks and a high-level commission to boost security awareness. As part of the plan, the White House said it would hire a federal CISO to direct cybersecurity across the federal government. General Touhill is currently the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Cybersecurity and Communications in the Office of Cybersecurity and Communications at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). The key hire comes at a time when the government needs cybersecurity talent more than ever. Earlier this week a report published by the U.S. House of Representatives Committee said the data breaches disclosed by the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) last year were a result of culture and leadership failures, and should not be blamed on technology.
Im sure this fellow will be the same caliper of person as Ive had the dis-pleasure of working with at homeland security; IE: incompetent.
The Ethical Hacker & Pentester Pro Bundle might help, :)
in other news, some IT guy with 20+year experience will be made general in-charge of US Airforce.
i think you don't understand the govt... there is no job#2 and job#1 fits under the "global force for good" motto.
Job #3 Use gov workers and contractors files as plain text bait as a live experiment on wide open, unencrypted gov networks.
Missed Opportunities Detailed Ahead of Personnel Agency Hack (Sep 7, 2016)
http://abcnews.go.com/Technolo...
"For the next few months, the personnel office worked with the FBI, National Security Agency and others to monitor the hacker to better understand his movements"
"Over the next several months, the hacker moved unchecked through the system and stole sensitive security clearance background investigation files, personnel files and, ultimately, fingerprint data."
One part of the US gov needs the contractors, another part just sees the gov/mil files as massive online bait.
So expect to see a lot more easy honey pots, limited hangouts as policy. The real smart agency workers files are never allowed online, but a vast pool of contractors, low end staff or staff with new plastic digital clearances will be left out in the wild for anyone to read up on. Just in the hope direct searches are done online rather than just downloading it all...
Remember the technology was selected to be plain text, wide open, network ready and was left like that as policy.
Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
it bears repeating.
...omphaloskepsis often...
Why not just poach somebody from the OpenBSD team, and piss off Theo at the US government even more?
. . . the Federal Civil Service cyber positions pay well under market AND take forever to get (6-12 month waits from application to final disposition are typical) and contractors (Admission: I'm a Cybersecurity contractor myself) win with low bids. And hey, I just got a lordly 1% cost-of-living raise. . . . On the gripping hand, I can't be replaced by an H1B . . .
I am the very model of a modern Cyber General
I've information secretive and knowledge technological
I know my way around the tubes and quote the cryptological
From Adi, Bruce and Len to Ron in order alphabetical!
Time to offend someone