America's Cybersecurity Czar, Howard Schmidt, Steps Down 52
wiredmikey writes "In December of 2009, after months of waiting, the Obama Administration named Howard Schmidt as the White House Cybersecurity Coordinator. After more than forty years in the IT community, the nation's first cyber czar will retire at the end of the month. Schmidt, after just over two years of government service, said he would retire in order to spend more time with his family and to entertain teaching opportunities in the cyber field. Schmidt was at the reins when the White House introduced its international strategy for cyberspace, and also helped create the controversial National Strategy for Trusted Identities in Cyberspace, an initiative that would allow people to obtain a single credential as a one-time password (on a token or mobile device) to do business on the Internet. Schmidt will be replaced by Michael Daniel, currently the head of the White House budget office's intelligence branch."
Mudge (Score:2)
Is Mudge still available?
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Seems like a natural promotion from his position at DARPA.
How did someone that old still have a job in IT? (Score:3, Funny)
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I mean, really.... Grey hair, Fred Thompson look alike... They don't exist in IT.
I see you've never been inside the building I work in.
Too... many... (Score:5, Funny)
Too... many... oxymorons...
Cannot... resist...
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The word "cyber" (Score:2)
Slightly off-topic, but am I the only one that thinks the word "cyber" is a silly 90's throwback?
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It's hard to take anyone seriously who's still using that word with a straight face.
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It's hard to take anyone seriously who's still using that word with a straight face.
Kevin Warwick? (Professor of Cybernetics)
CC.
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It might behoove you to get over that. The head of the US National Security Agency, a four-star general, is 'dual-hatted' as the head of United States Cyber Command. I'm pretty sure most of the 'serious' world takes his efforts seriously.
Facebook links for fun:
https://www.facebook.com/pages/United-States-Cyber-Command/117614808290017
http://www.facebook.com/pages/NSA/106066839432866?rf=113191532024730
Also, have you seen NSA's publicly-released documentation on UFO's? Hilarity.
Here's the general link full
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Four-star general? Then I'll refer to him if I need any advice on friendly fire?
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I'm sure you've seen the regular debates around here regarding the definition of 'hacker,' fought between those who wish to stay true to the old meaning and those who wish to accept the corrupt but more-popular meaning to avoid confusion.
Yeah, good luck avoiding confusing a layperson. I thought it was hilarious this morning watching the looks on reporters' faces when they saw "HACK!" graffittied on a wall at Facebook HQ with Zuckenberg smiling, an their confusion at the "hackathon" they pulled last night.
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It's short for Cybernetics, which is a much older throw back, (nearly?) pre-dating computers, and is applicable not only to technology, but any system with information feedback loops. Cybernetic research has been a huge boon to business since at least the 50s.
Applying "Cyber" to only systems of logic in a computer or computer network is just wrong and should end. Your own mind is a Cybernetic Entity.
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Unless you feel that your mind is a system that can be hacked remotely by other entities and forced to carry out their instructions, your mind is not a cybernetic entity.
I take it you don't watch television. This appears to be the principle that marketing lives by.
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Further, Cyber is often used today as a short version of "Cyberspace", which I suppose, to align with your comment, is really Cyberneticsspace. agh.
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I've cyber-spoken to many cyber-people in the TFA's "cyber field" and I still can't give you a straight answer.
Maybe we should build a sandboxed subset of the Internet for journalists called CYBER-SPACE that consists of nothing but their organizations' websites and a mountain of child porn. Cyber child porn.
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Another rat deserting the good ship S.S. 0bama!
Try asking someone "wanna cyber" in chat... (Score:1)
I usually think back to a very common use/meaning of the word "cyber" in 90s chatrooms [viewonline.com]. (I have no connection to that article, it was just one of the first useful search results.)
And welcome Linus Torvalds as surgeon general! (Score:5, Insightful)
Um, come again?
Someone kindly point out what makes this manager-of-auditors-of-bean-counters, with a background totally unrelated to cybersecurity or even IT in general, qualified to coordinate the nation's response to Chinese and Iranian hackers?
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Well for starters he knows that for every one American cyberworrier there are 100 Chinese ones. :D
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Re:And welcome Linus Torvalds as surgeon general! (Score:4, Funny)
Schmidt will be replaced by Michael Daniel, currently the head of the White House budget office's intelligence branch.
Um, come again?
Someone kindly point out what makes this manager-of-auditors-of-bean-counters, with a background totally unrelated to cybersecurity or even IT in general, qualified to coordinate the nation's response to Chinese and Iranian hackers?
He can make a great speech you insensitive clod.
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Did you note "intelligence branch"? NSA and US Cyber Command are run by the same guy. The signals intelligence community in the US *is* the community responding to the nation-state hacking threat.
America don't need no steenking czars (Score:2)
The Bolsheviks had the right idea when they rise up and got rid of them. But since it's America you can just lay them off and not have to shoot their wives and families.
The White house can have a policy wonk, but no need to give them " czarlike" powers or any more title than "advisor." The Guy who was elected shouldn't be insulated from responsibility by an unelected staffer with a big title and media who go along with the fiction that he hassome kind of independent authority.
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In other words, in Soviet Russia, the people control the czars!
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I don't have that many guns. I'm going to need more bolsheviks.
Dull gray man replaced by duller, grayer man (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Dull gray man replaced by duller, grayer man (Score:5, Funny)
To quote the new guy, "Don't quote me regulations. I co-chaired the committee that reviewed the recommendation to revise the color of the book that regulation's in. We kept it gray."
opportunities in the cyber field... (Score:2)
You misunderstand... (Score:3)
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Little people depend on the stability of banks, large corporations, and others. We all interdepend on that shit.
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Only in the public eye.
In reality, it's more about how they protect government informations systems.