White House Appoints Howard Schmidt ‘Cybersecurity Czar’
The Center for Democracy & Technology welcomes today's Presidential appointment of Howard Schmidt to be the White House’s first Cybersecurity chief. CDT believes he brings the needed expertise to a critical new position.
In May President Obama declared the nation's digital infrastructure a strategic national asset and pledged that his Administration would make protecting these networks a national security priority. With the appointment of Schmidt, the President has taken an important step in meeting that pledge.
"President Obama has outlined an ambitious cybersecurity agenda we have full confidence that Howard Schmidt has the knowledge and skills to lead the federal government in the execution of that plan," said CDT President Leslie Harris.
The Administration’s sixty-day review of cybersecurity efforts include strong commitments to ensure protections for individual privacy are built-into any policy involving national cybersecurity. CDT has been tracking the progress of this "cybersecurity privacy checklist."
