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."

It's a perfect representation!

[recharged95]

"It won't have any statutory authority. It won't have any budgetary authority. That does not give it much authority of any kind"

Kinda represents the majority of IT departments in big corporations.

Re:I vote

[elronxenu]

When you have a high profile job in the public sector, you can expect that people are going to find out a lot about you. The media will want to know, and if you have any skeletons in your closet, they could well be revealed, one day.

Bravo on you for wanting to keep your personal details private, but don't seek out any high profile positions as a result.

Re:Recession

[dikdik]

The second they use the term "Czar", to describe a person in administrative capacity over a regulatory body, they betray the authoritarian and anti-democratic ideology with which they conspire against representative government and individual rights and liberties.

Czar is the Slavic rendering of Caesar. Why anybody sees this as an expediency worthy of trade-off for democratic involvement and oversight is a question I leave you, the dear reader to resolve.

Re:I vote

[swb]

And they're also recruiting from the same talent pool as Google, Microsoft, and the Fortune 100.

Those companies will also sniff around your background, but won't have a hissy fit if you've smoked a joint, own a gun or got a DUI in a rented Escalade with your mistress.

After reading some of the disclosure materials required for government employment I'm pretty sure I will never even bother applying. Way too intrusive and not telling them exactly what they want is some kind of nasty Federal felony.

Re:I vote

[countertrolling]

If you want any authority over me, then damn right it's my business. We have every right to know if you are abiding by the same rules you expect us to. Don't take it personally. I expect all people in a position of authority to give up their private lives, at least to the extent that we have to. Besides, government service is supposed to be exactly that, not a lifetime career position.

Re:Recession

[istartedi]

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.

How much time will pass before everybody is naked, drunk and stoned on their MyBooooook page, so that we can get over all this nonsense about being persecuted for stuff everybody knows happens?