New white house cybersecurity chief largely an unknown - Custom Roll Cage - Folding Rolling Rack Ma

GovInfoSecurity's EricChabrow reported Monday that "some of the most-connected people in Washington'scybersecurity community [have] never heard of Michael Daniel." That may be by design. Karen Evans, administrator for e-governmentand IT at OMB for the last five-plus years of President George W.Bush's tenure, told GovInfoSecurity that Daniel was not meant to bethe public face of the administration, as she and Schmidt were."Michael is an OMB careerist and we were very protective of them,so they could transition from administration to administration;that was their job," she says. That, of course, is about to change, and is already changing.Daniel's education and work history have become topics of interest.Daniel, described by some as a "young gun," is 41, while thedeparting Schmidt is 62. He holds a B.A. in public policy fromPrinceton University, a Master's in public policy from the HarvardKennedy School of Government and a Master's in national resourceplanning from the National Defense University.

He started his career as a research assistant at an Atlanta thinktank, the Southern Center for International Studies. He began atOMB as a program examiner in the operations and personnel branch,covering the Navy, Marine Corps and contingency operationsprograms, before becoming intelligence branch chief. While Schmidt is known for riding a Harley-Davidson, Daniel is amartial arts enthusiast. And he will step into a political meat grinder, joining theadministration at a time when the White House and Congress areclashing over several legislative initiatives aimed at protectingcrucial U.S. industries -- defense and infrastructure -- fromcyberattacks by criminals, hostile nation states and terrorists.

So far, most of the predictions on how Daniel will fill his newrole are speculative. RT reported last week that Schmidt's departure might eliminate a major hurdle for thecontroversial Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act(CISPA), which passed the House but faces a threatened veto from the president, on the groundsthat it would undermine internet privacy . [See also: ' CISPA enjoys wide backing from enterprises

' Will voluntary cyber threat sharing plan cast doubt over CISPA? ] "Schmidt is believed to be instrumental in the White House'sopposition to the bill," RT reports, "[but] with Schmidt out of thepicture, the future of CISPA is now more uncertain than ever." But Rebecca Herold, an information security and privacy expertknown as the "Privacy Professor," while agreeing that Daniel'sbackground in "spying/surveillance activities ... does not lay afoundation for supporting strong privacy rights," says it would bepremature to assume anything about his political positions. She also notes: "It seems counterintuitive for the White House toappoint someone to the cyber security czar position who wouldoppose the things the president has indicated are important, whichinclude preserving privacy while protecting the digitalinfrastructure." When it comes to experience and expertise, Daniel gets good reviewsfrom both colleagues and observers.

Melissa Hathaway, a topcybersecurity adviser to both Presidents Bush and Obama, toldGovInfoSecurity, "Michael was picked because of his intimateknowledge of national security accounts, where the truecapabilities exist." Hathaway, who worked with Daniel in creating the federalComprehensive National Cybersecurity Initiative, says that "heknows what can be leveraged in the national security apparatus tohelp assure the defense of the country." The Atlantic Council's ' Jason Healey, who has worked withthe White House on security, says some of his colleagues are upsetbecause Daniel lacks technical credentials. "But most cybersecurityexperts just don't understand how to get anything done ingovernment," he said. "It's always going to be a tradeoff betweensomeone who knows what needs doing and someone that can get thegovernment to do it." Healey says he is optimistic about the appointment because "themain issues facing the waning days of this administration arebudgetary and legislative, and anyone from OMB is likely to havesome idea about which levers to pull to influence the interagencyprocess and Congress." There is general agreement that Daniel's role will differ fromSchmidt's, who was the first to hold the position and is seen asthe one who developed an agenda and policy goals. Daniel's role,Evans told GovInfoSecurity, will be to execute that agenda.

"Howard changed the dialogue. That's a certain set of skills,"Evans says. "But you need the next set of skills where you have toexecute." Read more about malware/cybercrime in CSOonline's Malware/Cybercrime section.

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