The director of the US Computer Emergency Response Team
has resigned because she is frustrated by bureaucratic obstacles and not having
sufficient power to do the job in the Department of Homeland Security.
Mischel Kwon is the fourth US CERT director in five
years. She was hired in June 2008. Before that, she was the chief IT security
technologist for the Department of Justice. It appears she has been poached by RSA as vice president
of public-sector security solutions.
On the day she went, the director of the National Cyber
Security Center at Homeland Security said the Obama administration "has
made cybersecurity a top priority."
Analysts have been saying that the departures show the
weakness inherent in the system and that it is impossible to find people who
can make a difference. Talented people find themselves butting heads against
bureaucracy and in the end just get annoyed and leave.
Published in
News
The US computer emergency programme in tatters
Toothless wonder