Web Security News

U.S. cybersecurity chief's resignation effective Friday

Friday, March 13, 2009

Rod Beckstrom, the entrepreneur and author who was appointed as the head of the Department of Homeland Security's National Cybersecurity Center last March, resigned from the post last week. His last official day in the job is Friday March 13.

In his resignation letter to DHS secretary Janet Napolitano, Beckstrom cited concerns that the agency was not adequately funded by the last administration and said the encroachment of the National Security Agency - under military control - on the cybersecurity center's mission was a threat to civilian control.

"NSA effectively controls DHS cyber efforts," Beckstrom wrote in the letter. Beckstrom said it is "bad strategy" for any one agency to have complete control over cybersecurity.

Former FBI director Louis Freeh made similar comments in a speech before the FOSE government IT expo in Washington Thursday, calling for increased cooperation between government and the private sector.

"It's true that NSA does dominate most national cybersecurity efforts," Freeh said. "Is the military going to continue to be responsible or is it time to stand up to an independent civilian facility, too? This problem is too large to relegate it to a bureaucratic pigeonhole."

Prior to his appointment in March 2008, Beckstrom had been a technology entrepreneur and author of books on decentralization, specializing in the ability of decentralized organizations such as cybercriminals to evade detection.