I protest.: Hmm.

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April 20, 2003

Government

Hmm.

I haven't seen this talked about on any politically oriented blogs lately and it at least deserves mention. From the Washington Post: President's Top IT Security Adviser To Resign.

I think that having a high-level position that is concerned with computer and network security is generally a good thing, although I don't believe that it should be solely concerned with security. (I intensely dislike the fact that it was subsumed into the ~~Gestapo~~ "Department of Homeland Security," of course, but then I intensely dislike everything about that department, including the fact that it exists at all.) Still, the fact that Schmidt is leaving and that no one has been announced to replace him leaves me feeling less than one hundred percent happy with the situation.

One might wonder just what, in fact, went on between Ridge and Schmidt. That something did go on I have no doubt.

One bit of the story that is notable:

"Industry understands this is an important issue. Congress and the president have said [it is too], yet the department has no senior level official working full-time on the issue," [Schmidt's predecessor Richard] Clarke said. Failing to appoint a cybersecurity adviser at Homeland Security "reflects a total lack of intellectual understanding of the issue on the part of the people working for Ridge," he said.

Um. This presupposes a possibility of intellectual understanding in general among the denizens of the ~~Gestapo~~ "Department of Homeland Security" that I find both extremely unlikely and not particularly in evidence.

Posted by Frank at April 20, 2003 8:01 PM