“Howard Schmidt, a former Microsoft security executive and a one-time cybersecurity adviser to President George W. Bush, has been appointed to the position of cybersecurity coordinator, according to a White House announcement on Tuesday,” Zetter reports. “In his new position, he will be responsible for coordinating the federal government’s cybersecurity initiatives to secure government networks and U.S. critical infrastructures. This will include working with the Office of Management and Budget to ensure that agencies have money allocated for cybersecurity priorities, and coordinating the government’s response to a major cyber incident or attack.”
“According to the Associated Press, Obama was directly involved in the selection of Schmidt, who was chosen after an extensive search,” Zetter reports. “But the announcement of Schmidt came with little fanfare on Tuesday and followed months of reports from other candidates that they either turned down the job or otherwise discouraged the White House from courting them.”
“Last May, Obama announced he was creating a new office to be led by a cybersecurity czar,” Zetter reports. “For nearly a year, however, he could find no one to take the job, due to what many viewed as its undesirable placement in the federal hierarchy.”
“Schmidt, Microsoft’s chief security officer until 2001, is the second former Microsoft executive to take a top federal cybersecurity position,” Zetter reports. “Last March, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano appointed Philip Reitinger to the position of deputy undersecretary of the department’s National Protections Program Directorate.”
“Reitinger was Microsoft’s chief trustworthy infrastructure strategist, a job that required him in part to help develop and implement strategies for enhancing the security of critical infrastructures,” Zetter reports. “In his new position, he oversees the protection of the government’s computer networks and works with the private sector to help secure critical infrastructures.”
Zetter reports, “There have been concerns about how the White House intends to address cybersecurity issues, particularly in the private sector, and protect civil liberties at the same time.”
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Who’s next, Balloon Boy to head up NORAD?
Given their record in the security area, I don’t know why anybody would buy from them. – Richard A. Clarke, former U.S. National Coordinator for Security, Infrastructure Protection, and Counter-terrorism, commenting on Microsoft, February 17, 2005
@ The Real Rob,
Hahaaaaa! Good one!
Neener, neener, neener, Republicans are wieners!
@ Jen,
Chill. Screaming about a single irrelevant poll a full year before midterm elections is a little bit overkill, even for a wingnut. I know the next 7 years of the Obama golden age will kick your cognitive dissonance into high gear, but try to relax anyway.
Vote republican or democrat. It won’t matter anyways.
The rich will eat you all for lunch.
Not screaming, except with laughter over your “Obama golden age” joke.
Thanks for the laugh!
Oh, BTW:
66% Favor Smaller Government With Fewer Services, Lower Taxes
Source: Rasmussen Reports, December 17, 2009
@NHL
“In other news, Wile E. Coyote has been hired to take care of the Roadrunner problem.”
Perfect analogy.
Heckuva job, Joshie. Them postings of yers and yer frends has nailed them commie fascist librals agin.
@ Jen
LOL! Seriously, what a ridiculously abstract question. You might as well ask people “Do you like high taxes?”
How about asking people if they want government to take away specific services; social security maybe? Or perhaps Medicare? Won’t get many people voting for that, even Tea Partiers. Heck, a congressman this year introduced an amendment to repeal Medicare. It got 0 votes.
For an even bigger laugh, 62% of Republicans think government should actually stay OUT of Medicare! LOL!
http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/08/poll-republicans-think-government-should-stay-out-of-medicare.php
In summary, Jen, your cherry picked polls are meaningless. So relax and enjoy the next 7 years.
Many people are against government programs and taxes, until they find themselves in the situation of needing those same programs. Take healthcare for example.
As a Christmas gift to the lefty airheads hereabouts, I present you with a few lessons on the facts of life:
1) Being black (or half black) is not a magical property which mysteriously transports Barack Obama to a plane high above us all beyond the realm of any and all criticism. When you are POTUS, you are in a position of great power and responsibility, and likewise the focus of a corresponding level of scrutiny. If this last bit is too much for your fragile sensitivities, then you are not suited for the highest office of the land. Every single POTUS in U.S. history has received LOTS and LOTS of criticism and opposition, and this POTUS is not entitled to treatment that is any different. Content of character trumps color of skin. If you disagree with that, then you need to quit pretending to revere Martin Luther King, as that was his most famous message. That these fundamental realities have to be repeatedly explained to those on the left only reinforces their image as superficial, substance-free, and quite clueless. Again, Barach Obama is a democracitally elected executive of commerical republic. NOT A KING! Grow up and deal with it already. Sheesh!
2) Steve Jobs is a capitalist. An exceptionally good one, in fact. He harshly criticized the teacher’s unions in a very public way (taboo for anyone who is supposedly a committed across-the-board statist as some of you are ignorantly claiming), and I am unaware of him having made any attempts at socializing 17% of our economy. Whereas, when B.O. was employed for a short time in the private sector, he referred to that in one of his two needless autobiographies as working in “enemy territory”. Stop conflating Steve Jobs with our community organizer in chief. We benefit from having Steve Jobs in the world. Whereas with B.O., in keeping with the aptness of his initials, he stinks.
3) You have to be exceptionally gullible, uninformed, and economically moronic to think that healthcare “reform” as defined by this Congress or the current administration is anything other than a power grab by our statists in the current legislative and executive branch. They’re curtailing your liberties, raising your taxes, putting generations of as yet unborn Americans in deep debt, and raping the U.S. Constitution, and all the while you have your heads so far up your poop shoots that you actually think all this is ACTUALLY a great series of spectactular event. Extraordinary human debris. Every last Obamaroid.
Merry Christmas!
Hum! Aren’t Windows guys total republicanists? Wonder if this is a good choice… Or maybe juste because a former windows specialiste should know more about viruses, malwares, suckwares and backdoors than any other?
@ Josh
Relax, man. Nobody’s saying “Barach Obama” (sic) is “king” or shouldn’t be criticized. Heck, I think his choice of Schmidt for Cybersecurity czar is atrocious. But honestly, quit acting like Obama’s Thought Police are about to break into your house and take your first born from you. Your wingnut rhetoric is out of control.
Seriously, chill out. Obama’s got this.
Ol’ purple lips is a one-termer.
Barack Obama’s czars are not only anti-American scum comprised of, among others, a birth rate restriction advocate, a 911 truther, an admitted Marxist radical, tax cheats, and a homosexual pedophile for good measure, BUT ALSO,
A) yes men
B) coporate shills/lobbysits (even though B.O. promised there’d be none of that)
C) hypocritical Marxists who nevertheless enjoy the luxuries afforded only by capitalism
D) Alynsky-ite community organizer types
E) unqualified
F) complete failures as czars AND as human beings
And seriously guys, in the HERE and NOW, Barack Obama has to take ownership of his own crap piles. HE is the current president. NOT…BUSH! The blaming Bush thing is seriously old by now. Has been for some time in fact. EVERY POTUS inherits problems of previous administrations combined, and they should know this going in. He needs to be a man and stop pointing the finger backwards to Bush.
He disrespects and betrays our allies, bows to non-Western royalty, and is finally being criticized in foreign press. The Soviets, North Koreans, Iranians and Islamofascists now feel emboldened like never before. If you do not know this then you’re either in denial or you simply haven’t been paying attention. The world is not full of feel-good puppy dogs with the politics of an impressionable 20 year old at their third year of UCAL Berkley. The maniacal tyrants of the world are not impressed. Again, the time for Bush obsession is over. Take ownership of your messiah and the vast discrepancies between his canned sunshiney campaign rhetoric of 2008 and his ACTIONS of 2009. The blame goes where the blame goes. Like it or not. Grow up, educate yourselves, and live in the real world. It may not be pretty, at least it is REAL.
Politicians love you people. You just don’t get it.
Fight back and forth and back and forth. It won’t change a thing….
In the meantime merry Xmas!
Yep, you’re right ‘dave’. Divide and conquer – they have us right where they want us.
@ “The Real Rob”,
Strawman alert! Strawman alert. I didn’t act like “Obama’s thought police were going to kick down my door….” blah blah blah. That is merely your characterization. A false one. A strawman.
So, in case you have not noticed, every time Obama is criticized or opposed, leftists start playing the race card. It has happened in this very thread. It has happened in other threads on this forum and on countless thread on other forums. It happened LOTS over the summer when people had the unmitigated gall to protest the proposed healthcare “reforms”. It has happened on major media outlets. It has happened in liberal op-eds. Barack Obama himself has employed it. And it happened a couple of days ago on the floor of the senate with Senator Whitehouse. It happens unrelentingly. In lieu of actual argumentation, the left plays the race card. Over and over and over and over…
If you are unaware of this, that’s YOUR fault, not mine.
The sheer volume of hatred expressed on this site…MAC DAILY NEWS…not a political site mind you but a mac news site is a reminder that hatred itself never solved a problem, never cured an illness, never fed someone hungry, never supported a someone in the military, never had a part in true patriotism, never served the common good. Love of country, the belief that we can come together for a common purpose, the genuine foundations of this nation are not built on hatred and personal attacks.
The people who wrote the constitution did so out of a love for freedom and values we still die to defend today. We don’t attack militarily out of hatred. That’s some confused movie style version of what powers democracy.
To vent your spleen over what you think is wrong and for this to happen on a computer news site is just absurd in many ways.
Why should anyone who wants to stay current on news about Apple care who is hired at the White House?
This mix of politics and computers is a recipe for further hatred…not problem solving, not resolution of differences, not an intelligent adult discussion.
Why don’t you go over to Politico.com and start a computer thread? Why not stop by Foxnews.com and tell them how much you hate Steve Ballmer?
Get a clue people.
Historian,
I asked my doctor if he thought that Obama’s purple lips were an indication of an oxygen supply issue.
My doctor replied, “Well, it is rather hard to breathe when your head is up your ass most of the time.”
@The Real Rob,
Ah yes, I made a typo didn’t I? I spelled his first name “Barach” instead of “Barack” – ONE TIME. And you decided to quote it. For what reason? I don’t supposed you happen to have noticed that in that very same post, I also spelled his name correctly, did you?
Seriously, quoting someone’s obvious typo for the sole purpose of pointing out the type is really, really lame.
Again, and now for the umpteenth time: Stick to the actual, substantive…arguments. Why is that so hard for some people?
@ Superior Being,
Did you know that Dr. Josh gives those prostate exams for free?
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@PR,
You’re an airhead. No one SAID that hatred ALONE solves anything. Yours is a strawman argument. And a really stupid one at that. Intelligent people are not going to pretend to not hate Marxism. They hate it, and with good reason. And that hatred moves them to fight it. If you didn’t hate the thing, you wouldn’t fight it. Yes, hate ALONE does solve any problems. But it IS an essential component of certain types of necessary action, among other essential components.
Stop being simplistic.
Stop pretending to be above it all.
Stop with the Kumbya “can’t we all just get along” crap.
No, we can’t all just get along. Some people are Marxists, and some people are not. Some people are tyrants, and some love liberty. It’s a struggle. Grow up.
And by the way, I hate your post. People like you are the type to let yourself get ass-raped just so you can “get along with others”.
You are what is wrong with the world. Enough said.
THE ANT AND THE GRASSHOPPER This one is a little different… . Two Different Versions…. ………. …. Two Different Morals
OLD VERSION The ant works hard in the withering heat all summer long, building his house and laying up supplies for the winter. The grasshopper thinks the ant is a fool and laughs and dances and plays the summer away. Come winter, the ant is warm and well fed. The grasshopper has no food or shelter, so he dies out in the cold. MORAL OF THE STORY: Be responsible for yourself!
MODERN VERSION The ant works hard in the withering heat and the rain all summer long, building his house and laying up supplies for the winter. The grasshopper thinks the ant is a fool and laughs and dances and plays the summer away. Come winter, the shivering grasshopper calls a press conference and demands to know why the ant should be allowed to be warm and well fed while he is cold and starving. CBS, NBC , PBS, CNN, and ABC show up to provide pictures of the shivering grasshopper next to a video of the ant in his comfortable home with a table filled with food. America is stunned by the sharp contrast. How can this be, that in a country of such wealth, this poor grasshopper is allowed to suffer so? Kermit the Frog appears on Oprah with the grasshopper and everybody cries when they sing, ‘It’s Not Easy Being Green.’ ACORN stages a demonstration in front of the ant’s house where the news stations film the group singing, “We shall overcome.” Then Rev. Jeremiah Wright has the group kneel down to pray to God for the grasshopper’s sake. President Obama condemns the ant and blames President Bush, President Reagan, Christopher Columbus, and the Pope for the grasshopper’s plight. Nancy Pelosi & Harry Reid exclaim in an interview with Larry King that the ant has gotten rich off the back of the grasshopper, and both call for an immediate tax hike on the ant to make him pay his fair share. Finally, the EEOC drafts the Economic Equity & Anti-Grasshopper Act retroactive to the beginning of the summer. The ant is fined for failing to hire a proportionate number of green bugs and, having nothing left to pay his retroactive taxes, his home is confiscated by the Government Green Czar and given to the grasshopper. The story ends as we see the grasshopper and his free-loading friends finishing up the last bits of the ant’s food while the government house he is in, which, as you recall, just happens to be the ant’s old house, crumbles around them because the grasshopper doesn’t maintain it. The ant has disappeared in the snow, never to be seen again. The grasshopper is found dead in a drug related incident, and the house, now abandoned, is taken over by a gang of spiders who terrorize the ramshackle, once prosperous and once peaceful, neighborhood. The entire Nation collapses bringing the rest of the free world with it. MORAL OF THE STORY: Be careful how you vote in 2010
Why would say to go to Fox News???? Why not MSNBC or CNN or CBS or ABC or NY Times or Washington Compost, etc., etc. The one news outlet that gives both sides of the story, Fox, versus the state controlled media sources and you blast Fox. Says a lot about you.
Thank God for the real Americans out there and Apple Inc. for making such great products.
@ Josh
“Waa waa waah! I’m Josh and I like to whine about how people point out my typos! Boo hoo, Barach (sic) Obama is the democracitally (sic) elected executive of commerical (sic) republic and I want to be able to call him a Marxist and an anti-American scumbag without people playing the race card!! Waaaaa!”
LOL!! Dude, Josh, do you realize how patently absurd you sound?
Seriously, chill out dude. You’re still free to drive your gas guzzling SUV 1 block to the grocery store and buy All-American TV dinners. It’s all good.