It is August, and the White House has Thrown Out More First Pitches Than Cyber Czar Nominees

Here we are at the last Friday of the month, marking the two month anniversary of the announcement by the White House of the creation of a Cyber Czar to help centralize the cyber security activities of the federal government and build bridges to the private sector.   And in those two months the President has thrown out more first pitches to baseball games than names for the position. 

As a CEO, I am expected to be right more times than I am wrong, but this is one case where I had hoped not to be right.  When you balance the lack of forward movement with stories such as the one by Brian Krebs of the Washington Post on how much sensitive data has been leaked because of peer-to-peer applications, the outlook is not good.  We were already in a game of catch up, and valuable time has been lost while the gap grows larger.

In this case, actions do speak louder than words, and every day that passes (with no announcement) makes the proclamations of May 29 seem increasingly empty.  After two months it is fair to ask the administration about the next steps and when we will see them.  If no one is interested in the post, then the administration must see that as a clear indicator that the post has not been properly defined and empowered and make the changes necessary to move forward.  The alternative is to find a gamer who will take the job as currently defined only to face a certainly difficult climb to success.

I applaud your stated objective to make cyber security a priority, Mr. President.  But after two months, we need to hear something instead of silence so we know that the initiative is moving forward.