National cybersecurity director resigns; cites roadblocks [View All]

[The Hope Mobile]

Source: USA Today



National cybersecurity director resigns; cites roadblocks

The sudden resignation of Rod Beckstrom, the senior Department of Homeland Security official tasked with improving U.S. civilian cybersecurity intiatives, bodes ill for transparency in government.

In this letter to DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano, Beckstrom, Director of the National Cybersecurity Center, cites funding roadblocks and smothering controls imposed by the super-secret National Security Agency.

"During my term as Director we have been unwilling to subjugate the NCSC underneath the NSA," he writes. "Instead, we advocated a model where there is a credible civilian government cybersecurity capability which interfaces with, but is not controlled by, the NSA."

Beckstrom emphasized in an interview today that he "fully supports" the NSA's intelligence-gathering role.

"It's just that as a public servant and as a citizen, I have a view that there should be a balance of power," Beckstrom says. "There should be different parties that have strength in this game. And I really feel that independence for the NCSC is important as a collaboration and bridging function."

In addition to being a terrific public speaker, Beckstrom has been a successful CEO and is co-author of a best-selling business book advocating decentralized management. He was asked by former Director of National Intelligence Mike Connell and former Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chernoff to leave the private sector to create the NCSC at a time when former President Bush was being criticized for letting Homeland Security deteriorate into a rudderless agency. At one point, Beckstrom was being touted as a darkhorse candidate to be named cyber czar by President Obama.

Beckstrom took his first government job anticipating that he would be able to introduce tenets from his book -- The Starfish and the Spider: The Unstoppable Power of Leaderless Organizations to big government.

He says he has become "hooked" on the multi-dimensional societal ill cybecrime has become, and will likely stay engaged on the issue.

By Byron Acohido

Posted at 05:32 PM/ET, March 09, 2009 in Policy, Security | Permalink


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Hmmmm - he was recruited by Bushies and now he's saying that he's being roadblocked??? Something's amiss here.