White House cybersecurity chief resigns

The top White House cybersecurity official has announced he will resign from public service at the end of the month.

A White House spokeswoman confirmed Tuesday that Howard Schmidt, who succeeded Richard Clarke as the nation's "cybersecurity czar" in January, is leaving government to pursue a career in the private sector.

In an e-mail sent to colleagues in government and industry, Schmidt said that "the nation as a whole is much better at responding to cyberattacks then at anytime in the past." He cautioned, though, that "cybersecurity cannot now be reduced to a '2nd tier' issue. It is not sufficient to just respond to attacks, but rather proactive measures must also be implemented to reduce vulnerabilities and prevent future attacks."

Some close to the administration believe that there still isn't enough senior level focus on promoting better security standards and getting tough on companies that don't manufacture secure products. Numerous software vendors have taken criticism for years over not fixing vulnerabilities in their products that allow the systems running them to be exploited.

Schmidt's admonition echoes the philosophy of a number of administration cybersecurity officials, including his predecessor Clarke, that the White House should lend its gravitas to the cybersecurity issue in order to raise its profile. Clarke left the government in January after more than a decade of service, which included a stint as President Clinton's national counterterrorism coordinator. The future of the cybersecurity office is now in question.

Critics have said some of the White House office's rhetoric was alarmist and have called for using the market to force companies to build better security standards into their products. The Office of Management and Budget has urged federal agencies to use their massive buying power to demand that manufacturers deliver stronger products.

But some technology experts favored the forceful, high-level approach of Schmidt and his colleagues. With Schmidt gone, "we are concerned that the cybersecurity issue is losing visibility inside the White House," Harris Miller, the president of the Information Technology Association of America, told the Associated Press Monday. "In this case, the 'bully pulpit' opportunity to influence the development of a truly secure cyber infrastructure and associated best practices will be lost."

In the e-mail announcing his resignation, Schmidt said industry must take the lead in implementing an effective national cybersecurity strategy, one made up of "solutions, not just reports and plans that take years to implement [and] that have limited value in dealing with the tremendous vulnerabilities that exist here and now."

Before joining the White House, Schmidt served as chief of security for Microsoft Corp. Schmidt did not respond to messages requesting comment about his resignation.

The Homeland Security Department consolidates many of the government's cybersecurity organizations, which previously were housed in agencies as disparate as the General Services Administration and the FBI. Some White House cybersecurity officials are moving to the department, buoying hopes among some observers that the overall profile of the officials' work will be raised again.