The White House has made a major move by appointing McAfee CTO, Phyllis Schnek, to the post of deputy undersecretary for cybersecurity. The role entails overlooking the efforts of the government in discerning domestic and foreign cyber attacks and countering them.
The aforementioned post is directly related to the Department of Homeland Security. Schnek will be working with DHS in not only identifying possible cybersecurity threats and foiling cyber attacks but also in sharing this information with local ISPs as well as private companies.
Schnek has an extensive experience of working in both the public and private sector and she’s also a cybersecurity expert at the same time. She has already worked with FBI on a similar task – to be precise, it was serving as a medium between the feds and the private companies on the issues of cybersecurity threats. These qualifications put her in a unique position to finally live up to the post at DHS and help the agency work more closely with private companies.
In the recent past, a number of cyber attacks have been launched by Chinese hackers, targeting individual US companies. Many of these attacks were foiled but some have proved successful, inflicting limited damage and causing data stealth. In the long run, such attacks need to be countered at all costs as part of the country’s defense strategy.
It remains to be seen what kind of policy Schnek fashions in her first few days to the office. White House is sure to trump up her appointment as a major move and cite that shows its seriousness in countering cybersecurity threats.
Courtesy: The Verge
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