Administration Must Fill the Assistant Secretary for Cybersecurity Post

Today marks a full year that the Assistant Secretary for Cybersecurity post within the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has been vacant.  The Bush Administration has left this position unfilled since its creation.

This failure reflects the larger inadequacies of the entire Department.  Half of the major Department of Homeland Security offices have critical staff vacancies.  Literally no one is home at DHS to protect our national security.

The reliability of computer networks is a constant need in our daily lives.  But DHS and President Bush have not made cybersecurity a priority in their homeland security strategy.  Filling the Assistant Secretary for Cybersecurity position would only be the beginning (not the end) of protecting our nation’s cyber infrastructure.  On the one year anniversary of the creation of this position, I am disappointed, but unfortunately not surprised, that DHS has yet to begin such a critical task.