White House Picks Cybersecurity Chief

President Barack Obama chose Howard Schmidt to be his cybersecurity chief on Tuesday.  Schmidt is a former eBay and Microsoft executive. His career includes 31 years in government, including a stint on President George W. Bush’s Critical Infrastructure Protection Board. He is currently CEO of the Information Security Forum.

Schmidt will be in charge of setting computer security policy and providing budget guidance across the government. His selection comes 10 months after Obama declared cyber security a priority and ordered a broad review.

Recent reports of cyber penetrations of the electric grid, hacking of military programs and computer attacks on banks have added urgency to filling the post.

Mr. Schmidt was an early convert to cybersecurity, launching the Air Force’s first computer forensics lab, and his wife is a computer forensics instructor. He also served in the Federal Bureau of Investigation.