TSC Trusted Advisors’ Blog

Life, the Universe, and Howard Schmidt

It’s nice to see the potential for things to go right. What I’m talking about is the appointment of Howard Schmidt to the position of U.S. Cybersecurity Czar. Now, there are those out there that think that this is a bad move. I happen to disagree and I’ll tell you why. When I first met Howard he was at Microsoft preaching the gospel of security to folks that didn’t seem interested. But he kept at it and we see the results today; Microsoft has a software assurance program that is slowly making headway.

Howard understands that innovation, hard work, and patience are the main legs on the success tripod. You’re probably saying “innovation and hard work sure, but why patience?” Because when you’re dealing with large organizations if you don’t have patience you go nuts. And I can’t think of a larger organization then the US Government. Yes, it’s even bigger than Microsoft.

There are those that say that Howard wasn’t the first choice and I understand why. The way the job is presently structured, Howard has a lot of responsibility and little authority to get it done. It takes a brave person to step into that breach. Add to that the politics in D.C. and the fact that you have to make a lot of people happy at the same time and it gets complicated in short order. Although Howard will politic, he will tell people what they may not be ready to hear and he’ll use new and innovative methods and tools that may make some nervous. I say good.

Howard is up against a pretty tough rock, right next to a very hard place. There are legacy systems as well as legacy politics at work here. There are places that have to be fixed that the public isn’t even supposed to know exist, but if they fail, we’re in deep dark trouble. But Howard is in a unique position to take advantage of technology and processes that only someone with his unique experience in the public and private sectors can have. He’ll know what will work and how much time it will take for the solution to percolate to success. I trusted Howard enough to write the forward to my book Endpoint Security, and I trust he’s smart enough to write a plan that protects the cyber interests of the U.S. Government and in doing so the people of the United States.

I believe that the Universe took a turn in the right direction last month. I’m going to sleep a little better tonight. The only thing that may keep me up a little bit is whether Obama is going to give him the actual authority to get it done.