Switched has a new home! Huffpost Tech.

Click here to visit the new home of Switched!

Hot on HuffPost Tech:

See More Stories
AOL Tech

Assessing Our Cyber Security From the Oval Office

by Chad Mumm on February 18, 2009 at 04:35 PM



The White House has tapped cyber consultant Melissa Hathaway to conduct an extensive review of US Internet security. She will now be tasked with analyzing the effectiveness of programs she helped foster as the point person of former President George W. Bush's effort to check an increase in breaches of military and government sites in early 2007.

The nascent Obama administration's unprecedented openness through its WhiteHouse.gov site has showcased the President's commitment to the Internet as a necessary tool of modern government, foreshadowed by his extensive and tremendously successful use of the Internet and Web 2.0 during his campaign. Still, the President has been called to extend cyber security beyond government sites to include protection for citizens and businesses and to foster greater collaboration with foreign countries. Fortunately, Hathaway has a history of getting stodgy bureaus to play nice and work together; she spent 15 years as a management consultant getting military and intelligence organizations to collaborate.

President Obama knows the consequences of flimsy Web security firsthand; in April 2008, a programming error allowed a zealous Hillary Clinton supporter to redirect part of Obama's campaign Web site to Clinton's site.

We are all fans of greater web security, especially as more and more of our personal information floods social networking sites. The Web enables cyber criminals to potentially exploit millions of Americans. Our government already spends billions of dollars on defense every year and we're glad to hear that they're now starting to look out for our digital selves as well. [From: USA Today]

Related Links:

Tags: cyber security, CyberSecurity, hacker, hackers, internet security, InternetSecurity, obama, obama administration, ObamaAdministration, oval office, OvalOffice

Add your comments

Please keep your comments relevant to this blog entry. Email addresses are never displayed, but they are required to confirm your comments.

When you enter your name and email address, you'll be sent a link to confirm your comment, and a password. To leave another comment, just use that password.

To create a live link, simply type the URL (including http://) or email address and we will make it a live link for you. You can put up to 3 URLs in your comments. Line breaks and paragraphs are automatically converted — no need to use <p> or <br /> tags.

HuffPost AOL Social News Most Popular