More on Amit Yoran
The House will propose moving cybersecurity offices from the Department of Homeland Security to the White House as part of the intelligence reorganization, according to draft legislation obtained Wednesday by The Associated Press. The bill, expected to be introduced Thursday, would place cybersecurity into the White House budget office.
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The new proposal would create a new Office of Critical Infrastructure Information Protection at the Office of Management and Budget. Its new administrator would be responsible for analyzing electronic threats from hackers and terrorists against vital networks, issuing warnings about attacks, reducing weaknesses and coordinating with private companies and organizations.
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“We weren’t consulted,” said Harris Miller, head of the Information Technology Association of America, the industry’s leading trade group in Washington. “It’s not saying it’s a bad idea, but it’s out of the blue.” (All emphasis are mine.)
My read of this is that as a non-career bureaucrat, it was easy to backstab Mr. Yoran as part of other power struggles. There’s also a game theory tie here, which is that the “shadow of the future” ensures cooperation. Without that shadow to protect him, and without being high in the food chain, he ran into trouble.
(Quotes from a Ted Bridis AP story, relayed by John Cole, posting to Dave Farber‘s Interesting-People list.)