Acting White House Cybersecurity Czar Resigns Post

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on August 4, 2009 - 9:41am.

Washington - Two months after President Obama announced plans to name a national cybersecurity "czar," the woman who had held that role on an acting basis has resigned.

Melissa Hathaway, a senior intelligence official who completed the administration's cybersecurity review in April, said she has stepped down for personal reasons, according to The Wall Street Journal.

Hathaway said that she took her name out of consideration for the permanent post two weeks ago.

The Journal, however, reported that she also had lost some favor with the administration when she proposed that the government regulate the network security of some private-sector entities.

The Journal said that new frontrunners for the post include Franklin Kramer, a former assistant defense secretary in the Clinton administration, and Howard Schmidt, a former top security official at online auction giant eBay.

http://snipurl.com/opdnf (USA Today)