CybersecurityMcAfee executive to fill DHS cybersecurity post
DHS has will announce the appointment of a top McAfee executive to head the department’s cybersecurity division, according to knowledgeable sources. Phyllis Schneck, McAfee vice president and the company’s CTO for the public sector, is slated to fill a post that has been characterized by instability and lack of clarity about scope and responsibilities.
DHS has will announce the appointment of a top McAfee executive to head the department’s cybersecurity division, according to knowledgeable sources.
The Wall Street Journal reports that Phyllis Schneck, McAfee’s vice president and the company’s CTO for the public sector, has been tabbed as the next deputy undersecretary at DHS, to be in charge of the department’s broad cybersecurity efforts.DHS officials and Schneck herself have declined to comment.
Schneck has is experience working with the public and private sectors. She has worked for fourteen years in the security industry. She has a Ph.D in computer science from the Georgia Institute of Technology.
Schneck is slated to fill a post that has been characterized by instability and lack of clarity about scope and responsibilities.. Cybersecurity veteran Mark Weatherford previously held the job, but was in the post for only eighteen months. Weatherford’s interim replacement, Bruce McConnell, announced his departure from DHS last month.
Schneck is “smart and one of the hardest workers in the field,” Alan Paller, founder of the Sans Institute, a cybersecurity research and education program, told the Wall Street Journal. DHS, as an institution, however, lacks the “tools because they don’t have the technical skills to drive change,” Paller added.
