Cyber-Security Chief Resigns in Protest

The official in charge of coordinating the US government’s cyber-security operations has quit, saying the expanding control of the National Security Agency over the nation’s computer security efforts poses “threats to our democratic processes.”

“Even from a security standpoint, it is unwise to hand over the security of all government networks to a single organization,” said Rod A. Beckstrom, the head of the Department of Homeland Security’s National Cyber Security Center when speaking to United Press International.

Source 1
Original Article

I will keep this post clean of my own opinion until later in the night after I review more articles. Expect any additional sources to be added to this OP when anything good comes up.

Rod A Beckstrom according to Wikipedia: I underlined some interesting things.

He previously served as Director of the National Cyber Security Center. Prior to that Beckstrom was Chairman and Chief Catalyst of TWIKI.NET, a company which supports TWiki, an open source wiki. He was also co-founder, Chairman and CEO of CATS Software Inc., a derivatives and risk management software company which went public on NASDAQ and later was sold to Misys PLC.

He is co-author of the best-selling book The Starfish And the Spider, which lays out a new organizational theory for considering all organizations as existing on a continuum between centralized to decentralized, with different implications and strategies for each firm based upon their position on that axis. In interviews with The Washington Post[1] and USA Today[2], Beckstrom explains how, using the 'Starfish' concept illustrated in The Starfish And the Spider, the U.S. Government can take a different approach in their dealings with Al-Qaeda. Mr. Beckstrom is also the formulator of an economic model for valuing networks , Beckstrom's law, which was presented at BlackHat 2009 and Defcon 2009.

An active participant in the non-profit arena, Beckstrom serves on the board of trustees of Environmental Defense Fund, an organization involved in designing, advocating and implementing environmental policy solutions such as the Kyoto Protocol and the California Climate Act. He is also a trustee of Jamii Bora Trust, a micro-lending group with 170,000 members, based in Nairobi.

Beckstrom, a pioneer in the field of derivatives trading and firm-wide risk management, was coached by Nobel Laureate Dr. William F. Sharpe, which resulted in the first book on a new theory, "Value at Risk."

In August 2007, Beckstrom and Peter Thoeny, author of TWiki co-launched TWIKI.NET, a new Web 2.0 company.

On March 20, 2008, Beckstrom was appointed to run the newly created National Cyber Security Center,[3] a position requiring "advanced thought leadership in areas like coordination, collaboration and team work in order to best serve the mission".[4][5][6]

Rod received his BA with Honors and Distinction and an MBA from Stanford University, where he served as the Chairman of the Council of Presidents of the Associated Students of Stanford University.

Ok. Now, I don't need anyone else to tell me that something here is strange. Things don't feel right about this for some reason. Anyone else get this vibe?

[edit on 30-12-2009 by patmac]

This is really scary stuff.
Our government is creeping further and further into a very dark area.
Decisions are being made, and directions being taken that are direct opposites of what our country was built upon and built for.

I think it is fairly apparent that the people of our country are no longer aware of what is going on in these government offices, and things are out of control.

Sounds like the guy was in insurance, lending and defence. Pretty interesting background.

Just another thing that I noticed, Facebook announced it had 300 million users and it had become "profitable" about the same time the new cyber security czar was appointed and Facebook changed it's privacy status. Now you can google random conversations that people are having on Facebook. It's the new phone tap if you ask me.

reply to post by LASTofTheV8s


we've completely and officially lost control

OP, did I trigger a response or is there a connection that I am missing?

As I understand it, the NSA already 'wiretaps' the internet. Having DHS do the same thing is somewhat redundant. Merging two orginazations already performing the same job is rather cost-effective and logical.

This is not to say I like them doing it, but I don't consider anything I do on the computer to be private. Neither should you.

This is all really bad BUT, the US is competing with China now and will have to BECOME China. Either that or be defeated by China. This is a reality of the 21st century, get over it, Democracy and freedom is dead. You can thank Bill Clinton and George Bush for that.