Earlier today, The Wall Street Journal reported that Hathaway, a former consultant at Booz Allen Hamilton, a strategy and consulting technology firm, previously assisted the Bush administration in creating the Comprehensive National Cyber Security Initiative.
Melissa Hathaway to Review Bush Policies
The five-year, $30 billion initiative is intended to reduce and consolidate thousands of federal network connections while developing a faster process for detecting suspicious behavior on global networks.Hathaway will complete a 60-day review of the Bush initiative and recommend where the country should go from there.
In July 2008, Obama promised Americans during his campaign that he would name a national adviser for United States IT security if he became president. "We need to prevent terrorists or spies from hacking into our national security networks. We need to build the capacity to identify, isolate and respond to any cyber-attack. And we need to develop new standards for the cyber-security that protects our most important infrastructure -- from electrical grids to sewage systems; from air traffic control to our markets," he said in a July 16, 2008, speech in Indiana, the text of which is available at www.barackobama.com.
The appointment of Hathaway appears to be his first significant step toward making good on this promise. In the Obama administration, she will be a senior director in the National Security Council.
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