White House picks tech entrepreneur for security post
A Silicon Valley entrepreneur has been chosen to run the new National Cyber Security Center, an agency charged with coordinating efforts to protect the federal government's computer networks from cyberattacks, according to published reports.
Rod Beckström, 47, is expected to be appointed to the post Thursday and report directly to Michael Chertoff, the secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, according to reports in The Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post. The secretive center was created by a national security directive signed by President Bush in January.
In the book The Starfish and the Spider: The Unstoppable Power of Leaderless Organizations, which he co-authored with Ori Brafman, Beckström wrote about the power of decentralized networks in organizations. He has gone so far as to say the concepts he outlined in the book could help the U.S. government in its dealings with al-Qaida.
Beckström co-founded CATS Software, a derivatives and risk management software company, in his garage when he was 24, according to his Web site. He recently co-founded Twiki.net, a company that supports open-source wikis.
Steven Musil is the night news editor at CNET News. Before joining CNET News in 2000, Steven spent 10 years at various Bay Area newspapers. E-mail Steven.
Bush, Cheney and company have changed all that! Right now, more than terrorism, more than a crime wave, more than the communist threat, I see Bush, Cheney and company as the beginning of the end of our way of life!
As a US combat veteran, I saw many people suffer and die fighting to stop governments because they had secret trial, torture and secret executions. I never believed that my government would become the monsters that so many American suffered injuries and died to stop!
National security means the safety and freedom of the American people, and right now, Bush and Cheney are that very real threat! A terrorist may kill hundreds and even thousands, but only the Whitehouse has the power to take this nation down! They have began to take apart the Bill of Rights and just about every treaty we have ever signed. They have violated laws without any regards to their oath of office! They have built the largest mercenary army in the world with our tax money! I cannot begin to tell you how dangerous these actions are.
Mark Heinemann