White House Cybersecurity Coordinator Howard Schmidt (Photo: FedScoop)

White House Cybersecurity Coordinator Howard Schmidt will retire at the end of the month to spend more time with his family and pursue teaching opportunities, the Washington Post reports.

Schmidt will be succeeded by Michael Daniel, chief of the White House budget office’s intelligence branch.

Schmidt has been in office since January of 2009 and, during his tenure, increased the profile of national cybersecurity issues and oversaw the creation of the White House’s first legislative proposal on cybersecurity. Also during that time, the White House also unveiled its first international strategy for cyberspace, as well as the National Strategy for Trusted Identites in Cyberspace initiative.

His leadership “has made a difference both within the federal government and throughout the nation, and he will be missed,” said National Security Agency Director and head of the U.S. Cyber Command Gen. Keith Alexander.

“It’s always a good aspiration to be fully secure, but we realize that’s a dream,” Schmidt recently told attendees at McAfee’s Public Sector Summit presented by FedScoop. “What we need to do is make sure we are always meaningfully secure.”

In this April 2012 interview with FedScoopTV, he discussed his current priorities and the role of cybersecurity in the economy:

Prior to joining the Obama Administration, Schmidt served as president of the Information Security Forum and president and CEO of R & H Security Consulting LLC, which he founded in May 2005. He was also the international president of the Information Systems Security Association and a board member of the Finnish security company Codenomicon, the American security company Fortify Software and the International Information Systems Security Certification Consortium.

He previously worked in public service as a cybersecurity adviser under President George W. Bush and served as chief security strategist for the U.S. CERT Partners Program for the National Cyber Security Division through Carnegie Mellon University, in support of the Department of Homeland Security.

Full bio:

Howard A. Schmidt has had a long distinguished career in defense, law enforcement, and corporate security spanning more than 40 years. He brings together talents in business, defense, intelligence, law enforcement, privacy, academia and international relations through his distinguished career. He currently is Special Assistant to the President and the Cybersecurity Coordinator for the federal government. In this role Mr. Schmidt is responsible for coordinating interagency cybersecurity policy development and implementation and for coordinating engagement with federal, state, local, international, and private sector cybersecurity partners.

Previously, Mr. Schmidt was the President and CEO of the Information Security Forum (ISF). Before ISF, he served as Vice President and Chief Information Security Officer and Chief Security Strategist for eBay Inc. He also served as Chief Security Strategist for the US-CERT Partners Program for the Department of Homeland Security.

Before eBay, he served as the Vice Chair of the President’s Critical Infrastructure Protection Board and as the Special Adviser for Cyberspace Security for the White House. Prior to the White House, Howard was Chief Security Officer for Microsoft Corp., where his duties included Chief Information Security Officer, Chief Security Officer, and forming and directing the Trustworthy Computing Security Strategies Group.

Before Microsoft, Mr. Schmidt was a supervisory special agent and director of the Air Force Office of Special Investigations (AFOSI) Computer Forensics Lab and Computer Crime and Information Warfare Division. While there, he established the first dedicated computer forensics lab in the government and was responsible for Criminal and Counter Intelligence investigations against Department of Defense systems.

Before AFOSI, Mr. Schmidt was with the FBI at the National Drug Intelligence Center, where he headed the Computer Exploitation Team. He is recognized as one of the pioneers in the field of computer forensics and computer evidence collection. Before working at the FBI, Mr. Schmidt was a city police officer from 1983 to 1994 for the Chandler Police Department in Arizona. Mr. Schmidt served with the U.S. Air Force in various roles from 1967 to 1983, both in active duty and in the civil service. He had served in the Arizona Air National Guard as computer communications specialist from 1989 until 1998, when he transferred to the U.S. Army Reserves as a Special Agent, Criminal Investigation Division. where he served until 2010 with the computer crime investigations unit at CID HQ.

Mr. Schmidt also served as the international president of the nonprofit Information Systems Security Association (ISSA) and was the co-founder and first president of the Information Technology Information Sharing and Analysis Center (IT-ISAC). He was the Vice-Chair of the Board of Directors for (ISC)2 and Security Strategist for the Board. He is a former executive board member of the International Organization of Computer Evidence, and served as the co-chairman of the Federal Computer Investigations Committee. He is a member of the American Academy of Forensic Scientists. He had served as a board member for the Cyber Crime Advisory Board of the National White Collar Crime Center.

He served as an augmented member to the President Clinton’s Committee of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) in the formation of an Institute for Information Infrastructure Protection (I3P). He has testified before congressional committees, written books on cybersecurity, and received numerous awards, including the CSO Magazine ‘‘Compass Award,’’ Baseline Magazine’s ‘‘The 50 Most Influential People in Business IT,’’ and the Federal 100 Award, to name just a few. Mr. Schmidt has been a member of the Information Security Privacy Advisory Board (ISPAB). He has also been a member of the Permanent Stakeholders Group (PSG) for the European Network Information Security Agency (ENISA). He was a member of the High Level Experts Group (HLEG) for the ITU and the Global Cyber-security Agenda (GCA).

Mr. Schmidt holds a bachelor’s degree in business administration (BSBA) and a master’s degree in organizational management (MAOM) from the University of Phoenix. He also holds an Honorary Doctorate degree in Humane Letters. Howard was an Adjunct Professor at GA Tech, GTISC, Professor of Research at Idaho State University and Adjunct Distinguished Fellow with Carnegie Mellon’s CyLab and a Distinguished Fellow of the Ponemon Privacy Institute.

Howard is a Ham Radio operator (W7HAS), a private pilot, outdoorsman and an avid Harley- Davidson rider. He is married to Raemarie J. Schmidt, a forensic scientist and researcher and instructor in the field of computer forensics.

“These changes are well-aligned with ONC’s strategic priorities, and will position ONC to move into the future with its ‘eye on the prize’ of better, safer health care through health IT with increased efficacy, efficiency and flexibility,” said National Coordinator for Health Information Technology Dr. Farzad Mostashari. “We will undertake a national search for both a Chief Medical Officer and a Director of the Office of Consumer eHealth.”

Both jobs will soon appear on USAjobs.gov, he said.

The Office of the Chief Medical Officer aims to “infuse a clinical perspective across ONC on all activities which have clinical implications.” Responsibilities include safety, usability, clinical decision support, meaningful use policy development and quality, including metrics and measurement development.

The Office of Consumer eHealth will focus on consumer engagement based on previous work initiated by ONC’s Office of Policy and Planning, including its pledge program and patient-focused challenges.

Source: safety.data.gov

The Department of Transportation launched the Safety Data Initiative on Wednesday, a program aimed at making government data relating to every aspect of safety available to the public.

The initiative hopes to stimulate the development of innovative apps and services fueled by that data. It was announced by Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood and Federal Chief Technology Officer Todd Park as part of the Department of Transportation’s National Transportation Week.

“We know that helping Americans gain access to practical information can help them make smarter, safer choices,” LaHood and Park wrote on the White House blog. “So, coordinated by DOT, this new collaborative effort involving Federal agencies and members of the public aims to unleash Americans’ entrepreneurial spirit by encouraging participants to build a range of innovative digital tools and mobile applications to enhance public and product safety.”

DOT and the Department of Labor are also launching two related app challenges that include the Motorcoach Safety Data Student Challenge and Worker Safety and Health Challenge.

The Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee approved Joseph Jordan as the next administrator of the Office of Federal Procurement Policy at the Office of Management and Budget on Wednesday with only one vote being cast against.

His nomination will now go to the Senate for a full vote.

President Obama nominated Jordan for the position in February, shortly after he left his position as an associate administrator at the Small Business Administration to join OMB as an advisor to then Chief Performance Officer Jeffery Zients.

Jordan would replace Dan Gordon, who announced in November he was leaving to serve as associate dean for government contracts law at the George Washington University Law School.

At SBA, Jordan headed the set-aside programs for government contractors such as the 8(a) program that helps small government contractors win contracts.

When Jordan came to the agency, it had seen small business contracting drop the previous three years, falling short of the targeted 23 percent. In the 24 months that followed it had the largest two-year increase in over a decade, thanks to the mobilization of several initiatives aimed at streamlining the processes the government uses with small businesses to award contracts.

“In any changes we made, it was never without working with the community to find out exactly what’s working, what’s not, and to find the best solutions,” Jordan told FedScoop in his final interview at SBA. “It was never about government coming in and telling people how to operate, but really listening to the ways that we could best help facilitate what they do.”

The General Services Administration released the first list of third-party assessment organizations for the Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program, otherwise known as FedRAMP.

Known as 3PAOs, the organizations will do initial assessments and test the controls of cloud service providers per FedRAMP requirements and provide evidence of compliance. The 3PAOs will also have an ongoing role in ensuring cloud service providers meet requirements.

The nine organizations:

• COACT Inc.
• 
Department of Transportation Enterprise Service Center
• Dynamics Research Corporation
• JD Biggs and Associates Inc.
• Knowledge Consulting Group Inc.
• Logyx LLC
• Lunarline Inc.
• SRA International Inc.
• Veris Group LLC

THIS conference has always been well-run and, more important, it serves as the one time a year that a large number of government web managers (particularly, but not exclusively, federal government web managers) get together in person to collaborate.

I hope the conference will be rescheduled but, in the meantime, don’t sit around and wait for GSA to create opportunities to collaborate. Do it yourself! How? Here are a few ideas.

Call other web managers in your geographic area and set up a meeting.

You can choose agencies whose missions are related to yours or a variety of agencies.  You can (should) include state and local government web managers. Agenda ideas?

• Invite speakers – there are savvy web experts everywhere or you can do it as a group webinar
• Create a seminar series or brown bag lunches on specific topics. Share expertise and figure out ways to work together.
• Do “show and tell,” allowing web managers to showcase things that are working well or things they have in the works. But don’t just talk at each other. Work together. Could you adopt common methods for organizing content or helping customers who get stuck on a task that crosses agencies?  The more we do things alike, the easier it is for customers to use all our sites. Could you work together to come up with better sequences of related content, so customers can move between agencies seamlessly?
• Do usability testing – pick two or three sites from your meeting group, come up with some typical (top task) problems, and use 3 members of your group as guinea pigs (Steve Krug says you can use just about anyone to test your site, and you’ll still get worthy results). Work together to fix the problems.  Or watch a First Fridays session together. Learn how GSA does usability testing and then do some yourselves.
• Include managers of other delivery channels – call centers, correspondence units, publications, in-person customer support. Figure out how you can work together to make customer service seamless and effective, no matter how customers interact with the agencies.

I’m not just talking about doing this in Washington D.C. If you’re in a regional city or a state capitol, it’s likely there are several agencies working on multiple websites, within commuting distance. In 2005, members of the Federal Web Managers Council hit the road, holding regional meetings in Denver and Chicago to go over federal web policies. The house was packed in both cities, so I know there is an audience out there. Find them.

Set up local or regional conference calls to supplement or follow-up on the Government Web Managers Forum calls.

Focus on opportunities for collaboration. How can you work across agencies to share resources or conduct training or measure customer behavior when a task cuts across agency boundaries?

Use the Government Web Managers Forum listserv to kick around ideas.

Don’t just look for best practices. Look for ways to collaborate together to solve problems and improve customer service. Think big.

Get involved in one of the Sub-Councils of the Federal Web Managers Council.

Collaborate with your peers to come up with tools and resources everyone can use.

Be creative. And whatever you do, share the experiences and outcomes of your collaborations with your colleagues, through the Government Web Managers Forum. Success begets success, so let others know how you’re working together to improve customer service.

Collaboration is so important. Why? Customers judge all of us by their experience with any of us, so we need to work together to make sure all government websites (and other delivery channels) are as good as they can be. GSA has done an outstanding job providing leadership and support for collaboration among the government web management community, and they’ll continue to fill that role.  But you (yes, YOU) must step it up, too. Show some spunk. Be a leader. Find ways you can cause collaboration that will improve government customer service.

Remember: we serve best when we serve together.

Department of Homeland Security Chief Technology Officer for Cybersecurity and Communications Peter Fonash discusses data center and systems consolidation, standardized applications, transitioning to the cloud, continuous monitoring and more with FedScoopTV.

The State Department has created a Twitter account, @techgirls, for its TechGirls initiative that will fly 25 Middle Eastern teenage girls to the United States this summer for an immersion course in U.S. tech culture.

The TechGirls program will mirror the TechWomen program, bringing students to the United States to learn about innovative technologies and share ideas with American mentors with the goal being to encourage young women to follow careers in technology.

The TechWomen program brought women from Algeria, Egypt, Lebanon, Morocco and the Palestinian Territories to the United States for a five-week mentorship with 24 U.S.-based technology companies. Later this year, the U.S. mentors will travel to the Middle East to conduct workshops for women in the technology sector and girls interested in pursuing a tech-based career.

“Innovation thrives on good ideas and women have a lot of good ideas,”  Secretary of State Hilary Clinton said when announcing the program. “And we don’t want those ideas to just die. We want them to be shared and help others.”

Source: HealthMeasures.aspe.hhs.gov

The Department of Health and Human Services launched the Health System Measurement Project on Tuesday, an extensive performance dashboard that provides data on approximately 50 health system measures.

The project aims to optimize the delivery of critical U.S. health system indicators to policymakers, providers, and the public, providing contextual, data-driven information to enhance the understanding of changes in the health care system.

The dashboard organizes over 400 datasets sourced from across the federal government in ten topical areas, including access to care, cost and affordability, prevention and health information technology.

Users of the site can then explore different measures in each topic, and drill down on each measure to compare trends across several dimensions such as year, geographic region, or population characteristics including age, sex, income level and insurance coverage status.

GPO attained this tool through a competitive procurement and can now provide libraries with training on GPO’s Federal Digital System, a one-stop site to authentic, published government information.

In turn, libraries across the country can help the American public use FDsys to access information on the three branches of the federal government.

“With our rapidly changing digital environment, it is important that we provide the Federal depository library community with eLearning opportunities,” said Superintendent of Documents Mary Alice Baish. “Through this tool, GPO can equip libraries with the necessary training to help their communities access authentic, published Government information.”

This tool also allows GPO to customize training for specific audiences, record the training for future use and enhance training with online discussions. In April, GPO conducted three virtual trainings using FDsys and received positive feedback. Through the FDLP, GPO partners with 1,200 libraries nationwide to provide the public with free access to government information in both print and digital formats.