Howard Schmidt named as new Cybersecurity Coordinator
The White House announced this morning that Howard Schmidt was named as the first White House Cybersecurity Coordinator. I've known and worked with Howard for over 12 years and I think he's going to do well in this position.
Marcus H. Sachs
Director, SANS Internet Storm Center
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djenkins
Dec 22nd 2009
1 decade ago
The Press will want to examine Howard Schmidt's track record as a Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) "CyLab Fellow." http://www.cylab.cmu.edu/about/people.html
The public record shows that Schmidt's colleague at CMU, CyLab's most-publicized Founding Director, was in reality professor 'Harold Hill' -- a 'Music Man' with Oxford degrees. http://www.cmu.edu/cmnews/020621/020621_sustain.html
The persistent claim-to-fame of Schmidt's academic "Joe Millionaire" colleague has been that he was the CEO and architect of "Printcafe," a dot-com super-success. http://www.cmu.edu/cmnews/011205/011205_directors.html
SEC reports show that Printcafe was really just a fast-buck IPO scheme, a "roll-up" of five competing companies purchased during a Jan-Mar 2000 six-week venture capital and debt spending spree of $144 million. http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1108507/0000950149-00-000602-index.html
But the Internet "bubble" burst in March 2000, before Printcafe could IPO.
SEC reports show that Printcafe revenue then plunged from $55 million to $25 million during the year 2000. http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1108507/000095012802000316/0000950128-02-000316-index.htm
In 2002, the Printcafe "Hail Mary" IPO was the "worst of the year," and kamikazed from $10/share in June to $0.92/share in November. http://www.ipomonitor.com/reviews/2002/pages/bestworst.shtml
Insolvent in Oct 2003, Printcafe became yet another "spectacular dot-com flameout" as it lost $250 million of public and private money and its officers and directors were charged with securities fraud! (Google "Printcafe Guttman" and "Printcafe securities fraud")
Ironically, the Oct 2003 public record birth announcement of Carnegie Mellon's CyLab appeared on the same day, on the same page, in a paragraph adjacent to the death notice of Joe Millionaire's insolvent Printcafe dot-com! http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/03295/233305-28.stm
The public record shows that Schmidt's CyLab colleague was also the architect and manager of Aileron Capital, a hedge fund shut down in 2006 by then-CEO Richard Fuld of Lehman Bros. after investors threatened lawsuits for managerial looting and fraud. http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/06358/748433-28.stm
The public record record further shows that Schmidt shared a Carnegie Mellon stage with Joe Millionaire during a 2002 White House meeting on Cybersecurity, and that Schmidt subsequently received a personal guided tour and briefing about Joe's big-money "Sustainable Computing Consortium" which was funded by Microsoft and NASA among others. http://www.cmu.edu/cmnews/021121/021121_hostmtg.html http://www.cmu.edu/cmnews/extra/2002/021022_whtown.html
The public record shows that formerly-prominent IBM, Microsoft, and NASA are conspicuously absent from the list of CyLab 'partners." (Enquiring minds might correctly assume that their attorneys and field agents investigated whistle-blowing that CMU and Schmidt ignored.) http://www.cylab.cmu.edu/partners/current_partners.html
But "Joe Millionaire" remains at Carnegie Mellon where he serves as a 'Special Advisor' to the Provost and is also the the Chairman of iCarnegie, the university's for-profit international education initiative. http://www.heinz.cmu.edu/faculty-and-research/faculty-profiles/faculty-details/index.aspx?faculty_id=42
Carnegie Mellon's President Jared Cohon has stated that CyLab does not security-clear its Directors!
Future Cybersecurity Czar Schmidt was just as easily conned as the clueless administration of Carnegie Mellon.
Despite Schmidt's long-standing awareness about exhaustive whistle-blowing to CMU about the CyLab management identity fraud, America's newest Cybersecurity Czar has confined his comments about Carnegie Mellon's "Joe Millionaire" problem to the university's General Counsel, Microsoft Security, and the editors of Chief Security Officer magazine.
Beam me up! America's new Cybersecurity Czar is a player in what is surely a contender for "Cybersecurity Story of the Year."
With a Cybersecurity Czar like this -- who ignores an obvious "insider threat" at CyLab -- who needs any cyber-enemies?
Eliot Ness
Dec 22nd 2009
1 decade ago