Security exec picked for board

Critical Infrastructure Protection Board executive order

Howard Schmidt, Microsoft Corp.'s chief information security officer, is in line to be vice chairman of the federal Critical Infrastructure Protection Board.

President Bush announced Dec. 21 his intention to nominate Schmidt to the board, which Bush created to coordinate the protection of the government's and the private sector's critical cyber assets.

Schmidt has long been involved in federal cybersecurity and critical infrastructure protection. During the past two years, he worked with the President's Committee of Advisors on Science and Technology to create a public/private center for security research and development. He also has worked with the cross-sector Partnership for Critical Infrastructure Security and has been the head of the information sharing and analysis center formed by the information technology sector under Presidential Decision Directive 63.

Before working at Microsoft, Schmidt was director of the Air Force Office of Special Investigations, Computer Forensic Lab and Computer Crime and Information Warfare, where he established the first dedicated computer forensic lab in the government.

His background also includes service with the FBI at the National Drug Intelligence Center, as a police officer and with the Air Force in active duty and civil service.

He holds a bachelor's degree in business administration and a master of arts in organizational management from the University of Phoenix.

The Critical Infrastructure Protection Board, led by Bush's new cyberspace security adviser Richard Clarke, builds on PDD 63, which President Clinton issued in May 1998 requiring agencies to protect the information systems that support the nation's critical infrastructure, such as banking and transportation.