Rod Beckstrom has resigned as director of the National Cyber Security Center.  He stated that he was not allowed to do his job effectively since cyber security is being dominated by the National Security Agency. One of the recent actions that may have frustrated the web security chief was moving the NCSC to an NSA facility at Fort Meade, which would solidify the NSA’s control. Many have criticized the government for allowing the NSA to assume the role of web security boss, since their role as “spy” organization would undoubtably lead to unlawful privacy rights infringments and/or political maneuvering.

Mr. Beckstrom complained at the time of his resignation that having the NSA control web security is “a bad strategy on multiple grounds.”

Allowing a single agency such as the NSA to handle all top-level government network security and monitoring functions poses a significant threat to “our democratic processes,” he said. “Instead, we advocated a model where there is a credible civilian government cybersecurity capability which interfaces with, but is not controlled by, the NSA.

Background on Rod Beckstrom:
He is the author of the best selling book The Starfish And the Spider, previous Chairman and Chief Catalyst of TWIKI.NET, co-founder, Chairman and CEO of CATS Software Inc, an active participant in the non-profit arena, and a pioneer in the field of derivatives trading and firm-wide risk management.