Summary
Politics is why Ms Hathaway decided to leave, not technology or the complexity of the job
Analysis
Ms Hathaway is extremely competent. Her analysis of what is needed to properly secure our incredibly interconnected networks quite appropriately included some private sector activity. The old nostrum "incompatibility is the mother of job security" stepped on the toes of many different factions, leading to a situation which made fighting the Hydra look simple by comparison. Even getting the government agencies to accept and deploy consistent security policies has been worse than herding squirrels. Ms Hathaway had to fight organizations with insufficient budgets and inadequate manpower and essentially plead with them to do what is "right". Even if they accepted her technological assessments (which were pretty accurate) there was a mixture of "not invented here" with too many things to do and not enough manpower to do even the mandatory emergency tasks. I wish her well. There is no-one on this planet who can really do the job without reporting directly to President Obama who will walk softly and keep handing out very big sticks. Part of the "plan" will have to be big rewards for any organization that does a great job of securing their systems and networks. Sticks alone will not work.
This author consults with leading institutions through GLG
Analyses are solely the work of the authors and have not been edited or endorsed by GLG.
