Mark Kneidinger, director of the Department of Homeland Security‘s federal network resilience division, has said he believes a federal chief information security officer will not be able to demonstrate leadership potential without legal authority, Fedscoop reported Thursday.
Billy Mitchell writes Kneidinger told audience during an Independent Telecommunications Pioneer Association-hosted panel discussion Thursday the creation of the federal CISO post can help unify agencies to address the government’s cybersecurity problems.
“A key element to that person is to work at developing legal authorities, be it through Congress or otherwise, that’s going to give [the CISO]… the same seat at the table as the CIO at the agency level,” he added, Fedscoop reports.
The report said the future U.S. CISO will oversee civilian agency policies regarding the security of federal information systems against cyber threats.