Keeping Us Safe - Amish Style

Those of us who spend any significant time online are well aware of the security risks - hackers, phishers, spammers, and the lot are trying to gain personal information that they can use to work towards their nefarious goals. And in our consistently more computer-dominated society, the amount of information available online, including information which could be used in a terrorist attack. As such, our government, ever vigilant and concerned for our safety, has devoted vast resources and appointed huge numbers of men and women to help keep us safe. An expert has been overlooking the nation's cybersecurity every minute since 9/11, just to make...Wait, I'm getting an update. Oh, yes. The Shrub's still in charge:

After year's delay, White House selects cybersecurity chief

WASHINGTON (AP) — The White House has chosen an industry information security specialist as its cybersecurity chief, an official said Monday, filling a job that has had no permanent director for a year.

Greg Garcia will be nominated later this week as the Department of Homeland Security's assistant secretary for cybersecurity and telecommunications, said a department official who spoke on condition of anonymity because the announcement had not yet been made. He will replace acting cybersecurity director Donald "Andy" Purdy Jr., who is a two-year contract employee on loan from Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh.

Garcia, vice president of the Information Technology Association of America, did not return calls seeking comment Monday.

Carnegie Mellon has received $19 million in contracts from Homeland Security's cybersecurity division this year under Purdy's oversight.

The cybersecurity job was created in July 2005, but department officials have struggled to find candidates willing to take significant pay cuts from industry jobs to fill it.

A test of mock Internet attacks concluded last week that government and industry officials were widely unable to fight back quickly and effectively against a series of simulated hackings that aimed to halt subways and trigger power outages.