Homeland Security Revamps Cyber Arm

The National Protection and Programs Directorate, the Department of Homeland Security agency that handles many of the government's cybersecurity responsibilities is about to get a makeover in the wake of the departure of former deputy undersecretary Phil Reitinger.

The directorate, among other things, is in works to secure federal civilian agency networks and coordinate cybersecurity with the private sector. DHS undersecretary Rand Beers announced to staff that, in response to "the growing importance of cybersecurity to DHS and the nation as a whole," DHS is splitting Reitinger's former job in two. DHS will now have one new deputy undersecretary position that exclusively deals with cybersecurity and another that helps protect critical infrastructure, secures federal facilities, and the manages the US-VISIT biometric identity management system used to identify and track foreign visitors. Beers wrote that the agency would "shortly" announce the name of the permanent deputy undersecretary for cybersecurity, but in the interim, Greg Schaeffer, a former Alltel and PricewaterhouseCoopers exec who had been Reitinger's second-in-command since 2009, will serve as acting deputy undersecretary for cybersecurity.