Within the last few months, the head of the National Cybersecurity and Communications Integration Center (NCCIC), Sean McGurk, and the director of US Computer Emergency Response Team (US-CERT), Randy Vickers, have left the agency. Both NCCIC and US-CERT come under the directorate’s Office of Cybersecurity and Communications headed by Greg Schaffer.
With the additional departure of Phil Reitinger, the directorate’s only deputy undersecretary, Undersecretary Rand Beers has decided to divide Reitinger’s responsibilities among two deputies – one responsible for cybersecurity and the other responsible for the rest of the directorate’s work, including critical infrastructure protection, federal facilities security, and the US-VISIT biometric identification system. This is according to an internal email written by Beers and obtained by InformationWeek. (If you are getting confused, this DHS organization chart might help).
Schaffer will be named as the acting deputy undersecretary for cybersecurity until a permanent person can be found, and Suzanne Spaulding, a principal at the Bingham Consulting Group and former congressional staffer, will be named the other deputy undersecurity, according to the Beers’ email, the authenticity of which was confirmed by a DHS spokesman.
Beers said the move “will help the directorate ensure robust operations and strengthened partnerships in the constantly evolving field of cybersecurity." But the departure of two high-level cybersecurity officials in the span of few months suggests personnel turmoil within the cybersecurity office might have contributed to the changes.
Responding to an Infosecurity inquiry, a DHS spokesman said that the departure of key personnel from the cybersecurity office was not a factor in the directorate's reorganization.