14 DAY TRIAL // Phyllis Schneck, McAfee vice president and CTO of the company’s global public sector, will be named as the head of the US Department of Homeland Security’s cybersecurity division.
Sources familiar with the matter have told The Wall Street Journal that Schneck will be the next deputy undersecretary of cybersecurity at the agency. Her role will be to protect US networks against cybercriminals.
Both the DHS and Schneck have declined to comment on the reports.
Schneck is no stranger to working with the US government. She has worked for NIST, the FBI and she has even acted as a working group chair on network situational awareness for the CSIS commission to advise President Obama on cybersecurity.
Currently, times appear to be tough at the DHS. Schneck’s predecessor, Mark Weatherford, left in April after leading the cybersecurity division for less than a year and a half. His interim replacement, Brice McConnell, left the DHS in July.
In the same month, Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano stepped down.