Obama set to announce cyber security czar?

US president Barack Obama is on the verge of announcing the US' first cyber security czar, according to reports.

The Guardian has suggested that Howard Schmidt, an ex-employee of both eBay and Microsoft, is likely to get the job after acting as a cyber security advisor to president Bush in his first term.

Obama confirmed in May that he would be choosing the czar personally as cyber crime threatens the computer networks underpinning the US economy.

Reports circled in September that the announcement was due within weeks but the government has left us waiting to confirm the post.

Whether the role goes to Schmidt or somebody else, the candidate will be responsible for overseeing online defences at both the Pentagon and the various US intelligent agencies - which many see as quite a task -to make these isolated groups sing from the same hymn sheet.

Jennifer Scott is a former freelance journalist and currently political reporter for Sky News. She has a varied writing history, having started her career at Dennis Publishing, working in various roles across its business technology titles, including ITPro. Jennifer has specialised in a number of areas over the years and has produced a wealth of content for ITPro, focusing largely on data storage, networking, cloud computing, and telecommunications.

Most recently Jennifer has turned her skills to the political sphere and broadcast journalism, where she has worked for the BBC as a political reporter, before moving to Sky News.