Homeland Security’s Top Cybersecurity Official Resigns

Cybersecurity Matrix / Wiki Commons

Marc Ambinder
The Atlantic 

Phil Reitinger, the Department of Homeland Security’s top cyber and computer crimes official, is resigning just days after the administration launched its most ambitious cybersecurity initiative.

“I have decided that the time has come for me to move on from the Department,” Reitinger wrote in an e-mail to DHS employees this afternoon. Reitinger, who, as deputy undersecretary in DHS’s National Protection and Programs Directorate, was the department’s senior interagency policymaker, said in an interview with National Journal that the timing of his announcement was not meant to signal any disapproval with the White House.

“I am fully supportive of the direction the administration is going. Because there has been a recent spate of announcements, because I think we’ve made a lot of progress, because I think we’ve built a good team, now is the time for me to leave some of the execution and further development to the team,” he said.

Reitinger said he wants to spend the summer with his family – he has young children and he’s been working in cyber security “since they were born.”

Read Full Article