The U.S. Department of Homeland Security is set to tap Phyllis Schneck, a McAfee vice president and the company’s CTO for the public sector, as the next official to head its cyber security division, according to a Wall Street Journal report. The department takes a leading role in protecting U.S. networks from foreign and domestic hackers, and Schneck would be its next deputy undersecretary of cyber security.
According to the article, “Schneck has extensive experience working with both the public and private sectors, and is the latest example of the government’s close relationship with large security companies. She’s worked 14 years in the security industry and has a Ph.D. in computer science from the Georgia Institute of Technology, according to McAfee’s website. For eight years, Schneck was chairman of the national board of directors for the InfraGard program at the FBI, meant to facilitate information sharing on cyberthreats between the feds and private companies,” the Wall Street Journal reports.