Obama To Create Cyber Czar In Awareness Effort

Dale Meyerrose, a retired Air Force major general now vice president at Harris Corp., said the administration needs to improve the ways government agencies use and secure their computer systems and how they spend their budgets.

The White House, Meyerrose said, needs "to empower this person to solve the problems." But, he added, "this is an initial step and to expect it to completely change how we run government is asking way too much."

Because of lingering uncertainty over the cyber czar's authority and presidential access, several contenders for the post took themselves out of the running, according to one former administration official.

But a handful of candidates were still being mentioned as late as this week. Obama, however, is not expected to announce who will get the job during Friday's unveiling of the review, according to an administration official who spoke on condition of anonymity because the selection process is ongoing.

Obama ordered a 60-day cyber review shortly after taking office, and the exhaustive study has been lauded by government officials and well as technology executives. The review was led by Melissa Hathaway, once an aide to President George W. Bush and appointed by Obama to fashion a broad policy for the computer systems that govern everything from power grids and airline traffic to military computers.