Cyber security a priority for White House CIO

BANGALORE, INDIA: Former Microsoft executive Steven VanRoekel, who has been named the technology chief of the White House, following the resignation of Vivek Kundra, wants to give high priority to cyber security.

VanRoekel, who took charge a few days ago, said in a recent interaction that cyber security was also high on his list of concerns, though it need not be the top-most priority. The new Federal CIO also met Obama administration's cyber security coordinator Howard Schmidt in this regard.

VanRoekel, 41, takes charge at a time when the US economy is facing deep troubles, which was further intensified by the recent credit rating downgrade by Standard & Poor's.

In this age of austerity, the new CIO has the challenge to do more with less. He said, as the CIO, he would introduce new technologies to improve government service, that would also help cut costs.

VanRoekel believes that the productivity gap between the private sector and the government is increasing and, according to him, this is largely due to slow uptake and lack of spending on new technology by the government, reported the Washington Post.

VanRoekel also sees the requirement for an open government, shared services, IT procurement and investment. "Vivek's work was really the first step in a larger reworking of federal IT."

An erstwhile executive with Microsoft, who worked with the software giant for 15 years, VanRoekel joined the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in 2009 as its managing director. At the time of leaving Microsoft, he was the senior director for the Windows Server and Tools Division.

After his stint with FCC, this year, he joined as the the executive director of Citizen and Organizational Engagement at the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).

The U.S. government is the world’s largest customer for IT services and products. VanRoekel will oversee an annual spending budget of $80 billion, which is higher than the annual revenue of Microsoft last year.

It was in 2009 that Vivek Kundra was appointed the country's first federal CIO. However, he quit the post in June, as he is pursuing a Harvard fellowship.