Howard Schmidt's First Press Conference

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White House Cybersecurity Coordinator Howard Schmidt held an impromptu news conference after delivering a speech at the State of the Internet Conference, sponsored by the Advisory Committee to the Congressional Internet Caucus, in Washington on Jan. 27. It was his first meeting with the media since starting his White House job a week earlier. Here's the transcript of that press conference as recorded and edited by GovInfoSecurity.com:

QUESTION: Did you have any surprises during your first week on the job?

ANSWER: No, not at all.

Q: Not all. No.

A: I mean, it's great. Like I said, I have been meeting some members on the Hill. I have been interspersing in some of the meetings with some of the folks not only within the White House, but outside, and as I said out there, everybody is tremendously jazzed that we are well poised to make some real differences in the long term. So yeah, no real surprises and a lot of work, which is not a surprise either.

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Q: You seem very optimistic.

A: I am. I am.

Q: Why?

A: Well, I think there are a lot of things. Like I said, there are things that are aligning properly. We have got tremendous recognition on the Hill; we have got from the president, all the senior leadership, the administration are very much aware and care about the situation. We have got the private sector folks, not only the security community, which has always had an interest in this, but we've have got senior leadership, CEOs of companies. I mean there is a lot of momentum out there to do this. And granted, we recognize there are a whole lot of other things out there that we have got to deal with as a society, but this is not going to slip below the radar. It may not be on the front news everyday, but there are a lot of things being done in the background.

Q: Have you met with the President since ...

A: I have, yeah. Well, not since I have been back; I met him a couple of weeks ago. Yeah, it has been tough; I've been lucky I can get in and out and do a lot of the other things I am doing right now.

Q: Any timeline on any sort of big plans, strategy stuff?

A: Right now it is just the day-to-day work of getting things done.

Q: What kind of staff do you have working with you? Do you have a team of analysts and who is working with you?

A: I have got a complete staff of about 10 people that are working the entire things from the technology to the privacy issues, the intelligence issues, and so basically we have got a good team that Chris (Painter, acting cybersecurity coordinator) helped put together and I can't say enough about how much work Chris has done in the background in making sure things continue to move forward.

Q: How long will Chris be staying there?

A: As long as I can keep him, believe me.

Q: You mentioned about your meetings with Vivek and Aneesh (Federal CIO Vivek Kundra and Federal CTO Aneesh Chopra) about cybersecurity roles and responsibilities; there is a lot of concern about how does it all fit together. Can you give us a little insight in terms of how you think that is going to shape out?

A: Yes, I can, and I will use the typical analogy: we are three legs of the same stool. You know, we fully recognize that in order to be innovative in the technology perspective, from an information technology perspective and security, we have got to be working together. So the projects they are working on I am now getting looped into those projects. We are sitting down there and looking at how we can move forward, how we can continue to keep the leg up on the innovative piece by being or rolling out new technologies that are also secure.

Q: Because one of the things about the next role from the past was that was a very big, big focus on cybersecurity, Karen Evans, Mark Forman (Kundra's predecessors), etc., how did you play into that because your responsibility is not just internal of the government but external, where Vivek's role traditionally has always been very internal to the government and there is some concern about what does that leave Vivek to do or what does that leave you?