1) perhaps the cyberczar would have to cull through all of the security breaches sustained by the NSA and whatever the new acronym of CIFA is. if there is any validity to this conjecture then maybe the cyberczar would have to have a clearance that would be tantamount to that of the new information security overlord b/c everytime there was a breach he would have to be able to eliminate whatever the warrantless wring-tapping folks have recently cooked up in terms of cyber-theft.

2) maybe the hot-seat is so hot b/c of where all the blame will be directed in the event of a major catastrophic breach, e.g., in the economic sector, and in conjunction with emptywheel’s first point (lack of real control) makes the position potentially toxic.

3) lastly, it’s likely that the us of a is the real violator on the international scene and any additional attention drawn to the serious criminals is a sine qua non, i.e., the 12 trillion dollar bank bailout–has any country even remotely engaged in such outright theft on such an audacious scale? The us govt has taken $40,000 from each and every american and given it to the law-breaking and irresponsible banks. (maybe the position is irrelavant b/c the illegality is so rampant that a cyberczar would only be over-seeing the vast electronic robberies and theft of personal information of private citizens, such as that of political opponents and politically unsavory types.)

Umm, wasn’t that how we got into the Iraq war?

(Snark…)

GlobeSecNine – a private equity firm composed largely of top-ranking government and military officials from President George H. W. Bush’s administration – has investment ties with the Chinese firm Hutchinson Ports Holdings that is joint-venturing to place cargo reading sensors on the planned Interstate-35 Super-Corridor.

On April 21, 2005, Savi Technology, Inc., then a private company, created Savi Networks LLC, a new joint venture company, with Hutchinson Ports Holdings to install active RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) equipment and software in participating ports around the world and to provide users with the information, identity location and status of their ocean cargo containers as they pass through such ports.

Tom Ridge, the first secretary of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, joined the Savi Technology board April 5, 2005, just prior to the deal.

On the same day, April 21, 2005, HPH made a concurrent $50 million investment in Infolink Systems, Inc., the parent company of Savi Technology, which provided HPH with 10 percent of Infolink on a fully diluted basis.

On May 4, 2005, GlobeSecNine, made a $2 million strategic investment in Infolink Systems, Inc., the parent company of Savi Technology.

On June 8 of this year, Lockheed Martin acquired Infolink Systems, Inc., thereby acquiring Savi Technology, Inc.

A spokesperson for Lockheed Martin confirmed that the HPH interest in the joint venture subsidiary, Savi Networks, survived the acquisition of Infolink by Lockheed.———————————————–

Bush-41 officials in Chinese cargo-monitor dealGlobeSecNine – a private equity firm composed largely of top-ranking government and military officials from President George H. W. Bush’s administration …
http://www.wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=53287 – Cached – Similar

The point of the RFID technology and Walmart in this discussion is several-fold, beginning with the fact that the military can’t seem to do what corporations do and with any oversight, and that the challenge is probably smaller than corporations face on smaller budgets.

If folks read the content you’ve linked, it will help them grok the issue.

But even the reporting is challenged, as the one article’s reference to NYT demonstrates; folks outside of IT might not realize it. Maybe that too, is part of the problem: hard to know you have an oversight problem if you don’t know the information being presented is flawed.

Could ultimately be why we lose so many cyber-czars. They may leave just about the time they realize everybody they’re working with is and has been lying all along, and they don’t have the power to do anything about it.

YOU are the one who intially brought WalMart into the conversation.

And I thought the related article MIGHT be of interest to you and others.

We were dealing with 2 TB on one pesticide product alone, back in 2001.

There’s no way Walmart could do what it does with that one site alone.

The Joplin Globe, Joplin, MO – Wal-Mart’s data center remains mysteryPublished May 28, 2006 12:00 am – JANE, Mo. – Call it Area 71. … A Globe request for information about the Jane data center was referred at Wal-Mart …
http://www.joplinglobe.com/local/local_story_148015054 – Cached – Similar