The Secretary of Homeland Security announced leadership and organizational changes to government’s the round-the-clock cyber watch center in an official statement Monday.
Secretary Jeh Johnson elevated the National Cybersecurity and Communication Integrations Center (NCCIC) to have a direct incident reporting line to him.
Located within the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the NCCIC is a 24-hour cyber situational awareness, incident response, and management center that is at the center of federal government, intelligence community, and law enforcement cyber information sharing.
Johnson also ordered the National Protection and Programs Directorate (NPPD) to develop a reorganization plan “that will ensure the NCCIC is focused on strengthening our operational capabilities for mitigating and responding to cyber incidents.”
As part of the reorganization, Johnson directed Andy Ozment, Assistant Secretary of the Office of Cybersecurity and Communications, to assume overall and direct responsibility for the NCCIC.
Ozment succeeds Larry Zelvin at the head of the NCCIC, who retired last August.
John Felker was appointed to run day-to-day operations at the NCCIC.
Felker previously served much of his career in the Coast Guard. He retired from the service in 2012, when he was the Deputy Commander of Coast Guard Cyber Command. More recently Felker served as the vice president of cyber security programs at SCI Consulting and director of cyber and intelligence strategy at Hewlett-Packard [HP].
“Dr. Ozment and Mr. Felker will provide a combination of operational experience, leadership, and strategic insight needed to take the NCCIC to the next level for our cybersecurity,” Johnson said.