US President Obama named former eBay Vice President of Security Howard Schmidt the new White House Cybersecurity Coordinator. Mr. Schmidt is the CEO of the Information Security Forum, a nonprofit computer security trade association based in London.

Mr. Schmidt joined eBay in May 2003 after serving on the United States President's Critical Infrastructure Protection Board where he was involved with homeland cyber security. Prior to that, Mr. Schmidt was the Chief Security Officer for Microsoft Corporation where he oversaw the Security Strategies group. Before that, he was a Supervisory Special Agent, Director of the Air Force Office of Special Investigations, Computer Forensic Lab and Computer Crime and Information Warfare.

Mr. Schmidt was also a founding member of the Global Council of CSOs (Chief Security Officers), a think tank dedicated to enhancing cyber security and bringing together expertise from academic, corporate and government backgrounds.