The Department of Homeland Security finally has appointed a cybersecurity czar: Greg Garcia will become assistant secretary for cybersecurity and telecommunications and will oversee the department’s National Cyber Security Division. The job had been vacant for more than a year.

Garcia has been vice president of information security policy and programs at the Arlington, Va.-based trade group Information Technology Association of America.

Statements supporting Garcia’s appointment were issued by the Information Technology-Information Sharing and Analysis Center (IT-ISAC) -- an industry forum in use for several years for exchanging information on vulnerabilities and threats -- as well as the more recent Information Technology Sector Coordinating Council (IT-SCC), which was created last February to focus on infrastructure protection, response and recovery.

"The IT-ISAC looks forward to enhancing the protection of critical infrastructures and homeland security through joint work with DHS and Greg to improve the response capabilities of the public/private sector,” said Philip Reitinger, vice president of IT-ISAC, and Microsoft’s director for Trustworthy Computing.

“The IT sector, through the Sector Coordinating Council and the ISAC, looks forward to working collaboratively with Greg to improve the IT and communications infrastructure,” said Guy Copeland, chair of the IT-SCC and a vice president and special assistant to the CEO at Computer Sciences Corp.

Other IT-SCC members include BellSouth, CA, Cisco, Entrust, IBM, McAfee, VeriSign and Verizon. Some security organizations, including the Center for Internet Security and the Cyber Security Industry Alliance, are also represented in IT-SCC.

In a prepared statement, DHS Secretary Michael Chertoff said that Garcia “brings the right mix of experience in government and the private sector to continue to strengthen our robust partnerships that are essential to this field.”

The cybersecurity job was created in July 2005 but remained unfilled until Garcia’s appointment today. In overseeing the National Cyber Security Division at DHS, Garcia is expected to help with the planning and coordination of cybersecurity defenses with government and industry.