WASHINGTON - The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has launched a cybersecurity center, but not all cybersecurity experts welcomed the move of the former White House cybersecurity office to a division at DHS.

The 60-person division, called the National Cyber Security Division, will report to Robert Liscouski, the assistant secretary of homeland security for infrastructure protection, and will be part of the department's Information Analysis and Infrastructure Protection Directorate. DHS is actively looking for a person to head the new division who will have similar responsibilities to the former position of cybersecurity czar at the White House, according to a DHS spokesman.

The head of the division "would be the person whose sole focus in terms of infrastructure protection is cyber," said David Wray, a DHS spokesman. "We've been quietly looking for the right kind of candidate, and now we're actively looking."

The new division is already operating and will focus on reducing the vulnerabilities to the federal government's computing networks and working with the private sector to help protect other critical pieces of cyberspace, DHS announced Friday.

While some in the IT community cheered the move, William Harrod, director of investigative response for TruSecure, a security software vendor, questioned the positioning of the division within DHS. Harrod noted that the new cybersecurity division will not report directly to DHS Secretary Tom Ridge, although until April, the White House had a cybersecurity czar.

"I think it downgrades the visibility of the position within the administration," Harrod said of the new DHS division. "For organizations that want to follow someone who's carrying the banner of cybersecurity, it's a lower-profile position."

With the apparently lower profile of cybersecurity within the Bush administration, Harrod said he's worried that there may be a decreased emphasis on pursuing cybercriminals.

"It's sending the message to big business that this isn't a high priority," he said. "They're not going to have ability to generate the sway or have the leadership or commitment... as they had with a cyberspace czar who reported directly to Bush."

Wray, from DHS, said the cybersecurity division wouldn't make sense anywhere else. Before the White House released its National Strategy to Secure Cyberspace in February it made sense to have a cybersecurity czar there to champion the cause, Wray said, but now the issue needs a division to carry out policies.

The IDG News Service is a Network World affiliate.