High ranking IT and influential government persona are clamouring, according to a Reuters report, about how the U.S. government’s cyber security chief must be centered at the White House and not elsewhere.

Larry Clinton, president of the Internet Security Alliance and on the panel of those who suggested an improved plan of action to President Obama’s team, believes that cyber security constitutes enough of a clear, present and ongoing danger to merit an office at the White House with non-negotiable authority, a substantial budget and comprehensive accountability, the report indicated.

"It can't be just a figurehead," said Larry Clinton. "We tend to think it should be somewhere in the White House structure."

TMCnet earlier reported that Melissa Hathway had led former President Bush’s $6 billion-a-year Comprehensive National Cyber security Initiative. Hathway also led a 60-day review, which was ordered by President Barack Obama and started in the second week of February of this year, of the nation’s cyber security to examine how well the U.S. federal agencies use technology to protect data, thwart spies and malicious hackers.

During the review period Hathway’s duties included, the TMCnet report says, an inventory of what was already being done and recommendations on how processes, policies and procedures can be improved upon. The report’s content’s have still not been made public.

The new incumbent, when named, will have similar tasks to carry out.

Gregory Nojeim, senior counsel for the Center for Democracy and Technology said that cyber security should be handled by the Department of Homeland Security and not the National Security Agency (News - Alert) (NSA) because their core specialities are cyber espionage and to crack codes. It may be noted that the Defense Secretary Robert Gates reportedly plans to nominate the director of the NSA to head a new Pentagon Cyber Command.

"I think it's a very difficult thing for them to handle," said Nojeim.

The Conficker worm, says the report, is the current cause for concern and it engineers another worm called Waledac that, TMCnet reports, is fully capable of gathering information about the host system and sending the data to accomplice Web servers.

Waledac offers fraudulent anti-spyware that, when installed, uses the host machine to spew spam, and, of course, the unsuspecting purchasers loose cash.

Conficker, reported TMCnet, first came to light early in the fourth quarter of 2008 and generally found its way into most Windows operating systems, and when Windows tried a prevention patch, a variant of it went into overdrive and shut down security services, blocked connections to security Web sites, downloaded Waledac, and connected to other infected computers. Microsoft (News - Alert) announced a $ 5 million reward to anyone who can bounty hunt the originators.

The National cyber security chief’s position is an unenviable and really difficult one irrespective of where it is based from and which current agency’s chief heads it, and he or she will have the added headache to contend with alleged Chinese, Russian, and Taliban intelligentsia led attacks.