Mischel Kwon, director of the United States Computer Emergency Readiness Team (CERT), has announced she is quitting her role - the third senior cybersecurity figure to step down since President Obama took office.

Her move comes after Rod Beckstrom quit as director of the Department of Homeland Security's National Cybersecurity Center and White House acting senior director for cyberspace Melissa Hathaway resigned. In all three cases the managers unofficially cited a lack of support as a factor in their decisions.

The news is bad news for President Obama. He had been very strong on cybersecurity in the campaign but so far no-one has been appointed to the role of 'US Cybersecurity Czar' and it's becoming clear that filling the role will be much harder than previously thought.

At the Black Hat conference a fortnight ago many were questioning the lack of movement on cybersecurity as a key failing of the administration and some were even suggesting that there was no need for the role.

The pressure is now on to get the post filled but with government salaries so low and the mountain of work faced by any appointee so high one wonders if there will be action any time soon.