"I knew when the president gave his speech I wasn't going to be named," she said of the cyber post, which was mentioned in Obama's late May speech. "I helped put names on the list and establish evaluation criteria for the person... The person needs to have a strong background in not just national security policy, but also economic security policy." She said her impact from outside government can be meaningful and she has hung her own shingle.

Hathaway plans to work with cybersecurity industry players and with Harvard University and MIT on research and writing.