I didn't know the CIA had a venture capital group.

Amit Yoran, who was the government's cybersecurity chief until he left that job in 2004, said Monday he stepped down for personal reasons.

The role of In-Q-Tel's chief executive requires significant travel, and Yoran and his wife - a U.S. government lawyer - have three young daughters.

Yeah, right. And no one told him before he started that this was part of the job description? Maybe he and his wife just recently adopted their daughters wholesale. Or maybe, just maybe, something more sinister is going on.

The man making sure US computer networks are safe and secure has resigned after only a year in his post.

Amit Yoran was director of the National Cyber Security Division within the US Department of Homeland Security created following the 9/11 attacks.

The division was tasked with improving US defences against malicious hackers, viruses and other net-based threats.

Reports suggest he left because his division was not given enough clout within the larger organisation.

[His] division was charged with thinking up and carrying out action to make US networks more impervious to attack and disruption by the viruses, worms and hack attacks that have become commonplace.

In the last 12 months Mr Yoran oversaw the creation of a cyber alert system that sends out warnings about big hitting viruses and net attacks as they occur.

The warnings also contained information about how firms and organisations could protect themselves against these attacks.

The Cyber Security Division also audited US government networks to discover exactly what was sitting on which network.

The next step was to be the creation of a scanning system to identify vulnerabilities that made federal networks and machines susceptible to attack by malicious hackers and virus writers.

Mr Yoran's division was also doing work to identify the networks and machines that had been broken into by cyber criminals.

Despite this success Mr Yoran left his post abruptly at the end of last week, reportedly only giving one day's notice to bosses at the Department of Homeland Security.

ONE DAY'S NOTICE?!! And he subsequently gets appointed CHIEF of the CIA's capital venture group?!! That's insane!

Even now, after twice bailing on the government, Yoran remains on the payroll.

Yoran said he agreed with In-Q-Tel's board to continue working as a consultant and adviser.

In-Q-Tel - named for "Q," the fictional inventor of spy tools and toys for James Bond - makes about a dozen such investments annually with roughly $60 million it receives from the CIA's Directorate of Science and Technology, the Defense Intelligence Agency, the FBI and the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency.

Something's VERY fishy about this.

Perhaps, this has something to do with the recent effort to hand an intelligence security contract to an Israeli company.

Or maybe, the Mrs. 'senses' that something's about to happen in the Justice Department.