Howard Schmidt was appointed by President George W. Bush as the Vice Chair of the President's Critical Infrastructure Protection Board in December 2001. The board reports to Condoleezza Rice, National Security Advisor and Governor Tom Ridge, Director of Homeland Security. The Cyber Security Board focuses on building a specialized group of senior government and private sector leaders to focus on cyber security issues and coordination of security related incidents.

Previously, Howard was chief security officer for Microsoft Corp., overseeing the Security Strategies Group, which was responsible for ensuring the development of a trusted computing environment via auditing, policy, best practices and incubation of security products and practices.

Before Microsoft, Schmidt was a supervisory special agent and director of the Air Force Office of Special Investigations (AFOSI), Computer Forensic Lab and Computer Crime and Information Warfare Division. While there, he established the first dedicated computer forensic lab in the government. The AFOSI specialized in investigating intrusions in government and military systems by unauthorized persons in counterintelligence organizations and criminals.

Before working at the AFOSI, Schmidt was with the FBI at the National Drug Intelligence Center, where he headed the Computer Exploitation Team. He is recognized as one of the pioneers in the field of computer forensics and computer evidence collection. Before working at the FBI, Schmidt was a city police officer from 1983 to 1994 for the Chandler Police Department in Arizona.