The White House is losing cyber security coordinator Howard Schmidt to retirement this year, according to an article from VentureBeat.

Schmidt served in this role for two and a half years, acting as a pivotal liaison between the National Security Agency and Homeland Security. He was instrumental, VentureBeat writes, in passing the first cyber security legislation proposal, and watched at "hactivist" groups such as Anonymous and Lulzsec grew to become household names. 

He leaves now at a point where tensions on Internet security are high. 

Security firm Symantec claims that it stopped 5.5 billion attacks from happening last year, and because of new automated processes for creating malware, that number is only set to grow. State-sponsored attacks are also becoming more frequent, especially sparking concerns over attacks on "connected devices," such as the Stuxnet malware attack on Iranian nuclear power plants.

Schmidt's replacement is Michael Daniel, who has served the Office of Management and Budget for 17 years. He has devoted 10 of those years to cyber security matters, and he is the current Chief of the White House Budget Office's Intelligence Branch, VentureBeat reports.