LONDON (MarketWatch) -- While President Barack Obama's move to create a quasi-Cabinet-level post to oversee computer-network security is commendable on its face, it seems likely to founder in a sea of impossibly complex problems.

The president announced the creation of the "cyber czar" position Friday. The post has yet to be filled, perhaps because the job comes with an enormous yet nebulous set of responsibilities. See related story.

One key question will be where to focus. Should the cyber czar be responsible for figuring out how to combat problems such as identity theft, an increasingly serious threat to consumers and individuals? Or should they be dedicated to preventing foreign governments or nongovernmental organizations from breaking into military and defense networks?

From Obama's remarks in announcing the position, it seems likely that the "cyber czar" will act to coordinate private-sector and government-security efforts.

A good deal of the new bureaucrat's time is likely to be spent arbitrating issues such as so-called network neutrality, which currently gets kicked around the Federal Communications Commission.

Given the administration's penchant for big new programs, the "cyber czar" undoubtedly will also intrude into one of the few sectors of the U.S. economy that's doing reasonably well: online commerce.

Of course, the biggest unanswered question will be how to pay for whatever security initiatives are deemed necessary.

If airport-security fees are now a fact of every plane ticket, can there be any doubt that a network-security fee will be part of every Internet service provider's invoice in the near future? Perhaps they can call them microtaxes.

- Tom Bemis, assistant managing editor