President Joe Biden is hiring a group of national security veterans with deep cyber expertise, drawing praise from former defense officials and investigators as the United States government works to recover from one of its agencies’ biggest hacks attributed to Russian spies. .
“It’s great to see the priority that the new administration is giving to cyberspace,” said Suzanne Spaulding, director of the Defending Democratic Institutions project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
Cybersecurity has been downgraded as a policy field under the administration of former U.S. President Donald Trump. He interrupted the position of cybersecurity coordinator at the White House, shrunk the State Department’s cyber diplomacy wing and sacked federal cybersecurity leader Chris Krebs after Trump’s defeat in the November 3 elections.
Released in December, the hack reached eight federal agencies and several companies, including software provider SolarWinds Corp. US intelligence agencies publicly attributed it to Russian state actors. Moscow has denied involvement in the hack.
Under a recent law, Biden is expected to open a cyber-focused office, reporting to a new national cyber director, who will coordinate the federal government’s vast cyber capabilities, said Mark Montgomery, a former Congress official who helped create the function.
The main candidate for cyber director is Jen Easterly, a former high-ranking official at the National Security Agency, according to four people familiar with the selection process.
A poster showing six wanted Russian military intelligence officers is displayed before a press conference at the United States Department of Justice on October 19, 2020 in Washington, DC [File: Andrew Harnik/ Pool via AP]
Now head of resilience at Morgan Stanley, Easterly held several intelligence positions in President Barack Obama’s administration and helped create the US Cyber Command, the country’s most important cyber warfare unit.
The Biden administration “has appointed world-class cybersecurity experts to leadership positions,” said Microsoft corporate vice president Tom Burt in a statement.
Some observers fear, however, that the collective group’s experience is almost entirely in the public sector, said a former employee and industry analyst who asked for anonymity. The distinction is important because the vast majority of Internet infrastructure in the United States is owned and operated by American companies.
“Finding a good balance with government and business experience will be critical to success,” said Amit Yoran, former director of cybersecurity for the United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and now chief executive of security firm Tenable Inc .
To replace Krebs at DHS, Biden plans to appoint Rob Silvers, who also worked in the Obama administration, to become director of the Cyber Security and Infrastructure Agency, according to four people briefed on the matter.
Amit Yoran testifies on Capitol Hill, Washington, before a hearing by the Chamber’s Subcommittee on Investigation and Supervision on how to decipher the cryptography debate [File: Manuel Balce Ceneta/AP Photo]
Biden’s National Security Council (NSC), a branch of the White House that guides a government’s security priorities, includes five experienced cybersecurity officials.
Leading the hires is senior National Security Agency officer Anne Neuberger, as deputy national security adviser for cyber and emerging technologies, a new position designed to raise the issue internally.
“The United States remains woefully unprepared for 21st century security threats,” said Philip Reiner, chief executive of the Institute for Security and Technology. “The establishment and prioritization of a DNSA for cyber and emerging technologies at the NSC indicates the seriousness that the Biden administration will take to address these challenges.”
Neuberger has become one of the most visible figures in the NSA in recent years, after leading the spy agency’s cyber defense wing, receiving praise for quickly alerting companies to hacking techniques in use by other countries.
The other four hires are Michael Sulmeyer as senior director for cybernetics, Elizabeth Sherwood-Randall as home security advisor, Russ Travers as deputy home security advisor and Caitlin Durkovich as senior director of resilience and response at the NSC.
All four previously served at senior national security posts that dealt with cybersecurity.