After big hack of U.S. government, Biden enlists 'world class'
cybersecurity team
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[January 22, 2021] By
Christopher Bing and Joseph Menn
WASHINGTON/SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) -
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 U.S. government works to recover from one of the
biggest hacks of its agencies attributed to Russian spies.
"It is great to see the priority that the new administration is giving
to cyber," said Suzanne Spaulding, director of the Defending Democratic
Institutions project at the Center for Strategic and International
Studies.
Cybersecurity was demoted as a policy field under the Trump
administration. It discontinued the Cybersecurity Coordinator position
at the White House, shrunk the State Department's cyber diplomacy wing,
and fired federal cybersecurity leader Chris Krebs in the aftermath of
Donald Trump's Nov. 3 election defeat.
Disclosed in December, the hack struck eight federal agencies and
numerous companies, including software provider SolarWinds Corp. U.S.
intelligence agencies publicly attributed it to Russian state actors.
Moscow has denied involvement in the hack.
Under a recent law, Biden must 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
congressional staffer who helped design the role.
The leading candidate for Cyber Director is Jen Easterly, a former high
ranking National Security Agency official, according to four people
familiar with the selection process.
Now head of resilience at Morgan Stanley, Easterly held several senior
intelligence posts in the Obama administration and helped create U.S.
Cyber Command, the country's top cyber warfare unit.
Easterly did not respond to requests for comment.
The Biden administration "has appointed world-class cybersecurity
experts to leadership positions," Microsoft corporate Vice President Tom
Burt said in a statement.
Some observers worry, however, that the collective group's experience is
almost entirely in the public sector, said one former official and an
industry analyst who requested anonymity. The distinction is important
because the vast majority of U.S. internet infrastructure is owned and
operated by American corporations.
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U.S. Department of Energy Deputy Secretary Elizabeth
Sherwood-Randall makes a speech at Microsoft China Center in Beijing
April 14, 2015. REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon
"Finding a good balance with both government and commercial experience will be
critical to success," said former DHS Cybersecurity director Amit Yoran, now
chief executive of security company Tenable Inc.
To replace Krebs at the Homeland Security Department, Biden plans to nominate
Rob Silvers, who also worked in the Obama administration, to become director of
the Cybersecurity Infrastructure Security Agency, according to four people
briefed on the matter. Silvers declined to comment for this article.
Biden's National Security Council, an arm of the White House that guides an
administration's security priorities, includes five experienced cybersecurity
officials.
Leading the hires is National Security Agency senior official Anne Neuberger as
Deputy National Security Adviser for cyber and emerging technology, a new
position designed to elevate the subject internally.
"The United States remains woefully unprepared for 21st century security threats
- the establishment and prioritization of a DNSA for Cyber and Emerging Tech on
the NSC indicates the seriousness the Biden Administration will afford to
addressing these challenges," said Phil Reiner, chief executive of the Institute
for Security and Technology.
Neuberger became one of the most visible figures at NSA in recent years after
leading the spy agency's cyber defense wing, drawing praise for quickly alerting
companies to hacking techniques in use by other countries.
The other four hires are Michael Sulmeyer as senior director for cyber,
Elizabeth Sherwood-Randall as Homeland security adviser, Russ Travers as deputy
homeland security adviser and Caitlin Durkovich as senior director for
resilience and response at the NSC.
All four previously served in senior national security posts that dealt with
cybersecurity.
(Reporting by Christopher Bing in Washington and Joseph Menn in San Francisco;
Editing by Grant McCool)
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