UPDATED 21:22 EDT / NOVEMBER 12 2020

SECURITY

Top White House cybersecurity official expects to be forced to resign

As President Donald Trump purges those he deems disloyal to him, a top cybersecurity official has said that he’s next in line to go.

Chris Krebs, the director of Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, has told colleagues that he believes he’ll soon be asked to resign, according to various news outlets today that spoke to people familiar with the matter. Neither CISA nor the White House has commented on the matter as yet.

If he does go, he’ll follow two other top DHS officials who were recently asked to resign. Bryan Ware, the former assistant director for cybersecurity at CISA wrote in his resignation that he will step down on Friday. In that letter he wrote that his departure comes “too soon,” implying he didn’t have much choice in the matter. Valerie Boyd, DHS assistant secretary for international affairs, has reportedly met with the same fate. In her resignation letter, she wrote that it is with “great sadness” that she is resigning.

Krebs’ recent efforts to debunk assertions that there was voter fraud in the presidential election has people speculating that his time is also up. In a tweet this week, he warned people about sharing “wild and baseless claims about voting machines, even if they’re made by the president.” At the time of writing, he’s still in the job, but that could change soon.

“It is in large part because of Christopher Krebs and his team that CISA exists in the shape, scope, and degree of effectiveness that it does today,” Chloé Messdaghi, vice president of strategy for Point3 Security, told SiliconANGLE in an email. “He has been clear, transparent, and has operated with the best intent. He and the team have provided the analysis and transparency that have cut through the noise of misinformation and false claims.”

Echoing other cybersecurity experts, including Michael Daniel, Barack Obama’s former cybersecurity coordinator, Messdaghi believes that Krebs has been pivotal in protecting the U.S. from threats and attacks. “Christopher Krebs is utterly nonpartisan, and he deserves his CISA post in every way,” she said. “He has earned the nation’s trust and faith and worked tirelessly to help secure the current election cycle. We owe him an enormous debt of gratitude.”

Image: DonkeyHotey/Flickr

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