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Biden Sees $65b in Cyber Security Budget as Insufficient
President Biden is elevating the importance of cybersecurity in light of the SolarWinds hack that compromised multiple government institutions. Reuters reports that Biden is appointing a host of officials well-versed in cybersecurity. To start, the new White House has chosen the NSA’s Anne Neuberger for a newly created Deputy National Security Adviser role in the National Security Council. She’s best known for leading the NSA’s cyberdefense division and alerting companies to foreign hackers’ techniques.
Other Council additions are cybersecurity gurus, including 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. Some soon-to-be-filled roles reflect a similar focus. The lead candidate for a recently established National Cyber Director role is Jen Easterly, the current head of resilience at Morgan Stanley, an Obama administration veteran and a co-creator of Cyber Command. Biden is poised to nominate another Obama White House member, Rob Silvers, to direct the Cybersecurity Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA). The Trump administration did elevate the role of Cyber Command and help establish an Integrated Cyber Center to coordinate responses, it also dropped the White House’s Cybersecurity Coordinator role, and shrank the State Department’s digital diplomacy unit. There are concerns this might not be enough. Former Homeland Security cyber director Amit Yoran warned that there needs to be a “good balance” between public and private sector backgrounds — and many of the appointments are government alumni.
President Biden is elevating the importance of cybersecurity in light of the SolarWinds hack that compromised multiple government institutions. Reuters reports that Biden is appointing a host of officials well-versed in cybersecurity. To start, the new White House has chosen the NSA’s Anne Neuberger for a newly created Deputy National Security Adviser role in the National Security Council. She’s best known for leading the NSA’s cyberdefense division and alerting companies to foreign hackers’ techniques.
Other Council additions are cybersecurity gurus, including 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. Some soon-to-be-filled roles reflect a similar focus. The lead candidate for a recently established National Cyber Director role is Jen Easterly, the current head of resilience at Morgan Stanley, an Obama administration veteran and a co-creator of Cyber Command. Biden is poised to nominate another Obama White House member, Rob Silvers, to direct the Cybersecurity Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA). The Trump administration did elevate the role of Cyber Command and help establish an Integrated Cyber Center to coordinate responses, it also dropped the White House’s Cybersecurity Coordinator role, and shrank the State Department’s digital diplomacy unit. There are concerns this might not be enough. Former Homeland Security cyber director Amit Yoran warned that there needs to be a “good balance” between public and private sector backgrounds — and many of the appointments are government alumni.
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