President Joe Biden is reportedly setting up a new cybersecurity team.
Angela Lang/CNETPresident Joe Biden is hiring more cybersecurity experts as the US digs deeper into the 2020 SolarWinds hack, Reuters reported Friday. US intelligence agencies have attributed the massive hack to Russia.
The president will create a new cybersecurity-focused office led by a national cyberdirector under a recent law. Jen Easterly, who was special assistant to president Barack Obama and senior director for counterterrorism for the National Security Council, is the leading candidate for the cyberdirector role, according to Reuters. She’s currently head of resilience at investment bank Morgan Stanley.
On Tuesday, his last full day in office, former President Donald Trump signed an executive order designed to prevent foreign actors from using cloud computing platforms for interference against the US.
In November, Trump fired Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency director Chris Krebs after the agency debunked claims of election fraud. Krebs has since been hired by SolarWinds to consult on the massive hack. Biden intends to nominate Rob Silvers, who was the Obama administration’s assistant secretary for cyber policy at the Department of Homeland Security, to fill Krebs’ role, Reuters reported.
Neither Morgan Stanley, Silvers nor the White House immediately responded to requests for comment.