1 day Ago By Jessica Lyons
RSAC Uncle Sam's Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, aka CISA, has gone off the rails by trying to dispel disinformation, according to US Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem. So to "put CISA back on mission," Noem's government department, which oversees the cyber-agency, is "conducting an assessment" prevent any overreach, return money to taxpayers, and realign the workforce "to focus on the mission that Congress has laid out." That likely translates to staffing and budget cuts , or as Noem described them in a Wednesday keynote address at this year's RSA Conference in San Francisco this week: "Reforms and efficiencies.
" Noem urged us not to cover the "reforms and efficiencies, and some of the initiatives, and task forces, and advisory councils that we're changing as a bad thing." Instead, she urged, "I would encourage you to say: 'Just wait till you see what we're able to do'." It’s not just the press who has criticized changes at CISA.
House Rep Eric Swalwell (D-CA), the ranking member of a Congressional cybersecurity subcommittee, has called firing CISA personnel and slashing programs " alarming ." Retired US Navy Rear Admiral Mark Montgomery described Noem's actions as " gutting CISA ." In Noem's telling, changes at CISA are more of a realignment than a disembowelment.
And, as she has said previously, changes at the agency stem from its efforts to counter online disinformation, especially as it relates to election security and the agency's work to prevent both foreign trolls and President Trump himself from spreading lies that the 2020 election was stolen. Speaking truth to that lie cost Chris Krebs , the first-ever CISA boss, his job, plus he now faces an investigation into his time at the agency. CISA's job is to "hunt and harden our systems," Noem contended.
"Instead, we saw CISA get into misinformation/disinformation campaigns. They were deciding what was truth and what was not. And it's not the job of CISA to be the Ministry of Truth.
" She pointed to the very real threat from China, which has been highlighted several times during the annual cybersecurity industry event. They were deciding what was truth and what was not. It's not the job of CISA to be the Ministry of Truth "We've seen examples of cyber espionage like Salt Typhoon and Volt Typhoon that have been very effective against us," Noem said.
"And one of the things that had alarmed me the first time that I had been briefed on those situations coming into this role, before I was ever sworn in, was that we don't necessarily know exactly how it happened, and we don't know how to prevent it in the future." Noem added her "goal is to make sure that we are able to have more of those answers," along with tools to "stop and prevent those kinds of invasions into our country." Left unsaid was that the Biden administration tasked an advisory board to seek such answers.
When Trump took office, the Cyber Safety Review Board was probing how China's Salt Typhoon breached American government and telecommunications networks. One of the administration's first moves was to terminate all memberships on advisory committees within the Department of Homeland Security, including those focused on cybersecurity. ®.
