Krebs: People should be ‘outraged’ at efforts to shrink federal cyber efforts

SAN FRANCISCO — Former Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency chief Chris Krebs on Monday said the larger security community should be “absolutely outraged” at the Trump administration’s various moves to scale back the nation’s digital defenses, including at the organization he once led.

“Cybersecurity is national security. We all know that, right? That's why we're here,” Krebs said near the end of a panel discussion at the RSA Conference. “That's why we get up every morning and do our jobs. We are protecting everyone out there. And right now, to see what's happening to the cybersecurity community inside the federal government, we should be outraged. Absolutely outraged.”

Krebs praised fellow former CISA director Jen Easterly for warning about the politicization of cybersecurity in a LinkedIn post last week, including the still-unexplained dismissal of U.S. Cyber Command and NSA chief Air Force Gen. Timothy Haugh and one of his deputies.

Krebs’ remarks were his first public comments since he left a senior position at cybersecurity firm SentinelOne earlier this month in order to fight back against the Trump administration’s probe into his tenure at the Homeland Security Department’s cyber wing.

An April 9 memo revoked Krebs’ security clearance and ordered a broad investigation into “any instances where Krebs’ or CISA’s conduct appears to be contrary to the administration’s commitment to free speech and ending federal censorship,” including during the 2020 presidential campaign. It also ordered a review of security clearances with individuals connected to SentinelOne.

On Monday, the Electronic Frontier Foundation along with dozens of cybersecurity and election security experts published an open letter urging the Trump administration rescind the order. 

Meanwhile, the Trump administration could soon fire up to 1,300 CISA employees, cutting about half of the agency’s full-time staff, and another 40 percent of its contractors. CISA previously attempted to cut 130 probational staffers, a move that was blocked in court before being overturned in an appeal. Last week, two senior CISA officials who were charged with guiding its “Secure by Design” push, left the agency, likely killing the initiative.

“I can be pissed off that CISA’s getting cut back and all that and I can see the policy arguments we're trying to downsize government, streamline. But when you've got Volt Typhoon, Salt, Typhoon, Flax Typhoon, whatever, every day knocking on our door — we are not moving forward. We have to continue moving forward,” he added, referring to Chinese hacking groups that have penetrated U.S. critical infrastructure and telecom companies.

“We need more Cyber Command warfighters. We need more folks at the NSA collecting intel. We need more front line defenders, threat hunters, red teamers, folks that are just doing sysadmin, the basics. We need more of that, not less. So that's my pitch,” according to Krebs, a lifelong Republican.

“Make CISA great again.”