Bolton pushing to eliminate White House cyber job - POLITICO

["Dave Farber" <farber () gmail com>]

Begin forwarded message:

> From: Shannon McElyea <shannonm () gmail com>
> Date: May 10, 2018 at 6:58:53 PM EDT
> To: Dewayne Net <dewayne-net () warpspeed com>, Dave Farber <dave () farber net>
> Subject: Bolton pushing to eliminate White House cyber job - POLITICO
>
> As you probably know, Cyber Security is one of the National Academy of Engineering Grand challenges facing humanity. 
> Cyber Security is critical for our national security, Grid infrastructure, democracy, and more. 
>
> National security adviser John Bolton wants to eliminate the top White House cybersecurity job. Bolton and his team 
> are leading an effort to abolish the role of special assistant to the president and cybersecurity coordinator. The 
> coordinator leads a team of National Security Council staffers who deal with federal cyber strategy on everything 
> from encryption policies to election security to digital warfare.
>
> > https://www.politico.com/story/2018/05/09/bolton-white-house-cyber-czar-523430?utm_source=WTF+Just+Happened+Today%3F&utm_campaign=e00696a3e8-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_1_19_2018&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_9813b73b1a-e00696a3e8-159086365
> >
> > Bolton pushing to eliminate White House cyber job
> > The move could send the message 'that the U.S. is taking the gas pedal off of cybersecurity,' one former NSC 
> > official says.
> >
> > ERIC GELLER05/09/2018 06:14 PM EDT
> >  
> > National security adviser John Bolton is leading the push to abolish the role of special assistant to the president 
> > and cybersecurity coordinator. | AP Photo
> > President Donald Trump’s national security team is weighing the elimination of the top White House cybersecurity 
> > job, multiple sources told POLITICO — a move that would come as the nation faces growing digital threats from 
> > adversaries such as Russia and Iran.
> >
> > John Bolton, Trump’s hawkish new national security adviser, is leading the push to abolish the role of special 
> > assistant to the president and cybersecurity coordinator, currently held by the departing Rob Joyce, according to 
> > one current and two former U.S. officials with direct knowledge of the discussions.
> >
> > The sources spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of deliberations about internal White 
> > House operations.
> >
> > Cybersecurity experts and former National Security Council officials expressed alarm at the idea of eliminating the 
> > job, saying it would undo much of the progress the U.S. has made on cyber efforts and send the wrong message about 
> > U.S. priorities in the digital domain. The coordinator — a post created at the beginning of the Obama administration 
> > — leads a team of NSC staffers who manage federal cyber strategy on everything from election security to encryption 
> > policies to digital warfare.
> >
> > Bolton’s deputy, Mira Ricardel, supports the idea of eliminating the coordinator role, according to two of the 
> > sources. “She’s thinking about whether to simply pick up the [cyber] function on her own,” said one of the former 
> > U.S. officials, who added that the odds were “60-40” that the White House would eliminate the job.
> >
> > While Bolton has advocated a more aggressive cyber strategy against U.S. adversaries than past administrations — for 
> > example, talking about a "retaliatory cyber campaign against Russia" — he has also told staff that he intends to 
> > reorganize the entire NSC. Those "changes could include combining higher-level director positions,” according to a 
> > memo Fox News cited last month.
> >
> > Losing the cyber coordinator post "would be a tremendous disappointment,” said Kiersten Todt, who managed former 
> > President Barack Obama’s cybersecurity commission and is now resident scholar at the University of Pittsburgh 
> > Institute for Cyber Law, Policy, and Security. Obama’s commission had recommended in its final report that the White 
> > House elevate the cyber coordinator to the rank of assistant to the president, on par with the national security 
> > adviser and homeland security adviser.
> >
> > Megan Stifel, a former NSC director for international cyber policy, said eliminating the post might send a message 
> > to other nations “that the U.S. is taking the gas pedal off of cybersecurity as a key national security issue.”
> >
> > “With no one at the helm at the White House to manage this process, I worry about which countries will step in,” she 
> > said.
> >
> > The White House deliberations on the fate of the coordinator role come as the Trump administration faces numerous 
> > challenges in the cyber arena, from Russian intrusions into election systems and power grid equipment, to cyber 
> > thefts by China and North Korea, to Iranian hackers who may be newly emboldened by Trump’s abrogation of the 
> > international nuclear deal. Experts say the absence of this critical position could leave the government without a 
> > cohesive strategy for confronting these issues.
> >
> > “Given the complexities of the issues that we face in cyberspace … you’re going to have to have somebody that’s 
> > focused on dealing with those issues at the White House level,” said Michael Daniel, the Obama administration’s 
> > cyber coordinator from 2012 to 2017.
> >
> > The internal debate over the cyber adviser job is the latest example of government dysfunction in the digital 
> > security realm. On Tuesday, the Senate Intelligence Committee released a summary of its recommendations related to 
> > election security, highlighting several areas where agencies like DHS fell short during the hack-plagued 2016 
> > election.
> >
> > Joyce, who took the cyber coordinator job shortly after Trump's arrival at the White House, is a widely respected 
> > career cyber professional who spent nearly 30 years at the National Security Agency. He plans to return to the 
> > intelligence agency Friday.
> >
> > At the White House, Joyce oversaw the Trump administration’s response to several major cyber incidents over the past 
> > year, including the WannaCry and NotPetya malware outbreaks that raced around the world and crippled computers at 
> > government agencies and major businesses. He also led the overhaul and publication of the government’s once-secret 
> > plan for deciding when to tell tech companies about digital flaws that agencies discover.
> >
> > The two former officials said that Joyce is leaving in part because of frustration with how Bolton’s team approaches 
> > cyber policy. When Bolton arrived, he forced out homeland security adviser Tom Bossert, a cyber expert who 
> > supervised Joyce’s team in addition to managing the government’s response to natural disasters and terrorist attacks.
> >
> > In a brief statement, the White House did not deny that the coordinator role might be eliminated. “Cyber is a key 
> > priority for the Trump Administration," NSC spokesman Robert Palladino told POLITICO. The NSC, he said, was 
> > "committed to assembling an effective team to advance the President's agenda of protecting Americans and American 
> > interests."
> >
> > Some former officials expressed concern that without a cyber coordinator, day-to-day leadership of the team would 
> > fall to Josh Steinman, the senior director for the NSC cyber team's foreign policy portfolio. Steinman, a protégé of 
> > ousted former national security adviser Michael Flynn, has set his sights on replacing Joyce and has spent months 
> > criticizing him, sources previously told POLITICO, but had scant cyber policy expertise before joining the White 
> > House after Trump’s inauguration. As senior director, he has clashed with career staffers, according to the current 
> > and two former officials.
> >
> > Steinman did not respond to an email seeking comment. Palladino, the NSC spokesman, defended Steinman, calling him 
> > "a trusted advisor" and an "effective member" of the NSC. "Josh has effectively advocated to modernize and 
> > streamline efforts to advance our values in cyberspace and protect the United States," he said.
> >
> > The current official and several former officials described the situation as fluid and said the White House was 
> > still considering replacing Joyce. Christopher Krebs, a top DHS cyber official, “was actively soliciting names” for 
> > a new cyber coordinator at the RSA Conference, a cybersecurity industry gathering in San Francisco last month, 
> > according to a former White House cyber official. This person added that Krebs may have been doing so on his own 
> > initiative and not at Bolton’s request.
> >
> > But a second former U.S. official contested this, saying the decision to eliminate the job appeared all but final. 
> > “They’re not even interested in replacements,” this former official said. "Because people on the team have asked. 
> > And they said, ‘Nope, hold your suggestions. We don’t know what we’re going to do with the position.’ So of course 
> > everyone was a little on pins and needles when they heard that.”
> >
> > This former official said Bolton did not consider cybersecurity a priority. “He’s not interested in it. He doesn’t 
> > see the point in it,” the source said. “There’s a serious concern on the [NSC] right now, particularly the [cyber 
> > team], of what the fate of their directorate is moving forward.”
> >
> > Morale on the cyber team “is definitely low,” the former official added.
> >
> > Stifel, the former NSC international policy staffer, said federal agencies aren’t capable of coordinating their 
> > cyber strategies without centralized guidance.
> >
> > “Left to their own devices, the agencies will likely put themselves, their interests, and their authorities above 
> > others,” predicted Stifel, now the cyber policy director at Public Knowledge. The result, she said, could be “more 
> > assertive action” by U.S. Cyber Command, the military unit in charge of cyber warfare, or “a return to the days when 
> > 3-4 department components raced to be first in when a U.S. private sector entity was breached.”
> >
> > One former official conceded that Ricardel — Bolton’s deputy — appears qualified to oversee the cyber portfolio. She 
> > spent five years in senior Pentagon roles during the George W. Bush administration and was the top adviser to the 
> > secretary of Defense for a region that included Russia. Later, as acting assistant secretary for international 
> > security policy, she was responsible for missile defense, space policy and the Pentagon’s relationships with NATO 
> > and European allies. But the person worried that with everything on her plate, she would not have enough “bandwidth” 
> > to handle the extra cyber role.
> >
> > Rob Knake, a former NSC director for cyber policy, said the White House cyber job is important to private companies 
> > as well. It’s “a much more public-facing role [than other NSC team leaders] in a sector of national security that 
> > requires close coordination with the private sector, even far more so than incident response on the physical side,” 
> > he said.
> >
> > /snip/
>
> Shannon McElyea
> Shannonm () gmail com
> +1 650 332 2556
> STRATEGIC ALLIANCES | PARTNERSHIP ECOSYSTEM/CHANNEL DEVELOPMENT | TECHNOLOGY TRANSFER
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> ~  "The quality I would most like to magnify is empathy. It brings us together in a peaceful, loving state." - 
> Stephen Hawking
>
> ~  "Our prime purpose in this life is to help others. And if you can’t help them, at least don’t hurt them.” - The 
> Dalai Lama



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