White House reportedly eliminates top cybersecurity role
Seems like bad timing?
Politico, The Hill and CNN report that the Trump adminstration has eliminated the White House position of cybersecurity coordinator, a role President Obama first established in 2009, at a time when hacks and cybersecurity threats weren't as commonplace as they are today.
Here are just a few very recent examples you may recall:
- Hackers steal data from 5 million Saks, Lord & Taylor customers
- Possible data breach at Orbitz affects 880,000 payment cards
- Chili's data breach: Your ribs could've come with a side of credit card theft
And that's not to mention the state-sponsored hacks that might have affected the integrity of the 2016 US presidential election, or the Equifax breach that affected over 145 million people in the US, or ongoing worries about foreign hackers potentially attacking the US infrastructure.
The National Security Council reportedly argues the move's about reducing bureaucracy, not reducing security, according to a statement obtained by several news outlets.
Detractors say the role was important symbolically, though, and perhaps structurally as well -- Senator Mark Warner, a Virginia Democrat, says the coordinator was "the only person in the federal government tasked with delivering a coordinated, whole-of-government response to the growing cyber threats facing our nation."
Here's a thread full of tweets by Warner:
And a tweet from Sen. Martin Heinrich, Democrat from New Mexico, anticipating this move:
The White House didn't respond to a request for comment.
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