News : CISA chief Chris Krebs remains at his post — Trump throws spaghetti at the refrigerator

Monday, November 16, 2020

CISA chief Chris Krebs remains at his post — Trump throws spaghetti at the refrigerator — Katko reelected

Nov 16, 2020

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Editor's Note: Weekly Cybersecurity is a weekly version of POLITICO Pro's daily Cybersecurity policy newsletter, Morning Cybersecurity. POLITICO Pro is a policy intelligence platform that combines the news you need with tools you can use to take action on the day's biggest stories. Act on the news with POLITICO Pro.

Quick Fix

— It's Monday morning, do you know where CISA DIrector Chris Krebs is? Spoilers: Still at work, amid new theories about why he's on thin ice with the White House.

— President Donald Trump ratcheted up his false claims about widespread fraud in the 2020 election, including using old footage to make a case about hacking voting machines.

— A cyber-minded House Republican won his re-election fight, while a defeated GOP challenger hasn't quite taken the hint yet.

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HAPPY MONDAY and welcome to Morning Cybersecurity! Send your thoughts, feedback and especially tips to mmatishak@politico.com, and be sure to follow @POLITICOPro and @MorningCybersec. Full team info below.

KREBS WATCH — After frenzied speculation last week that he would be the next Trump administration official unceremoniously shown the door, CISA Director Chris Krebs remains on the job. In fact, on Saturday Krebs — who's been telling associates he expects to be fired — shot down another baseless claim about the 2020 election , tweeting: "Quick Election Security Disinfo Debunker: election-related servers WERE NOT recently seized in Europe by the US Army contrary to #disinfo rapidly spreading across social media. Don't buy it & think 2x before you share." The day before that, CISA urged users to patch Apple vulnerabilities being exploited in the wild.

That's not to say the weekend wasn't without drama for Krebs or the agency he helms. The New York Post sparked debate online after it reported that Acting DHS Secretary Chad Wolf had refused to fire Krebs. The article, citing unnamed sources, says that Krebs earned President Donald Trump's ire not only for debunking false claims, but for keeping Matt Masterson, who served as U.S. Election Assistance Commission chair during the Obama administration, on as a senior adviser on election security; holding what's been dubbed a "watch party" at the agency's headquarters on election night; and being close with former DHS chief of staff Miles Taylor, who recently outed himself as "Anonymous."

But many, including a former top DHS lawyer, pointed out that only the president has the power to fire Krebs, suggesting the Post's story was planted by allies of Wolf, who has pushed to have the full Senate approve his nomination to be DHS chief.

Of course, Krebs' job status could change with a presidential tweet . Last week speculation was rampant that Defense Secretary Mark Esper, CIA Director Gina Haspel and FBI Director Christopher Wray would get pink slips. That turned out to be true for Esper. But Haspel — who briefed the Senate Intelligence Committee last week and paid a visit to the Capitol Hill office of Majority Leader Mitch McConnell — has split the GOP, with some demanding her ouster and others defending her work. Meanwhile, Wray hangs on.

WHERE … TO … BEGIN? — President Trump spent much of his weekend tweeting out one false claim after another after another about why he got drummed at polls nearly two weeks ago. On Friday, the president seemingly agreed with federal, state and local officials that the 2020 election was the most secure election ever, before repeating the unfounded charge that the whole thing was "rigged."

Then on Saturday, the commander in chief shared a video on hacking voting machines that was actually shot at DefCon 2019 (and which the event's organizers apparently view as something of a teachable moment for election security luddites).

Finally on Sunday, Trump, who has yet to concede the election, acknowledged for the first time that President-elect Joe Biden had "won" on November 3 — only to reverse himself shortly thereafter and restate his belief he may be able to win the election: "I concede NOTHING! We have a long way to go."

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On the Campaign Trail

STATE OF THE RACES — Republican John Katko (N.Y.) won another term in Congress on Friday after his Democratic opponent conceded. While the Associated Press has not called the race, Katko, the top Republican on the House Homeland Security Committee's cyber subpanel, leads Dana Balter, a Syracuse University professor who also lost to Katko in 2018, by double digits. In a statement, Balter said that her campaign "does not have a path forward." Katko is a likely contender for the Homeland Security Committee's top GOP slot in the next Congress.

Meanwhile, Republican Jim Oberweis attended orientation for new House members last week, even though the AP previously projected Rep. Lauren Underwood (D-Ill.), the chair of the cybersecurity subcommittee, won their face-off. Underwood leads Oberweis, a state senator, by roughly 4,600 votes. Oberweis has refused to concede and plans to pursue a recount.

Transition 2020

MORE READING MATERIAL FOR BIDENWORLD — The center-left think tank Third Way expects that the incoming Biden administration will be well-positioned to implement the recommendations of its newly released report about confronting the cybercrime epidemic. That's partly due to the role of Vice President-elect Kamala Harris and her past work as California's attorney general, said Mieke Eoyang, senior vice president for Third Way's National Security Program. "I think it helps that the second-most senior person in government has firsthand experience with exactly the toll that these kinds of crimes take," Eoyang told Eric, "and has thought deeply about how to prosecute them and how to work with the private sector to protect them." Eoyang will discuss the report, which MC previewed last week, and the cybercrime crisis on Wednesday during a panel at the CyberNext DC conference. She gave MC a preview of what she intends to highlight. "One of the things that is important to discuss in addition to our roadmap is, what can the private sector do in cooperation with the government to help go after the human [behind the attacks]?" she said.

Industry Intel

THE MORE THE MERRIER — Anomali and OneFirewall are the latest companies to join the Cyber Threat Alliance, bringing the non-profit organization's membership to 28. "Both companies will bring their unique perspectives and data sources to the Alliance, further expanding and diversifying the information shared within CTA," Michael Daniel, president and CEO of CTA, said in a statement. Last month Anomali released research that found the number of data breaches experienced by state and federal government agencies each month has more than doubled since the start of the coronavirus crisis.

People on the Move

— Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffee on Friday announced that Matthew Kozma had been appointed the clandestine community's new CIO. The post had been vacant since July, when John Sherman left to become the Defense Department's principal deputy CIO; La'Naia Jones filled the role in an acting capacity. Kozma most recently served as the Pentagon's executive agent for Unified Platform and Joint Cyber Command and Control. "As a U.S. Air Force veteran of 25 years, he brings a wealth of experience in space, research and development, intelligence, as well as private sector and international security cooperation," Ratcliffe said in a statement. "We look forward to his leadership in modernizing and advancing the IC IT enterprise."

— Maurice Turner, a senior adviser to the EAC's executive director, tweeted that he is leaving the agency.

TWEET OF THE DAY — Food for thought.

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Quick Bytes

— The Delaware Division of Public Health announced a data breach incident.

— Impeachment witness Alexander Vindman tweeted that the NSA's new general counsel is the subject of a DoD investigation.

— A suburban Illinois school district said its network might have been hacked this weekend.

— Forbes: Bumble Vulnerabilities Put Facebook Likes, Locations And Pictures Of 95 Million Daters At Risk.

— U.S. Election Assistance Commission Chair Ben Hovland sat down with MIT Technology Review for a rather sporty interview.

— Google announced its open source security key test suite.

— NSA dropped the latest version of its reverse engineering tool Ghidra.

— Foreign Policy: The Biden Administration Needs a Fresh Approach to Huawei and 5G.

That's all for today.

Stay in touch with the whole team: Eric Geller (egeller@politico.com, @ericgeller); Bob King (bking@politico.com, @bkingdc); Martin Matishak (mmatishak@politico.com, @martinmatishak); and Heidi Vogt (hvogt@politico.com, @heidivogt).

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