Image: Shutterstock. Greg Meland.
President Trump last week issued a flurry of executive orders that upended a number of government initiatives focused on improving the nation’s cybersecurity posture. The president fired all advisors from the Department of Homeland Security’s Cyber Safety Review Board, called for the creation of a strategic cryptocurrency reserve, and voided a Biden administration action that sought to reduce the risks that artificial intelligence poses to consumers, workers and national security.
On his first full day back in the White House, Trump dismissed all 15 advisory committee members of the Cyber Safety Review Board (CSRB), a nonpartisan government entity established in February 2022 with a mandate to investigate the causes of major cybersecurity events. The CSRB has so far produced three detailed reports, including an analysis of the Log4Shell vulnerability crisis, attacks from the cybercrime group LAPSUS$, and the 2023 Microsoft Exchange Online breach.
The CSRB was in the midst of an inquiry into cyber intrusions uncovered recently across a broad spectrum of U.S. telecommunications providers at the hands of Chinese state-sponsored hackers. One of the CSRB’s most recognizable names is Chris Krebs (no relation), the former director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA). Krebs was fired by President Trump in November 2020 for declaring the presidential contest was the most secure in American history, and for refuting Trump’s false claims of election fraud.
South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem, confirmed by the U.S. Senate last week as the new director of the DHS, criticized CISA at her confirmation hearing, TheRecord reports.
Noem told lawmakers CISA needs to be “much more effective, smaller, more nimble, to really fulfill their mission,” which she said should be focused on hardening federal IT systems and hunting for digital intruders. Noem said the agency’s work on fighting misinformation shows it has “gotten far off mission” and involved “using their resources in ways that was never intended.”
“The misinformation and disinformation that they have stuck their toe into and meddled with, should be refocused back onto what their job is,” she said.
Moses Frost, a cybersecurity instructor with the SANS Institute, compared the sacking of the CSRB members to firing all of the experts at the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) while they’re in the middle of an investigation into a string of airline disasters.
“I don’t recall seeing an ‘NTSB Board’ being fired during the middle of a plane crash investigation,” Frost said in a recent SANS newsletter. “I can say that the attackers in the phone companies will not stop because the review board has gone away. We do need to figure out how these attacks occurred, and CISA did appear to be doing some good for the vast majority of the federal systems.”
Speaking of transportation, The Record notes that Transportation Security Administration chief David Pekoske was fired despite overseeing critical cybersecurity improvements across pipeline, rail and aviation sectors. Pekoske was appointed by Trump in 2017 and had his 5-year tenure renewed in 2022 by former President Joe Biden.
AI & CRYPTOCURRENCY
Shortly after being sworn in for a second time, Trump voided a Biden executive order that focused on supporting research and development in artificial intelligence. The previous administration’s order on AI was crafted with an eye toward managing the safety and security risks introduced by the technology. But a statement released by the White House said Biden’s approach to AI had hindered development, and that the United States would support AI systems that are “free from ideological bias or engineered social agendas,” to maintain leadership.
The Trump administration issued its own executive order on AI, which calls for an “AI Action Plan” to be led by the assistant to the president for science and technology, the White House “AI & crypto czar,” and the national security advisor. It also directs the White House to revise and reissue policies to federal agencies on the government’s acquisition and governance of AI “to ensure that harmful barriers to America’s AI leadership are eliminated.”
Trump’s AI & crypto czar is David Sacks, an entrepreneur and Silicon Valley venture capitalist who argues that the Biden administration’s approach to AI and cryptocurrency has driven innovation overseas. Sacks recently asserted that non-fungible cryptocurrency tokens and memecoins are neither securities nor commodities, but rather should be treated as “collectibles” like baseball cards and stamps.
There is already a legal definition of collectibles under the U.S. tax code that applies to things like art or antiques, which can be subject to high capital gains taxes. But Joe Hall, a capital markets attorney and partner at Davis Polk, told Fortune there are no market regulations that apply to collectibles under U.S. securities law. Hall said Sacks’ comments “suggest a viewpoint that it would not be appropriate to regulate these things the way we regulate securities.”
The new administration’s position makes sense considering that the Trump family is deeply and personally invested in a number of recent memecoin ventures that have attracted billions from investors. President Trump and First Lady Melania Trump each launched their own vanity memecoins this month, dubbed $TRUMP and $MELANIA.
The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday the market capitalization of $TRUMP stood at about $7 billion, down from a peak of near $15 billion, while $MELANIA is hovering somewhere in the $460 million mark. Just two months before the 2024 election, Trump’s three sons debuted a cryptocurrency token called World Liberty Financial.
Despite maintaining a considerable personal stake in how cryptocurrency is regulated, Trump issued an executive order on January 23 calling for a working group to be chaired by Sacks that would develop “a federal regulatory framework governing digital assets, including stablecoins,” and evaluate the creation of a “strategic national digital assets stockpile.”
Translation: Using taxpayer dollars to prop up the speculative, volatile, and highly risky cryptocurrency industry, which has been marked by endless scams, rug-pulls, 8-figure cyber heists, rampant fraud, and unrestrained innovations in money laundering.
WEAPONIZATION & DISINFORMATION
Prior to the election, President Trump frequently vowed to use a second term to exact retribution against his perceived enemies. Part of that promise materialized in an executive order Trump issued last week titled “Ending the Weaponization of the Federal Government,” which decried “an unprecedented, third-world weaponization of prosecutorial power to upend the democratic process,” in the prosecution of more than 1,500 people who invaded the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
On Jan. 21, Trump commuted the sentences of several leaders of the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers who were convicted of seditious conspiracy. He also issued “a full, complete and unconditional pardon to all other individuals convicted of offenses related to events that occurred at or near the United States Capitol on January 6, 2021,” which include those who assaulted law enforcement officers.
The New York Times reports “the language of the document suggests — but does not explicitly state — that the Trump administration review will examine the actions of local district attorneys or state officials, such as the district attorneys in Manhattan or Fulton County, Ga., or the New York attorney general, all of whom filed cases against President Trump.”
Another Trump order called “Restoring Freedom of Speech and Ending Federal Censorship” asserts:
“Over the last 4 years, the previous administration trampled free speech rights by censoring Americans’ speech on online platforms, often by exerting substantial coercive pressure on third parties, such as social media companies, to moderate, deplatform, or otherwise suppress speech that the Federal Government did not approve,” the Trump administration alleged. “Under the guise of combatting ‘misinformation,’ ‘disinformation,’ and ‘malinformation,’ the Federal Government infringed on the constitutionally protected speech rights of American citizens across the United States in a manner that advanced the Government’s preferred narrative about significant matters of public debate.”
Both of these executive orders have potential implications for security, privacy and civil liberties activists who have sought to track conspiracy theories and raise awareness about disinformation efforts on social media coming from U.S. adversaries.
In the wake of the 2020 election, Republicans created the House Judiciary Committee’s Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government. Led by GOP Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio, the committee’s stated purpose was to investigate alleged collusion between the Biden administration and tech companies to unconstitutionally shut down political speech.
The GOP committee focused much of its ire at members of the short-lived Disinformation Governance Board, an advisory board to DHS created in 2022 (the “combating misinformation, disinformation, and malinformation” quote from Trump’s executive order is a reference to the board’s stated mission). Conservative groups seized on social media posts made by the director of the board, who resigned after facing death threats. The board was dissolved by DHS soon after.
In his first administration, President Trump created a special prosecutor to probe the origins of the FBI’s investigation into possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russian operatives seeking to influence the 2016 election. Part of that inquiry examined evidence gathered by some of the world’s most renowned cybersecurity experts who identified frequent and unexplained communications between an email server used by the Trump Organization and Alfa Bank, one of Russia’s largest financial institutions.
Trump’s Special Prosecutor John Durham later subpoenaed and/or deposed dozens of security experts who’d collected, viewed or merely commented on the data. Similar harassment and deposition demands would come from lawyers for Alfa Bank. Durham ultimately indicted Michael Sussman, the former federal cybercrime prosecutor who reported the oddity to the FBI. Sussman was acquitted in May 2022. Last week, Trump appointed Durham to lead the U.S. attorney’s office in Brooklyn, NY.
Quinta Jurecic at Lawfare notes that while the executive actions are ominous, they are also vague, and could conceivably generate either a campaign of retaliation, or nothing at all.
“The two orders establish that there will be investigations but leave open the questions of what kind of investigations, what will be investigated, how long this will take, and what the consequences might be,” Jurecic wrote. “It is difficult to draw firm conclusions as to what to expect. Whether this ambiguity is intentional or the result of sloppiness or disagreement within Trump’s team, it has at least one immediate advantage as far as the president is concerned: generating fear among the broad universe of potential subjects of those investigations.”
On Friday, Trump moved to fire at least 17 inspectors general, the government watchdogs who conduct audits and investigations of executive branch actions, and who often uncover instances of government waste, fraud and abuse. Lawfare’s Jack Goldsmith argues that the removals are probably legal even though Trump defied a 2022 law that required congressional notice of the terminations, which Trump did not give.
“Trump probably acted lawfully, I think, because the notice requirement is probably unconstitutional,” Goldsmith wrote. “The real bite in the 2022 law, however, comes in the limitations it places on Trump’s power to replace the terminated IGs—limitations that I believe are constitutional. This aspect of the law will make it hard, but not impossible, for Trump to put loyalists atop the dozens of vacant IG offices around the executive branch. The ultimate fate of IG independence during Trump 2.0, however, depends less on legal protections than on whether Congress, which traditionally protects IGs, stands up for them now. Don’t hold your breath.”
Among the many Biden administration executive orders revoked by President Trump last week was an action from December 2021 establishing the United States Council on Transnational Organized Crime, which is charged with advising the White House on a range of criminal activities, including drug and weapons trafficking, migrant smuggling, human trafficking, cybercrime, intellectual property theft, money laundering, wildlife and timber trafficking, illegal fishing, and illegal mining.
So far, the White House doesn’t appear to have revoked an executive order that former President Biden issued less than a week before President Trump took office. On Jan. 16, 2025, Biden released a directive that focused on improving the security of federal agencies and contractors, and giving the government more power to sanction the hackers who target critical infrastructure.
so fye <3 brian krebs
I sense TDS is strong in you, Krebs….
^This
Came to say exactly this.. its kind of sad. Krebs you’re better than this.
What exactly is TDS here? Talking about how Trump has done things badly? He even defends Trump by pointing out some of the catastrophizing is overblown.
TDS is a common Maga camp taunt, short for Trump Derangement Syndrome. It’s commonly uttered by people (or Russian trolls) who argue that it’s just Trump being Trump, and getting the liberals all riled up. The implied meaning is that Trump doesn’t really mean what he says, he’s just doing it to get a rise out of the libs.
…very strong TDS. And that’s too bad, because Krebs does good work. Hopefully, it doesn’t affect his journalistic integrity too much in the next 4 years.
No surprise here… if you have read his (B.K.) about page, you’d see the organizations, he’s written for and involved with… Yes it does ‘rub off’
I always find it fascinating how so many people who claim to be infosec folks can persist in believing there is somehow a difference these days between national security and cybersecurity. As one goes, so goes the other. There is very little daylight between the two priorities anymore, and they are inextricably linked, for better or worse. Which makes it especially rich when you hear “stay in your lane” comments from people who claim to be hawkish on national security.
For reporting facts? Wow. Way to be a critical thinker.
Facts still matter when it comes to cybersecurity, FYI
Not if it includes our glorious God-Emperor Donald Trump, blessed be his name
#nailedit
Which statements are inaccurate?
When both sides of the aisle have strong TDS, you have to wonder where the real problem lies.
“Trump’s false claims of election fraud” -what’s false is you perpetrating this bs. The evidence for the fraud is overwhelming and you refuse to acknowledge it. Shame on you. This makes whatever else you put forth suspect.
No, there really is just no evidence of fraud, as over 60 courts found.
Well, that’s not quite accurate.
The Trumpanzees just define election fraud as “Someone didn’t vote for Trump”. Then, all they need to prove election fraud is to look at all the votes for Biden. Therefore, there was lot of election fruad.
If you look at it rationally, the amount of election fraud that is claimed would have required an enormous conspiracy that could not be hidden.
The only ones who tried to steal the election was Trump and the Trumpanzees.
I’m a Conservative. Trump and his Trumpanzees are radicals and radicalism is incompatible with Conservatism. Conservatives want to preserve the great institutions of life. If changes are necessary, make them carefully and with great consideration in order to avoid making things worse. Like all radicals, Trump and his cult just wants to tear everything down — there is nothing Conservative about them.
The big frraud was the cult’s attempt to overthrow the government in their trantrum because their God-like leader blew the election.
Bullcrap. All the judges in the cases that were brought about supposed elections fraud dismissed them.
That includes all the Trump appointed judges in friendly states.
If there was anything there that was actual proof they would have allowed the cases to proceed.
care to back up your empty words with a few links to facts that can be documented.
Please give us a break, or go back to fb or St. Petersburg, and I’m not talking about FLA.
Please link to the overwhelming evidence. Thanks for your service.
Hi, Evil, er Eva. I have been living under a rock for the last five years and it would be helpful if you would detail the overwhelming evidence of election fraud (significant enough to change the outcome of the election).
Where is the evidence, Eva?
The issue has been through many courts. There is no evidence.
bah bah bah
The evidence was so overwhelming NOBODY was ever able to produce any. (Hearsay and conjecture aren’t evidence.)
David Sacks is right. Investing in crypto is as sound a strategy as investing in baseball cards or any other collectable.
“David Sacks is right. Investing in crypto is as sound a strategy as investing in baseball cards or any other collectable”
Monty Python once had a skit about collecting fried eggs.
How’s the fried egg market these days?
Note: I’m just kidding. With the bird flu, it is showing promise of making very nice gains unlike the collectible market in jars of pickles.
Trump’s goal is to fill the U.S. government with yes-men that can benefit him and his immediate family. Kinda like the current ruzzian model. Although knowing how much of a sh$t show his previous administration was, he may actually fail at that. This for sure remains to be seen.
One thing is clear though. The U.S. starts to resemble one of those sh*t countries, ie banana republics. Good job, people. That’s what you wanted, right?
Actually, we started to resemble a “banana republic” long ago.
We have that already thanks to Joe Xiden
Who in Biden’s appointment list would you say is a partisan Yes-man/woman? I’m genuinely curious and have my own idea of who I’d say that applies to, but who do you think?
Thanks Brian for reporting on what is happening. It does not bode well.
Sigh
Does anyone notice one or more outliers in the following data that might raise at least a modicum of suspension?
Perhaps when the 2024 results are available, and Trump received a similar number of votes, then that outlier will become irrelevant.
————————————————————-
Based on the available data, here are the number of votes cast for the winner in the last six U.S. presidential general elections:
2024: Donald Trump won the election, but the exact number of votes cast for him is not provided in the context.
2020: Joe Biden received approximately 81,283,408 votes.
2016: Donald Trump received approximately 62,984,828 votes.
2012: Barack Obama received approximately 65,915,795 votes.
2008: Barack Obama received approximately 69,498,516 votes.
2004: George W. Bush received approximately 62,040,610 votes.
https://www.cfr.org/article/2024-election-numbers
I want to see anyone justify the extra 20,000,000 crackheads dad ended up with.
“evaluate the creation of” gad I hope they realize how stupid crypto is, and instead just improve the inter banking transaction system to use expiring crypto methods for transfers. This will also allow the tracking of money people try to launder.
Trump: 77,284,118 (https://www.cfr.org/article/2024-election-numbers)
77,302,580, according to the FEC.
“This is mass madness, you maniacs!”
— Howard Beale (Peter Finch)
(“Network,” 1976, by Paddy Chayefsky)
USA in total decline
Bull market, bear market.
Sad to see you writing such a politically biased article. Get back to reporting on tech issues and stay out of politics. Not a good look for Brian Krebs.
Shut up, Donny! Anyone with eyes can see this. This was a very level-headed, factual take on the changes that will impact cybersecurity postures for organizations and indviduals around the country. These are tech issues and just ANOTHER reason Trump is f*cking this country over for his own gain.
Executive orders and other actions have already been taken to enrich Trump, his peers, and weaken the country. Cryptocurrency has funneled significant funds to North Korea. China is suspected to be the nation-state inside the telecom. The only ones that don’t want to address misinformation/disinformation/malinformation are the ones exploiting it. His personal memecoin is just ANOTHER means to circumvent the emoluments clause.
The US is being run by morally-bankrupt billionaires. People so old they burn the world to the ground for short term profits.
Wake up Donny:
The technical stuff we do lives in a political world.
The political world we now live in is headed up by a man who is a narcissistic fool who does not understand the technical consequences of what he does willy nilly.
I mean, I for one welcome our tin-foil hat wearing overlords.
As usual Brian Krebs looks deep into issues the rest of us don’t have time for. We’re too busy with our Facebook and X to notice what really is happening. Along with social media destroying America, we now have Donald Trump to finish it off. He’ll only be happy when we all salute him.
Every move he makes is driven by ego or abject greed. What could go wrong?
More politically biased information. Anything “Joe Biden” put into place could not be high tech or what is best for our Country. I trust President Trump 100x more than the bs we have been fed from the left.
I understand Alex Jones is looking for new followers, Momof1. Perhaps you would be more comfortable there.
Thanks for reporting facts despite the backlash you will continue to receive from the MAGA crowd. It’s disturbing to see how much they can reject reality, facts, and science. I guess everything is going according to plan…
God is always right.
God knows the evil-doers.
God was crucified by the Fake Media, but he Tr[i]umphed.
God will destroy all who oppose him.
The Believers will be victorious over their enemies.
God will cleanse the world of corruption and restore us to greatness.
The NY billionaire who has 29 assault allegations, cheated on his wife with a p***star, bribed said p***star, was friends with Epstein, and had children in three different marriages is about as far away from a Godly person as one could be. No hand on the bible when he was sworn in, by the way! Or would that have only mattered if it were a Democrat? Or is this all just fake news? There’s been smoke for decades, *surely* there can’t be a fire, *right*?
Next level delusion. I am begging you to use your brain. If not, I hope that in a decade or so when the dust settles you can recognize your own stupidity.
Great post. Thank you!
I really enjoyed this blog. In fact, I’ve used posts in classes I teach. What I really enjoyed was that it was 100% tech related and NO POLITICS. I also enjoyed the back and forth, at times, in the comments – again, with little, if any, political comments.
I’m disappointed that Mr. Krebs allowed his politics to seep out. Let’s hope Mr. Krebs doesn’t repeat this error again.
Sorry to see you go. Please let me know where I can send your refund.
Hahaha. Well said. For some reason it’s “politically-motivated” to criticize Trump while he ruins the nation, but it’s totally fine to bash Biden and his family members and violently storm the U.S. capitol. But great article btw, too bad the Trumpists and Russian bots don’t appreciate it.
Isn’t it interesting how the MAGA cult cannot refute things like this? “You can’t hide from the truth, because the truth is all there is.”
Perfect! *Chef’s kiss*
Brian,
I think your “refund’ comment is perfect! Love it!!
Except…you aren’t an educator anywhere, Gary. Stop lying online about being a teacher. This is very troubling behavior from you.
You’re all hallucinating; eggs price went down by 50% on day one, wars ended on day one and happiness is at a level never seen in the US history! /s
Came directly to the comments, then read the post, then refreshed for more “this is a biased post” comments. Brother. (insert eye-roll here) I knew that there would be a multitude of red hats all butt-hurt by this factual article. Just remember, ETTD and that goes for our democracy. If you think that getting rid of the non-partisan government employee watchdogs (that could make so much more money in the private sector) is a good thing, you are on the wrong side of history. The reason why this administration doesn’t want to focus on mis and disinformation is to keep the general public uninformed and uneducated so that they can line their own pockets. Do your homework.
The reason why this administration doesn’t want to focus on mis and disinformation is to keep the general public uninformed and uneducated so that they can line their own pockets.
NUTSHELL
To sum up the majority of these comments:
1- “SHUT UP! You can’t say anything negative about Trump!”
2- “How DARE you write about anything that could be construed as ‘politics’, no matter how relevant it is to cybersecurity?”
How many of these comments are from real people? Are actual cybersecurity professionals (who I assume make up the vast majority of readers) really believers of the garbage being posted in these comments?
If you want to see how many people in tech get upset whenever a security story involves Trump, take a look at some of the responses I get on LinkedIn.
Thank you Brian!
Brian,
TDS is coming through a little bit….
Interesting article. I appreciate it.
“Let’s fire the guys who look into political fraud, waste, and abuse” — The president, about to do political fraud, waste, and abuse
Get rid of anyone who won’t kiss the ring, get rid of anyone who might oppose me… Love that he can just do that, haha.. Funny but not funny. Time for another interesting 4 years.
When I saw the headline, I went directly to the comments, then read the post, then refreshed to see even more “this is a biased post” comments to this FACTUAL article. Brother…(insert eye roll here). Just remember folks, ETTD and that includes our democracy. The reason this administration is hell bent on stopping investigations into mis and disinformation is to keep the general public, distracted, uninformed and uneducated while they line their own pockets. They want people focused on culture wars while waging a class war right before our eyes. If you think that the mass firing of government watchdogs (who could make more money in the private sector) is a good thing, you are on the wrong side of history.
Projecting much? Witness: “They want people focused on culture wars” and “you are on the wrong side of history”.
While I agree that blanket termination of auditors is unwise, it is tough to get beyond your zealotry.
regarding the abusive comments, the haters, the trolls, ras-putin’s minions, and the great unwashed:
yinz are more transparent than gorilla glass. and like any big orange gorilla in the room, you hopefully
will have to face your Maker or the man in the mirror one day, and realize you did little with your precious
time on earth to justify your existence or improve the lot of human beings on the planet. How do yinz sleep
at night knowing how full of it you are ? You reap what you sow. Negativity is its own punishment.
They got sacked? But they were doing such a great job that US has been routinely hacked.
Bring them back so we can get hacked some more by chicom.
Your life as it has been is over. Resistance is futile. From this point forward, you will service us.