The FBI's top cybersecurity officials are jumping ship
newsdepo.com
This is not good. Five senior FBI officials in charge of election protection and cybersecurity have left the government. Early in the week, the news broke that the co-leader of the agency's foreign influence task force Jeff Tricoli had departed the agency. ThThe FBI's top cybersecurity officials are jumping ship
This is not good. Five senior FBI officials in charge of election protection and cybersecurity have left the government. Early in the week, the news broke that the co-leader of the agency's foreign influence task force Jeff Tricoli had departed the agency. That task force is tasked with preventing foreign interference in elections. Now the Wall Street Journal is reporting the departure of three top FBI cybersecurity officials as well as a deputy to one of those officials. They are: Scott Smith, assistant FBI director who runs the Bureau's cyber division who is leaving this month as well as Smith's deputy, Howard Marshall who is already gone; Smith's supervisor David Resch, executive assistant director of the FBI’s criminal, cyber, response and services branch; and Carl Ghattas, the agency's national security branch executive assistant director. These are all senior-level officials, civil service professionals who were around through previous administrations. Also, too, «One U.S. official said more people are expected to leave soon, declining to provide additional names.» Are Trump and his minions in the House driving them out? Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA) suggests so. «One-and-one-half branches of our government appear to be committed to attacking the Bureau, its workforce and its mission on a near-daily basis.» FBI Director Chris Wray downplayed this, saying «Would they (FBI agents) prefer not to get criticized? Of course. […] But at the end of the day, the criticism we care about is the people who know our work.» But former officials say there are high levels of frustration, particularly in cybersecurity. «There’s an internal tension in terms of how to staff cyber properly. […] We constantly have new people in leadership reinventing the cyber program,» one former official told the WSJ. This comes at a time when intelligence officials are ratcheting up their public comments about ongoing and likely increasing levels of Russian hacking and interference efforts, particularly in our elections. The White House is clearly a-okay with all that, as are congressional Republicans. Maybe they're counting on Russia to save them from a blue tsunami in November? Please give $1 to our Senate and House funds to fight back. Read more