Cyber community slowly rallies around Krebs
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Former CISA director Chris Krebs speaking with Axios' Sam Sabin at an event in February. Photo: Kristoffer Triplaar on behalf of Axios
Lawmakers and ex-cybersecurity officials are starting to rally around Chris Krebs after President Trump revoked his security clearance and requested that the Justice Department open an investigation into his time leading CISA.
Why it matters: Trump's moves to revoke security clearances and investigate his political enemies could tarnish the targets' reputations.
- How colleagues, employers and other stakeholders respond to these moves is often a bellwether for whether the target can bounce back.
What they're saying: "The Executive Order attempts to tarnish Krebs' outstanding reputation, and harm his business, though I suspect both efforts will fail," David Becker, executive director of the Center for Election Innovation and Research and former DOJ attorney in the Clinton and Bush administrations, told Axios in a statement.
- "To take an action like this, which appears to be straight-up vengeance, is dangerous because of the message it sends to anyone in the federal government that tells the truth that you'll lose your clearance, be slandered by the President, and investigated," Sen. Angus King (I-Maine), a member of the Senate Intelligence and Armed Services Committees, told Axios in a statement.
- Sen. Gary Peters (D-Mich.), ranking member of the Senate Homeland Security Committee, called the move "completely ridiculous."
- Suzanne Spaulding, a former Obama-era DHS undersecretary who led the office that became CISA, said in a statement that "any honest investigation" will likely vindicate Krebs. "It is a diversion of increasingly scarce government resources to satisfy a grudge," she added.
- Cait Conley, a former CISA official who oversaw election security efforts in the 2024 elections, said in an X post that Krebs "did his job and defended the security and integrity of the 2020 election."
Flashback: Krebs landed on Trump's enemies list after releasing a statement in November 2020 while he was the director of CISA saying the election was the safest election to date.
- Trump — who at the time was incorrectly claiming that the election was rigged against him — then fired Krebs via tweet.
Yes, but: Cybersecurity companies have remained quiet publicly. Only one of the 36 cyber organizations that were asked chose to comment on Trump's memo in a Reuters story last week.
The big picture: The investigation into Krebs is just the latest move targeting the federal government's role in election security.
What to watch: Katie Moussouris, CEO of Luta Security and a former member of CISA's Cyber Safety Review Board, told Axios the probe into Krebs will have several chilling effects.
- "Cybersecurity companies might think twice about hiring former government officials," Moussouris said. "But it's also going to have a chilling effect in the federal government's ability to attract cybersecurity professionals to go work for them in the first place."
Go deeper: Trump's overflowing grudge list
