Biden Team Highlights Cybersecurity Focus With First Cabinet Picks – By Mariam Baksh (Nextgov) / Nov 23 2020
Familiar faces will likely have to revisit efforts around information sharing and establishing global norms.
The Biden-Harris transition team has explicitly called out cybersecurity as a priority in naming the first six individuals it plans to appoint or nominate for key cabinet positions.
In a formal announcement planned for Tuesday, President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris intend to introduce Antony Blinken for secretary of State, Avril Haines for director of national intelligence, Jake Sullivan for national security advisor, Alejandro Mayorkas for secretary of Homeland Security, Linda Thomas-Greenfield for U.S. ambassador to the United Nations and John Kerry as special presidential envoy for climate.
“These officials will start working immediately to rebuild our institutions, renew and reimagine American leadership to keep Americans safe at home and abroad, and address the defining challenges of our time—from infectious disease, to terrorism, nuclear proliferation, cyber threats, and climate change,” reads a release Monday from the Biden transition team.
Mayorkas, Haines, Sullivan and Blinken will serve in roles crucial to cybersecurity policy and have all worked in the Obama administration, which pioneered enduring cybersecurity approaches centered on the development of public-private and international partnership
