The Senate on Thursday confirmed Chris Inglis to be President Joe Biden’s national cyber director, installing the former NSA deputy director as Biden’s top cyber adviser at a time when many lawmakers are pressing the White House for a muscular response to a series of high-profile hacks.
As head of the new Office of the National Cyber Director inside the White House, Inglis will coordinate federal agencies’ disparate work on cyber issues and oversee the development of the U.S.’ digital defense strategy.
The Senate confirmed Inglis on a voice vote one day after the Homeland Security Committee unanimously approved his nomination.
The recent ransomware attacks on Colonial Pipeline and the meat processing giant JBS, both attributed to Russian cybercrime gangs, as well as the SolarWinds espionage campaign that intelligence agencies linked to Moscow, thrust cybersecurity into the spotlight on Capitol Hill and prompted renewed scrutiny of the challenges facing the federal government, including its limited understanding of attacks on private companies.
Washington is slowly responding to the crisis. In mid-May, Biden signed an executive order intended to close federal security gaps and increase oversight of the contractors that often serve as backdoors into agency networks. Two weeks later, the TSA issued a security directive requiring pipeline operators to report cyberattacks. A bipartisan group of senators is now planning legislat ..
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