The Trump administration is getting the band back together, so to speak. To fill a major cybersecurity post, the president submitted on Mar. 11 the nomination of Sean Plankey as head of CISA. Acting Director Bridget Bean took over from former Director Jen Easterly, who left her position on Jan. 20.
Background info. Plankey was a part of the first Trump administration, serving as the White House director for cyber policy and as principal deputy assistant secretary for cybersecurity, energy security, and emergency response at the Department of Energy before leaving for the private sector after November 2020.
That same month, Trump reportedly considered Plankey as a replacement for then-CISA Director Chris Krebs. Krebs was removed from office after calling the 2020 election “the most secure in American history.” Ultimately, Trump chose Brandon Wales as acting director; Wales would remain in office until July 2021.
Most recently, Plankey spent a year at financial services multinational WTW, where he was GM of the firm’s post-quantum encryption document protection platform Indigo Vault and as global head of cybersecurity software.
A look ahead. Plankey’s team is coming together. Karen Evans, a fellow former cybersecurity official during Trump’s first term—she served as DHS CIO from June 2020 to January 2021—was appointed CISA executive assistant director for cybersecurity in February.
But there are challenges in how the new White House is approaching cybersecurity that Plankey will have to manage. The administration terminated several DHS cybersecurity-related advisory committees on Jan. 20, as well as cutting CISA funding for initiatives related to election security.
With a career in public service and the cybersecurity private sector, Plankey is unlikely to face much pushback from senators when his nomination heads to the Senate Homeland Security Committee.
CISA Deputy Associate Chief of Communications Valerie L. Mongello referred IT Brew to the White House for comment.
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