Claims Trump Administration “is attempting to punish and intimidate” Krebs.
The recent action taken by the U.S. government against former CISA head Chris Krebs has been “unequivocally condemned” by the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF).
In an open letter to President Donald Trump, industry figures and board members of the EFF have called for the security clearances of SentinelOne employees to be reinstated, and to rescind the order to the Department of Justice investigating Krebs.
The letter claims Krebs is facing an executive order which directs the Department of Justice to “identify any instances where Krebs’ or CISA’s conduct appears to be contrary to the administration’s commitment to free speech and ending federal censorship, including whether Krebs’ conduct was contrary to suitability standards for federal employees or involved the unauthorised dissemination of classified information.”
It also claims that the Trump Administration “is attempting to punish and intimidate” Krebs, and “unequivocally condemn the political persecution of Chris Krebs and SentinelOne.”
Revoke Clearance
In the incident at the start of April, a White House statement declared that the head of every federal agency should immediately revoke any active security clearance held by Krebs, and suspend any active security clearance held by individuals at entities associated with Krebs, including SentinelOne, pending a review of whether such clearances are consistent with the national interest.
The EFF letter claimed that this action is retribution for Krebs’ correcting disinformation alleging fraud in the 2020 Presidential election. Trump fired Krebs via Tweet when Krebs called that election, which Trump lost, “the most secure in American history.”
Retaliatory Targeting
The undersigned say President “is signalling that cybersecurity professionals whose findings do not align with his narrative risk having their businesses and livelihoods subjected to spurious and retaliatory targeting,”
The letter concluded: “We take this responsibility upon ourselves with the collective knowledge that if any one of us is targeted for our work hardening these systems, then we all can be. We must not let that happen. And united, we will not let that happen.”
Written by
Dan Raywood is a B2B journalist with 25 years of experience, including covering cybersecurity for the past 17 years. He has extensively covered topics from Advanced Persistent Threats and nation-state hackers to major data breaches and regulatory changes.
He has spoken at events including 44CON, Infosecurity Europe, RANT Forum, BSides Scotland, Steelcon and the National Cyber Security Show, and served as editor of SC Media UK, Infosecurity Magazine and IT Security Guru. He was also an analyst with 451 Research and a product marketing lead at Tenable.
