Trump’s FBI Pick Calls for Increased Cyber Resiliency

Kash Patel, president-elect Donald Trump’s nominee for FBI director and former chief of staff to Acting Defense Secretary Christopher Miller, has emphasized the need to strengthen the nation’s infrastructure to counter the growing threat of cyberattacks from foreign adversaries.

Before serving as Chief of Staff to Acting Secretary of Defense, Patel was the deputy assistant to the president and senior director for counterterrorism at the National Security Council where he led several of the top Trump’s first administration’s priorities. He also served as principal deputy to the acting director of national intelligence, where he oversaw the operations of all 17 intelligence community agencies.

Patel highlighted his plans for bolstering the country’s cyber resiliency against foreign adversaries during a September interview on the Shawn Ryan Show. He expressed his concern for threats to the electrical grid, which are increasingly vulnerable to cyberattacks, with the number of susceptible points in electrical networks increasing daily.

Securing the power grid from cyberattacks has become evermore critical amid new operating environments that allow for more remote connectivity. Securing the grid means reducing risks for all sectors.

Last year, the Department of Energy (DOE) and Cybersecurity Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) released new measures to ensure security and resilience of the nation’s power grid in response to various incidents throughout 2022 that threatened electrical substations throughout the U.S.

During the interview with Shawn Ryan, Patel discussed why the outdated legacy systems pose a threat to the American people just as much as physical threats. He added that the National Intelligence Priorities Framework needs to focus on “intel needed to secure the nation.”

“The cyber stuff is in a different lane, but could expose us just as much, if not worse. And I think we’re very, very, very vulnerable to that,” said Patel in the interview. “You need to overhaul the infrastructure around these systems to safeguard us from — what I view as — one of the easier threats our adversaries can deploy against America.”

If confirmed by the Senate, Patel would succeed current FBI Director Christopher Wray, who announced this week that he will resign from his position at the end of the Biden administration’s term,

“My goal is to keep the focus on our mission — the indispensable work you’re doing on behalf of the American people every day,” Wray told agency employees during an FBI town hall on Wednesday.

Under Wray, the FBI has worked to bolster its cybersecurity against foreign adversaries. Nation-state cyber-attacks and threats have grown especially during the pandemic, like the 2020 SolarWinds incident. During a 2022 congressional hearing, Wray emphasized the importance of meeting milestones to stay ahead.

“As a country, we’re playing catchup on the threat, and so part of what I’ve got all our people doing is out there beating the bushes, interacting with the business community, the academic community,” Wray said. “I interact with our foreign partners trying to kind of raise awareness of the threat. It’s hard to think in some ways that something that significant could fly that much under the radar for that many people.”