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Just a day after he was inaugurated, US President Donald J. Trump axed members of the nation’s Cyber Safety Review Board (CSRB), among others.
The US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) terminated the rolls of the CSRB’s members as part of a wider cost-cutting measure to cut down the “misuse” of department resources.
“In alignment with the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) commitment to eliminating the misuse of resources and ensuring that DHS activities prioritise our national security, I am directing the termination of all current memberships on advisory committees within DHS, effective immediately,” wrote Benjamine C. Huffman, acting Secretary of the DHS, in a memo on 20 January 2025.
“Future committee activities will be focused solely on advancing our critical mission to protect the homeland and support DHS’s strategic priorities. To outgoing advisory board members, you are welcome to reapply, thank you for your service.”
Established as part of an executive order executed by former US president Joe Biden, the CSRB was designed to analyse major cyber incidents and bring lessons learnt to the private and public sectors, improving their security against future threats.
The axing comes at a critical time for US cyber security, as the CSRB was currently investigating the US telecom hacks by Chinese APT Salt Typhoon.
While Trump’s reasoning for the cull is unclear beyond the statements made by the DHS, Trump vowed to dismiss those associated with the Biden administration or those who opposed him, his party and his policies.
Speaking with TechCrunch, a source familiar with the CSRB who was terminated said the decision to axe the CSRB and other advisory boards was a mistake.
“Shutting down all DHS advisory boards without consideration of the impact was horribly shortsighted,” said the anonymous source.
“Stopping the CSRB review when China has ongoing cyber attacks into our critical infrastructure is a dangerous blunder. We need to learn from Salt Typhoon and protect ourselves better. The fact this isn’t a priority for Trump is telling.
“You can’t stop what you don’t understand, and the CSRB was arming us with understanding.”
The decision was also critiqued by government and industry leaders, including a ranking member of the House Committee on Homeland Security, Bennie Thompson.
“I am troubled that the president’s attempt to stack the CSRB with loyalists may cause its important work on the Salt Typhoon campaign to be delayed,” he said.
Additionally, Annie Fixler, director of the Centre on Cyber and Technology Innovation at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, while acknowledging that a change in administration does often result in a change in membership, said that the decision to remove CSRB members during the Salt Typhoon investigation could diminish it.
“The investigation into China’s Salt Typhoon compromise of American telecommunications companies is of paramount importance so that our nation can learn the lessons of what happened and how to prevent a repeat occurrence,” Fixler said.
“Anything that diminished the CSRB’s ability to conduct a timely and thorough review is unfortunate.”
It is also worth noting that now former CSRB member and chief intelligence and public policy officer at SentinelOne, Chris Krebs, resigned two days before the widespread axing of CSRB members.
Trump notoriously fired Krebs following Biden’s presidential election win in 2020 for confirming the security of the election results.
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