Biden to name Chris Inglis as new national cyber director

President Joe Biden will name Chris Inglis to the new position of national cyber director, the White House announced on Monday

Inglis — whose legal first name is John but who goes by Chris — is a former National Security Agency deputy director. The Washington Post was first to report his appointment.

The White House also announced on Monday that Biden will nominate Jen Easterly, a former NSA intelligence officer, to lead the Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency. CISA is the federal government’s top cybersecurity agency.

The President will also name Robert Silvers as undersecretary for policy at the Department of Homeland Security. Silvers was the assistant secretary for cyber policy at the Department of Homeland Security during the Obama administration.

The President’s picks come following the devastating Solarwinds attack, one of the worst data breaches ever to hit the US having affected both the federal government and many private sector businesses.

At the time, Chris Krebs — who was fired by President Donald Trump after rejecting the former President’s claims of widespread voter fraud — served as the director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency at DHS.

During the Biden administration’s first public assessment of the gravity of the attack — which is suspected to be a Russian spy operation — deputy national security adviser Anne Neuberger told reporters the US government’s probe into the attack is likely to take “several months” at least.

At least nine federal agencies were specifically targeted by the hacking operation and an additional 100 private-sector businesses were compromised, Neuberger said at the time.