Monday, November 30, 2020

'60 Minutes' interviews Chris Krebs and more about election cybersecurity for Cyber Monday

Happy Cyber Monday! This year, instead of writing about online shopping or the Retail Apocalypse, I'm updating 'This U.S. Election Could Be the Most Secure Yet' says The New York Times 'Stressed Election' with a different kind of cyber story in the news, last night's Fired director of US cyber agency Chris Krebs explains why he says vote was "most secure in Amer[ican History] on "60 Minutes."

Chris Krebs, a lifelong Republican, was put in charge of the agency handling election security by President Trump two years ago. When Krebs said the 2020 election was the country's most secure ever, Mr. Trump fired him. Now, Krebs speaks to Scott Pelley.
I'll let three commenters on the video speak for me. First, Margit Hammer wrote "This guy gets an A+ for professionalism. He never once spoke badly of Trump, even though he had every reason and opportunity to." I second that emotion. Next, Sarah Cahoot wrote "This man did his job and did it very well. And Trump doesn’t like anyone who does their job." Well, at least anyone who does their job as written, not as Donald Trump believes it should be, which is to support his goals, including making him look good. Speaking of which, I conclude quoting comments with this one by Bryan: "Protect the Constitution not the corrupt president. Good job sir." Good job, indeed!

Follow over the jump for video clips showing how Krebs' story developed over the past month.

The earliest comes from election night eve, when MSNBC's Katy Tur interviewed Krebs in Cyber Security Chief: 'We Are More Resilient, More Prepared' For This Election.

"Gang of 8" member Mark Warner tweeted, quote: "Our intelligence community has warned that the period immediately before and after Election Day is going to be uniquely volatile, and our adversaries will seek to take advantage of that." Director of the Cyber Security and Infrastructure Security Agency at the DHS Chris Krebs, joins Katy Tur to discuss. Aired on 11/02/2020.
That was before the election. After the election, CBS News reported the remarks that got Krebs fired in Cybersecurity officials say 2020 election was "the most secure in American history."

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, established under President Trump, says there's "no evidence that any voting system deleted or lost votes," contradicting the president's baseless claims. CISA calls the 2020 election "the most secure in American history." CBS News' Debra Alfarone reports from Washington.
CBS News uploaded that clip on Friday the 13th, which turned out to be an unlucky day for Krebs. The next Tuesday night was even more unlucky for him, as "Good Morning America" reported the next day that Trump fires top cybersecurity official.

President Donald Trump fired Christopher Krebs, a top election security official who had publicly rebuked the president's claims of massive voter fraud.
CBS News offered its analysis later that day in Cybersecurity analyst weighs in on firing of top election security official.

President Trump has fired the country's top security official in charge of keeping elections safe. Christopher Krebs played a key role in the government's efforts to secure U.S. elections in every state. Frank Cilluffo, the director of Auburn University's McCrary Institute for Cyber and Critical Infrastructure Security, joins CBSN to discuss.
I agree with Frank Cilluffo; maintaining the integrity of elections so that voters can have confidence in the results is the most important part of the work that Krebs directed until Trump fired him for doing his job and telling the truth. As I wrote the day after the election was called for Biden and repeated twice already, "I'm looking forward to not having to pay attention to Donald Trump again. I'll just have to wait until January 20, 2021 for that to be completely true."

That's it for November. Stay tuned for the first post of December, the last month of 2020. Thirty-one days to go!

2 comments:

  1. Mr Krebs received an Honor Badge by being fire after having produced a sfe electoral process. god bless him.

    ReplyDelete