Since leaving office, Mayorkas has served as chairman of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s Cyber Leadership Council and practiced civil litigation, including on cybersecurity issues, for the law firm Wilmer Hale.
If he wins confirmation, cybersecurity pros are hoping he can help resume stalled efforts to boost international cooperation in cyberspace and help restore ties between government and industry on cybersecurity that frayed during the Trump administration.
Mayorkas will join other Biden staff picks who tackled cybersecurity problems during the Obama years, including Antony Blinken as secretary of state, Jake Sullivan as national security adviser and Avril Haines as director of national intelligence.
Biden plans to formally introduce the group during an event this afternoon. The Trump administration's decision last night to relent and begin the transition process means the picks can soon begin working with officials already inside the departments and get up to speed.
Former officials and cybersecurity experts hope those appointments signal the incoming administration will be treating cybersecurity as a top-level national security priority, a change from the Trump administration, which largely relegated it to second- and third-tier officials.
“It’s a sea change in terms of having folks at this level of experience,” Chris Painter, the State Department’s top cybersecurity official under Obama, told me. “They don’t need to be spoon-fed or brought up to speed. Cybersecurity will be a key foreign policy issue with this group.”
Painter also served during the first months of the Trump administration before his position was eliminated. His duties were later integrated with those of another official focused on global Internet governance. But cybersecurity experts are hopeful the job will be reinstated as a high-profile standalone position during the Biden administration.
Mayorkas probably will face a number of big cybersecurity challenges during his first months in office.
High on the list will be convincing allies to sever their telecommunications systems from Huawei and other Chinese firms as they transition to next-generation 5G infrastructure. That was a key Trump administration priority that gained bipartisan backing because of widespread concerns such access to 5G could supercharge Chinese espionage.
DHS probably will also continue playing a major role helping state and county election officials improve their cybersecurity defenses. That will be especially important if Congress delivers another surge of federal money for elections. Election security became a partisan battleground during the current administration because of President Trump’s hostility to the topic, but may be less contentious with Trump out of office.
Mayorkas will have to tackle low employee morale across DHS, as Nick Miroff and Maria Sacchetti report. That could be particularly difficult at the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, which was rocked this month when Trump fired the agency’s popular leader Chris Krebs for fact-checking some of his false claims about the election. Other CISA leaders were also asked to resign after the election.
Finally, DHS will play a major role in ensuring the government itself is protected against cyberattacks. Government agencies were hit with a slew of major breaches during the Obama administration. That included a breach linked to the Chinese government of sensitive security clearance data about more than 20 million current and former federal employees at the Office of Personnel Management.
There have been fewer major government breaches in recent years, but as attackers hone their craft another could be around the corner.
Mayorkas talked about the difficulty of protecting against such breaches in an exit interview with CyberScoop’s Tim Starks when he left the Obama administration in 2016. Tim was at Politico at the time.
Those cybersecurity concerns probably will take second place to Mayorkas’s main focus on rolling back Trump’s restrictive immigration policies.
Mayorkas, a son of Jewish Cuban refugees, was director of the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services before becoming deputy secretary at DHS.
He focused on the department’s immigration mission in his first tweets after being nominated by Biden, pledging to protect “those who flee persecution in search of a better life for themselves and their loved ones” and to “restore faith in our institutions, and protect our security here at home.”
But former officials are confident cybersecurity will remain high on his agenda.
“He won’t be just immigration-focused,” Suzanne Spaulding, who led DHS’s cybersecurity operations during the Obama administration and worked closely with Mayorkas, told me. “He has a real understanding of cybersecurity and critical infrastructure. He knows it’s important to the nation and that it’s the kind of thing that can jump up and bite you if you don’t pay sufficient attention to it.”
House Homeland Security Chairman Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) also praised Mayorkas.
“He is a seasoned leader and veteran of DHS who will undoubtedly be ready on Day One,” Thompson said in a statement. “His immigration and cybersecurity experience, together with his significant management experience, make him uniquely qualified to build DHS back better after years of neglect and being used as a political weapon by President Trump.”
The keys
The Biden administration can start planning in earnest now.
A decision by the head of the General Services Administration to belatedly begin the presidential transition process will give the Biden team access to $6 million in funding and office space to begin planning to tackle cybersecurity and other national security threats.
It will also give them access to government email accounts and cybersecurity protections to help ensure they can communicate in secret from U.S. adversaries.
Emily Murphy, the embattled Trump appointee who declined for nearly three weeks to declare a winner in the presidential race, said she received thousands of threats over her lack of action by phone and email, Lisa Rein and Felicia Sonmez report.
Murphy sent a letter to Biden beginning the transition process soon after Michigan certified the former vice president’s victory in the state. Trump, who has maintained without evidence that Biden’s victory was due to fraud, said on Twitter that he’d recommended the move. He also insisted his voter fraud case “STRONGLY continues.” He also continued to press conspiarcy theories about the election in a succeeding tweet.
The delayed transition had grown increasingly worrying for cybersecurity experts who warned it could put the incoming administration at a disadvantage tackling digital threats from Russia, China and other adversaries.
“On Jan. 20, they own it all,” Suzanne Spaulding, the former DHS cybersecurity lead, told me. “They’ve just been handed the controls of airplane and that’s not a time to be reading up on what changes have happened in the cockpit.”
Soon after the announcement, the Biden team launched its transition website:
Supporters were elated. Here's the campaign's Communications Director Kate Bedingfield:
GOP national security experts are pushing for Trump to formally concede.
The group, which includes former homeland security secretary Tom Ridge and former CIA director Michael Hayden, urged congressional Republicans to demand Trump’s concession, Tom Hamburger and Ellen Nakashima report.
The statement was signed by more than 100 GOP luminaries. They urged Republican leaders to “strongly oppose” Trump’s “dangerous and extra-legal efforts to threaten and intimidate state officials in order to prevent a vote by the Electoral College.”
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) dismissed the letter, saying Congress has no role in deciding the election’s outcome or the outcome of Trump’s various legal battles.
“All of it will happen right on time, and we will swear in the next administration on January 20,” he said.
Holiday hacking
CISA is launching a new webpage to help Americans avoid hacking and scams while they shop online during the holidays.
The effort comes as more holiday shopping than ever is expected to take place online because of the pandemic.
CISA’s tips:
- Make sure your devices are all patched and up to date before using them for purchases.
- Shop through retailers you already know.
- Use credit cards rather than debit cards because they often have better fraud protections.
“Americans are adjusting their travel and shopping habits for a holiday season that’s sure to be unlike anything we have experienced,” acting CISA director Brandon Wales said. “Hackers, scammers and thieves will take advantage of these changes and the generosity of the public during the holidays to target online shoppers and those giving to charities."
More cybersecurity news:
What We Know About Sidney Powell, the Lawyer Behind Wild Voting Conspiracy Theories (New York Times)
Daybook
- The Institute for Security and Technology is hosting a discussion, "Biden Administration Cyber Agenda on Dec. 2 at 2:30 p.m.
- MIT Technology Review’s CyberSecure conference will take place Dec. 2 and 3.
Secure log off
Remember, there were downsides to traveling home for Thanksgiving, too.