- President Trump picks Sean Plankey as CISA director
- Plankey also served as part of Trump’s previous administration
- CISA faces potential turbulence under Trump
President Trump has announced Sean Plankey as his pick for the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) Director in Sean Plankey.
Plankey’s nomination will be heard before the Senate Homeland Security Committee, and if confirmed, he will head up the agency following some potentially interesting directional changes. This follows the news that the US is set to pause cyber-offensive operations against Russia, despite CISA reaffirming its commitment to defending against all cyber-threats, “including from Russia”.
Prior to the 2024 election, Plankey predicted a second Trump presidency would bring “more pointed measures at [our] adversaries,” anticipating a landscape with “more delineation between competitive nations versus adversarial ones.”
A supportive President?
Considering President Trump’s appointment of some pretty controversial cabinet members, Plankey does seem a more balanced pick, as he hold qualifications for the role. This includes experience as weapons and tactics branch chief at US Cyber Command, and global head of cybersecurity software for Indigo Vault – a post-quantum encryption document protection platform.
Industry professionals like Brian Harrell have previously praised Plankey’s appointment, calling him a “straight shooter” who will refocus CISA towards risk reduction and protection against adversaries.
In the first Trump administration, Plankey served as Principle Deputy Assistant Secretary for the Office of Cybersecurity, Energy, Security, and Emergency Response (CESER).
President Trump created CISA in 2018 with the aim of protecting government agencies and US infrastructure from cyberattacks and digital threats. Trump was “definitely supportive of cybersecurity issues”, in his previous administration, Plankey confirmed, so the partnership is certainly well established.
“For all the misinformation and disinformation on President Trump’s goals, our cybersecurity positions are not radical,” Plankey said before the election.
“Use cyberspace operations strategically and tactically to achieve U.S. national security goals. This is how you effectively protect the interests of America and if this is radical then the disinformation campaign has won.”
