President Fires Head of NSA, Cyber Command

At this point I don’t know if this is good or bad, but it continues with him firing anyone who was there before he entered the White House in January.

Air Force General Timothy Haugh WAS the head of both Cyber Command and the National Security Agency.

Haugh was in that post for a little over a year in what is usually a three year assignment.

In addition, Wendy Noble, an NSA veteran who was the agency’s deputy chief was transferred to a post in the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence.

I really don’t know much about either of these people, but the continued turmoil is not good for national security.

On the other hand, this president has never had much trust in the Intelligence Community, so maybe this is his way of cleaning house.

Since this is a Senate confirmed position, he can only assign someone as a placeholder for the Director of the NSA and Cyber Command, so, until the Senate confirms a replacement, the NSA is just treading water.

Agency personnel were informed tonight that Army Lt. General William Hartman will act in that placeholder capacity for now and Sheila Thomas, the agency’s executive director (top administrative person who was only appointed to that role in January) will act as deputy chief. Thomas has a forty year career record of working in the intelligence community. There is not a lot of information on Hartman.

It is certainly possible that he is doing this because, maybe, he is going to split the roles of NSA Chief and Cybercom Chief, something that presidents have been talking about for years and which Biden prepped for the president if he wants to do that. Personally, I think that would be a good thing. It is hard, if not impossible, to serve in the role of head of offensive security (NSA) and head of defensive security (Cyber Command).

SOoooo, this jury is still out. In the meantime it is one more place where government employees are unsure of the future, which, when it comes to cybersecurity, is not good right now. I am sure that Russia and China will stop attacking us while this gets sorted out. Credit: The Record

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