Trump fires top US election cybersecurity official Chris Krebs
US President Donald Trump has fired the top country’s cybersecurity official Chris Krebs in a tweet, accusing him without evidence of making a “highly inaccurate” statement on the security of the US election.
Photo: AFP
Reuters reported last week that Krebs, who worked on protecting the election from hackers but drew the ire of the Trump White House over efforts to debunk disinformation, had told associates he expected to be fired.
Krebs headed up the Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency.
The recent statement by Chris Krebs on the security of the 2020 Election was highly inaccurate, in that there were massive improprieties and fraud – including dead people voting, Poll Watchers not allowed into polling locations, “glitches” in the voting machines which changed…
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 18, 2020
A CISA spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment.
The Reuters report prompted an outpouring of support from security experts around the country, who praised Krebs for his bipartisan work in the past two years.
Krebs angered the White House over a website run by CISA dubbed “Rumour Control”, which debunked misinformation about the election, according to the three people familiar with the matter.
Honored to serve. We did it right. Defend Today, Secure Tomrorow. #Protect2020
— Chris Krebs (@C_C_Krebs) November 18, 2020
– Reuters
