Chris Krebs Biography

Christopher Cox Krebs is an American attorney who served as the Director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency in the United States Department of Homeland Security from November 2018 to November 2020. In November 2020, President Donald Trump fired Krebs for contradicting Trump on the prevalence of election fraud in the 2020 presidential elections.

Early life and education Krebs was born in Atlanta, Georgia, in 1977. He earned a bachelor's degree in environmental sciences from the University of Virginia in 1999, and a Juris Doctor from the Antonin Scalia Law School at George Mason University in 2007.

Career Krebs's professional work has focused on cybersecurity and risk management issues. He served as Senior Advisor to the Assistant Secretary of Homeland Security for Infrastructure Protection, and later worked in the private sector as Director for Cybersecurity Policy for Microsoft.

In March 2017, he became Senior Counselor to the Secretary of Homeland Security. In August 2017, he was appointed Assistant Secretary for Infrastructure Protection, and performed the duties of the Under Secretary of Homeland Security for National Protection and Programs until he was confirmed to that position on a permanent basis on June 15, 2018. In November 2018, the National Protection and Programs Directorate was replaced by the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency , and Krebs remained as director of the agency.

It was reported that Krebs was being considered to serve as Acting Secretary of Homeland Security after the departure of Kevin McAleenan, although he was reported to be uninterested in the position.

2020 dismissal On November 12, 2020, it was reported that Krebs expected to be fired from his position; in part, this expectation was due to Krebs's role in creating a CISA website to debunk election-related disinformation, much of which was being promoted by President Donald Trump and his allies. As CISA's director, Krebs was the 'administration's most senior cybersecurity official responsible for securing the presidential election'. Sidney Powell, an attorney for Trump and Michael Flynn, asserted on the Lou Dobbs and Maria Bartiromo Fox News programs that a secret government supercomputer program had switched votes from Trump to Biden in the election, a claim Krebs dismissed as 'nonsense' and a 'hoax.'

On November 17, 2020, Krebs said in a tweet that '59 election security experts all agree, 'in every case of which we are aware, these claims either have been unsubstantiated or are technically incoherent.' Trump fired Krebs via Twitter the same day. Trump declared in the tweet that he was firing Krebs because '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 votes from Trump to Biden, late voting, and many more. Therefore, effective immediately, Chris Krebs has been terminated as Director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency.' Several Republican Senators criticized Trump's decision to dismiss Krebs.