Rob Joyce named new NSA cybersecurity director

He'll be the second-ever director.

Rob Joyce, the National Security Agency’s special U.S. liaison officer at the U.S. Embassy in London, will replace Anne Neuberger as director in the agency’s Cybersecurity Directorate, the NSA announced Friday.

The Biden transition team announced Wednesday that Neuberger will soon be joining the Biden administration as deputy national security adviser for cyber and emerging technology on the National Security Council (NSC).

It was not immediately clear who would take on Joyce’s role as the NSA’s senior cryptologic representative in the U.K.

Joyce has a long track record of working in cybersecurity leadership roles in the U.S. government. He previously served as senior advisor for cybersecurity strategy to the NSA director, and before that served as special assistant to the president and cybersecurity coordinator on the NSC at the White House. At the NSC Joyce was responsible for national and international cybersecurity strategy and policy for the government.

His expertise in cyber-operations also comes from time serving as NSA’s chief of Tailored Access Operations as well as the deputy director of the NSA’s former Information Assurance Directorate, which, like the Cybersecurity Directorate, focused on cyberdefenses. The IAD was folded into another directorate in a reorganization of the agency in 2016.

Joyce has also previously served as acting homeland security adviser.

Joyce will take on the reins at the year-old Cybersecurity Directorate at a tumultuous time for the federal government’s cybersecurity ranks. The NSC is still investigating the SolarWinds breach, which has affected numerous federal agencies and top cybersecurity companies, and just how much damage the suspected Russian espionage operation has done.

The cybersecurity director post, a role that NSA Director Gen. Paul Nakasone created just over a year ago, will have no small part to play in response efforts to the suspected Russian campaign. The Cybersecurity Directorate was established to help the NSA enhance its efforts to tip timely and relevant information on foreign government hacking operations with the private sector, and to “prevent and eradicate” those intruders.

Officials once again warn defenders that Russian hackers are targeting network devices

State-sponsored attackers are targeting critical infrastructure networks in defense, communications, energy, finance, government and health care.

UK spy chief labels AI ‘unstoppable force’ with offensive, defensive ramifications for cyberspace

Former NSA chiefs worry American offensive edge in cybersecurity is slipping

Government

• FBI officials say AI is bolstering adversaries, emphasizing need to focus on cyber basics, patching

• Feds accuse China of ‘systematic’ distillation of U.S. AI models

• CIA’s Michael Ellis says cyber intelligence is changing how the agency operates

• The G7 tells industry to hurry up and prep for post-quantum encryption

Technology

• European parliament members call for slowdown of Serbia’s EU entry over spyware use

• FCC proposes public scorecard to rate telecoms on anti-robocall efforts

• Pegasus, NoviSpy variant spyware found on devices of Serbian activists

• The Collective Cyber Defense letter wrote your next vendor questionnaire

Threats

• Chinese espionage groups swarm to exploit triple-link chain of zero-days

• Microsoft discloses two actively exploited zero-days among 974 vulnerabilities

• Russian national extradited to US for alleged involvement in bank-account takeover scheme

• Attackers exploit zero-days in consistently besieged SonicWall product

Policy

• Whistleblower says USPS deploying new, ‘untested’ IT systems governing mail-in ballots

• ‘Watershed 250’ test program in Texas looks to private sector for water cybersecurity help

• Former sexual abuse victims say Grok used their images, videos to train deepfake capabilities

• Cyber threats nudge Trump to sign executive order on foreign equipment in U.S. energy infrastructure