Bush's federal IT chief hopes for role in Trump administration

Karen Evans, the former head of federal IT under President George W. Bush, told CyberScoop she hopes to serve in Donald Trump's administration.

Karen Evans, the former head of federal IT under President George W. Bush, told CyberScoop she hopes to serve in the current administration.

“I would be honored if the Trump administration asked me to come in and work on our nation’s problems,” she said in an interview on the sidelines of the RSA security conference Tuesday.

She added that she didn’t know what roles she might be considered for. “I’ve just applied like everyone else,” she said. “I’m waiting to hear.”

Evans served between 2003-09 as administrator of the Office of Electronic Government and Information Technology at the White House Office of Management and Budget, overseeing the implementation of IT throughout the federal government. Prior to that, she was chief information officer for the U.S. Department of Energy.

Evans, who is a member of the prestigious Program Committee for the massive RSA conference, running all this week in San Francisco, is currently director of U.S. Cyber Challenge — a non-profit that runs competitions and summer camps to identify budding cyber talent at all ages.

She worked on the Trump transition team, but declined to give details, citing a nondisclosure agreement.

She believes there is an opportunity for Donald Trump’s administration to build on the work of its predecessor.

“A great foundation has been laid by [Obama administration federal CIO]  Tony Scott,” she said, adding “IT and cybersecurity are bipartisan issues. We don’t want to squander [that progress].”

Scott’s position is just one of several that Evans could be in the running for.

“There are lot of opportunities to move forward, leveraging new technologies to improve security … while moving government services into the 21st century,” concluded Evans.

Where’s the Trump administration line on AI regulation?

The messy approach to U.S. AI regulation reflects both the rapid speed of model cyber capabilities and the White House’s “education” over the past two years, experts…

Lawmakers, election officials blast Trump administration after Fulton County raid 

Trump administration setting the stage for elections power grab, voting rights group warns

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

• Wyden seeks upgraded NSA security guidance on commercial VPN use

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

• ‘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

• Election official says Tina Peters would be consultant, won’t have access to election systems