Kirstjen Nielsen confirmed as Homeland Security Secretary

Nielsen's confirmation comes despite criticism on her relative lack of leadership experience, independence and ethics that hampered her nomination process.

The Senate confirmed Kirstjen Nielsen on Tuesday as Secretary of Homeland Security by a vote of 62-37.

The tally comes after President Donald Trump nominated Nielsen once John Kelly moved to become Trump’s chief of staff. She previously was the White House’s deputy chief of staff where she was widely considered a close Kelly ally.

Nielsen was chosen by the White House as the preferred nominee in early 2017 but waffled on the decision, which stalled the nomination of DHS leadership for months.

Nielsen’s confirmation comes despite criticism on her relative lack of leadership experience, independence and ethics that hampered her nomination process.

Despite increasing prominence in the national conversation, cybersecurity was a secondary topic during Nielsen’s confirmation hearing. The security of voting machines, the electric grid and the nation’s critical infrastructure took a relative backseat to climate change, border security and immigration enforcement.

Senate committee votes to nominate Nielsen were delayed multiple times over ethics violations allegations after she accepted confirmation preparation help from a consultant representing companies with hundreds of millions of dollars at stake.

Before that, Democrats on the House Homeland Security Committee said the inspector general at the Department of Homeland Security should investigate a “glitzy ceremony” at the White House celebrating Nielsen’s nomination.

“While I am glad that the Department of Homeland Security will soon finally have a permanent leader for the first time since July, there is still much we do not know about Ms. Nielsen’s plans for the Department,” said Rep. Bennie Thompson, R-Miss., Ranking Member of the House Homeland Security Committee. “She still must show us she has the ability lead a workforce of 240,000 while keeping the country safe and secure.”

Government

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• 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

• 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