The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) announced today that it has added two cybersecurity experts to support the agency’s COVID-19 response efforts.
CISA said it is using authorities granted under the March CARES Act to hire Josh Corman as a visiting researcher and Rob Arnold as a senior cybersecurity and risk management advisor for CISA’s National Risk Management Center.
“The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in noticeable shifts in cyber risk calculations for organizations of all sizes,” said CISA Director Chris Krebs. “The hardware, software, and services that underpin our connected infrastructure have absolutely been tested and stressed in this telework-heavy environment. At the same time, certain organizations and sectors of our economy have become more attractive targets for adversaries.”
Krebs may be alluding to a May 13 warning from the FBI and CISA telling research organizations studying COVID-19 that they may be susceptible to targeting and network compromise by the People’s Republic of China (PRC).
According to a CISA statement, Corman will “advise on CISA’s integrated industry engagement efforts supporting the COVID response, provide cybersecurity expertise on healthcare infrastructure, and support CISA’s control systems and life safety initiatives.” He joins the Federal government after a lengthy private sector career. He recently served as the chief security officer at PTC and the director for the cyber statecraft initiative at the Atlantic Council’s Brent Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security. He is also the co-founder of IAmTheCavalry.org, a non-profit collection of volunteers dedicated to improving cybersecurity in areas that can save lives. This isn’t his first time working with the Federal government, as Corman previously served as a member of the Congressional Health Care Industry Cybersecurity Task Force.
Arnold also comes to CISA from the private sector, having been the founder and CEO of Threat Sketch, a strategic cyber risk management firm. He also co-founded the North Carolina Center for Cybersecurity. At CISA, he will focus on “helping the agency better understand shifts in cyber risk from COVID-related factors and how the critical infrastructure community can best fortify its defenses in response.”
“This changing threat landscape demands an ‘all-hands-on-deck’ approach and for us to bring the best and brightest minds to the front lines, and the authority granted to us by the CARES Act makes it possible to quickly recruit and add top experts to our team,” added Director Krebs. “Josh and Rob are two examples of the type of innovative leaders that will help us build up our technical capabilities while at the same time improve our engagement with our industry and security researcher community partners during this critical time.”
