CNN
One of President Joe Biden’s most senior cybersecurity advisers is expected to step down in the next two months, three people familiar with the decision tell CNN.
Chris Inglis, who has decades of government cybersecurity experience, has served as national cyber director in the White House since July 2021.
Congress established the office by law last year to try to bring coherence to how the executive branch responds to major hacks. The office is also charged with keeping a close eye on how agencies manage their cyber defenses in the face of an array of threats from state-backed adversaries and criminal groups.
Kemba Eneas Walden, a former Microsoft executive who joined the National Cyber Director’s office in May, will serve as acting director for the time being, the sources familiar with the personnel change told CNN.
Inglis is expected to retire after he steps down, the sources said. There is not a firm timeline for Inglis’ departure, one of the sources said. It could come after the White House releases a much-anticipated new national cybersecurity strategy to protect critical infrastructure from cyber threats and encourage private companies to raise their defenses.
Reached by phone Wednesday, Inglis did not deny that he was planning to resign, but would not comment further on the move. His goal, he told CNN, was always to get the nascent White House office up and running and to leave it in good hands.
Inglis, a nearly three-decade veteran of the National Security Agency, began his White House post after a string of serious cyber incidents in Biden’s first year in office, including a ransomware attack on a major fuel pipeline operator.
