Christopher Krebs To Head NPPD

The White House on Feb. 8 nominated Christopher Krebs to be the next undersecretary of the Homeland Security Department's National Programs and Protection Directorate.

Krebs has been serving as acting undersecretary for the NPPD since August and has been concurrently serving as assistant secretary of infrastructure protection. Krebs joined DHS in March 2017 as a senior counselor to then-Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly. Prior to that, he served as vice chair of the National Cyber Security Alliance and the director of cybersecurity policy at Microsoft. 

The NPPD is responsible for "coordinating and assisting in the digital defense of critical infrastructure properties, including those tied to the U.S. electrical grid, financial markets and federal election systems," CyberScoop reports. However, a bill in Congress that has already passed in the House would rename the NPPD as the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, and would, as FCW notes, "bind the department's cyber and physical security missions and create new director-level position at the agency that reports directly to the DHS secretary."

FCW reports that "Krebs is widely respected both inside and outside of government for his cybersecurity and policy chops" and that on Feb. 7 he appeared before the Senate Homeland Security committee "as one of only three officials charged with representing DHS during reauthorization discussions, a sign of how important cybersecurity has become to congressional overseers."