President Donald Trump reportedly will nominate Sean Cairncross, former chief operating officer of the Republican National Committee (RNC), as the new head of the Office of the National Cyber Director (ONCD), according to multiple reports. If confirmed, Cairncross fills the role formerly held by Harry Coker Jr., a former CIA senior executive and career Naval officer who served as the White House national cyber director from December 2023 to January, 2025. In his new role, Cairncross would be responsible for coordinating national cybersecurity policy, advising the president on cyber threats, and ensuring a unified federal response to emerging cyber-risks. He would share responsibility for advising the president on cyber matters, along with the director of cyber at the White House National Security Council (NSC) — a group that advises the president on all matters security related, and not just cyber. As national cyber director, Cairncross will play a key role in developing and shaping US cybersecurity policies in the new administration. The nomination of Cairncross as national cyber director marks a significant development in the Trump administration's still nascent but evolving cyber strategy. Meanwhile, Politico last week reported that Trump had appointed Alexei Bulazel, a former security researcher at Apple and former director of the NSC, as the new senior director for cyber at the Council. Among other things, the ONCD led the development of President Joe Biden's National Cybersecurity Strategy of March 2023. Sean Cairncross will be one of the primary advisers to the administration on national cybersecurity matters. Before that, he was deputy assistant to President Trump and senior adviser to the White House chief of staff, and had served as chief operating officer (COO) of the RNC during the 2016 election cycle. If true, that would make Cairncross the second high-level cybersecurity appointment that Trump has made since taking office on Jan. Unlike the US Cybersecurity and Information Security Agency (CISA), which handles operational cybersecurity and directly engages with federal agencies, ONCD's primary mission is to develop a high-level, whole-of-nation cybersecurity strategy. In just four weeks in the White House, Trump has implemented changes that have sent ripples through the cybersecurity industry. That included members of CISA's Cyber Safety Review Board (CSRB), which among other things was investigating Chinese group Salt Typhoon's attacks on US critical infrastructure.
This Cyber News was published on www.darkreading.com. Publication date: Wed, 12 Feb 2025 23:05:04 +0000