Christopher Krebs, DHS Cybersecurity Agency Director, Selected to 2020 Wash100 for Critical Infrastructure Risk Mgmt Leadership

Executive Mosaic is honored to unveil Christopher Krebs, director of the Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, as an inductee into the 2020 edition of the Wash100 for leading the agency in its national efforts to safeguard cyber and physical assets.

Krebs is a two-time recipient of this annual award. He has led CISA since it was created in November 2018 to replace DHS’ national protection and programs directorate and to protect U.S. critical infrastructure assets from high-consequence risks.

In April, CISA unveiled its inaugural list of the 55 most important needs to strengthen the nation’s cyber defense. CISA will work with partners to develop a Risk Register from this set of functions by performing risk analysis, dependency analysis, and consequence modeling.

The Risk Register will assess the likelihood and consequences of a significant degradation to a National Critical Function, along with identification of government and industry readiness to work together to reduce risk.

“Identifying these National Critical Functions has been a collaborative process between public and private sector partners and marks a significant step forward in the way we think about and manage risk,” Krebs said at the time.

A CISA task force approved a proposal in 2019 to add a federal acquisition rule aimed at incentivizing the procurement of information and communications technology products from legitimate providers.

The ICT Supply Chain Risk Management Task Force is composed of government and industry representatives with the intent to address risks to the sector.

Krebs emphasized the importance of collaborative approach for cybersecurity stakeholders during his August speech at Auburn University in Alabama.

“It’s going to take the federal government, state and local governments, industry and the academic community all working together, sharing our respective resources and capabilities at all levels … if we’re going to make progress here,” he told the event audience.

In November, the agency head released a draft binding operational directive that requires federal agencies to develop vulnerability disclosure policies meant to increase the resiliency of government online services and security of public information.

Over his career in the private sector, Krebs held positions at Microsoft, Obsidian Analysis and Dutko before joining the department in March 2017.

Executive Mosaic congratulates Krebs and DHS’ CISA team for their selection to receive the 2020 Wash100 Award. His operational priorities and strategic plans for the agency will be influential to the GovCon sector.

About The Wash100

This year represents our sixth annual Wash100 Award selection. The Wash100 is the premier group of private and public sector leaders selected by Executive Mosaic’s organizational and editorial leadership as the most influential leaders in the GovCon sector. These leaders demonstrate skills in leadership, innovation, achievement, and vision.

Visit the Wash100 site to learn about the other 99 winners of the 2020 Wash100 Award. On the site, you can submit your 10 votes for the GovCon executives of consequence that you believe will have the most significant impact in 2020.