Joe Biden’s pick for director of national intelligence has a deep understanding of cybersecurity and digital identity issues, reports Axios.
Avril Haines, a former national security adviser to President Barack Obama and former deputy director of the CIA, has worked with Biden for more than a decade. Biden announced her nomination, along with the nomination or appointment of several other senior officials, as part of his incoming administration.
During Haines’ tenure at the CIA, the agency reorganized to emphasize computer security, cyber operations, and intelligence-gathering practices.
The CIA must “embrace and leverage the digital revolution and innovate across our missions,” then-CIA Director John Brennan wrote in a 2015 announcement of the shakeup. “We must place our activities and operations in the digital domain at the very center of all our mission endeavors.”
Haines in 2019 told Axios the issues were even bigger “before I arrived at the agency.”
“One way to frame our approach to the many challenges posed by technology was to ‘do less, but do it better,’ which meant focusing on what was most important and then spending the time and resources needed to keep it secret,” she said.
Solange Reyner ✉
Solange Reyner is a writer and editor for Newsmax. She has more than 15 years in the journalism industry reporting and covering news, sports and politics.
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