Through a series of executive orders, President Trump has fundamentally altered the landscape of federal cybersecurity policy. Among the most significant actions was the removal of all 15 members serving on the Cyber Safety Review Board (CSRB), a bipartisan advisory body created in February 2022 to examine major cybersecurity incidents. The board had completed three major investigations covering the Log4Shell vulnerability crisis, attacks attributed to the LAPSUS$ cybercrime group, and the 2023 Microsoft Exchange Online breach.
The timing of the dismissals proved particularly contentious, as the CSRB was actively investigating recent cyber intrusions targeting numerous U.S. telecommunications companies carried out by Chinese state-sponsored actors. Among those terminated was Chris Krebs, former director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), who was previously dismissed by Trump in November 2020 after declaring the 2020 presidential election secure and contradicting the former president's fraud allegations.
Kristi Noem, confirmed last week as the new Department of Homeland Security director, has signaled a shift in agency priorities. During her confirmation hearing, Noem stated that CISA must become "much more effective, smaller, more nimble, to really fulfill their mission," emphasizing that the agency should concentrate on securing federal IT infrastructure and detecting intrusions. She criticized CISA's involvement in addressing misinformation, asserting that "The misinformation and disinformation that they have stuck their toe into and meddled with, should be refocused back onto what their job is."
Moses Frost, a cybersecurity instructor at the SANS Institute, drew a stark comparison between the board's dismissal and removing all National Transportation Safety Board experts during an active plane crash investigation. "I don't recall seeing an 'NTSB Board' being fired during the middle of a plane crash investigation," Frost wrote in a SANS newsletter. "I can say that the attackers in the phone companies will not stop because the review board has gone away. We do need to figure out how these attacks occurred, and CISA did appear to be doing some good for the vast majority of the federal systems."
The administration also terminated Transportation Security Administration chief David Pekoske, despite his oversight of significant cybersecurity enhancements across pipeline, rail, and aviation infrastructure. Pekoske, originally appointed by Trump in 2017, had his five-year term extended in 2022 by former President Joe Biden.
AI & CRYPTOCURRENCY
Trump rescinded a Biden-era executive order focused on artificial intelligence research and development that emphasized managing safety and security risks. The White House stated that the previous approach had impeded progress, pledging instead to support AI systems "free from ideological bias or engineered social agendas" to preserve American technological leadership.
The new administration issued its own AI directive establishing an "AI Action Plan" overseen by the presidential assistant for science and technology, the White House AI and cryptocurrency czar, and the national security advisor. The order instructs the White House to revise federal agency policies governing AI procurement and management, aiming to eliminate "harmful barriers to America's AI leadership."
David Sacks, an entrepreneur and Silicon Valley venture capitalist serving as the AI and cryptocurrency czar, has argued that Biden administration policies on both AI and digital assets pushed innovation overseas. Sacks has characterized non-fungible tokens and memecoins as "collectibles" comparable to baseball cards and stamps rather than as regulated financial instruments.
Under U.S. tax law, collectibles including art and antiques face specific capital gains treatment. However, Joe Hall, a capital markets attorney and partner at Davis Polk, told Fortune that securities law contains no regulatory framework for collectibles. Hall suggested that "suggest a viewpoint that it would not be appropriate to regulate these things the way we regulate securities."
The administration's stance aligns with significant personal financial interests. President Trump and First Lady Melania Trump each launched memecoins this month—$TRUMP and $MELANIA respectively. The Wall Street Journal reported that $TRUMP reached a market capitalization of approximately $7 billion, down from a peak near $15 billion, while $MELANIA hovered around $460 million. Two months before the 2024 election, Trump's three sons introduced World Liberty Financial, a cryptocurrency token.
On January 23, Trump signed an executive order establishing a working group chaired by Sacks to develop "a federal regulatory framework governing digital assets, including stablecoins," and to evaluate the creation of a "strategic national digital assets stockpile." This directive would effectively channel federal resources toward supporting the speculative and volatile cryptocurrency sector, which has been plagued by scams, rug-pulls, major cyber thefts, fraud, and money laundering innovations.
WEAPONIZATION & DISINFORMATION
Before the election, Trump repeatedly pledged to use a second term for retribution against perceived adversaries. This materialized in an executive order titled "Ending the Weaponization of the Federal Government," which condemned "an unprecedented, third-world weaponization of prosecutorial power to upend the democratic process" regarding prosecutions of more than 1,500 individuals who participated in the January 6, 2021 Capitol invasion.
On January 21, Trump commuted sentences for several Proud Boys and Oath Keepers leaders convicted of seditious conspiracy. He also issued "a full, complete and unconditional pardon to all other individuals convicted of offenses related to events that occurred at or near the United States Capitol on January 6, 2021," encompassing those who assaulted law enforcement.
The New York Times reported that the executive order's language suggests—though does not explicitly state—that the Trump administration review may examine actions by local district attorneys or state officials, including those in Manhattan, Fulton County, Georgia, and the New York attorney general, all of whom pursued cases against Trump.
A second order titled "Restoring Freedom of Speech and Ending Federal Censorship" asserts that the previous administration violated free speech protections by pressuring social media companies to moderate or suppress content. The order states: "Over the last 4 years, the previous administration trampled free speech rights by censoring Americans' speech on online platforms, often by exerting substantial coercive pressure on third parties, such as social media companies, to moderate, deplatform, or otherwise suppress speech that the Federal Government did not approve. Under the guise of combatting 'misinformation,' 'disinformation,' and 'malinformation,' the Federal Government infringed on the constitutionally protected speech rights of American citizens across the United States in a manner that advanced the Government's preferred narrative about significant matters of public debate."
These orders carry implications for security, privacy, and civil liberties advocates who have worked to track conspiracy theories and document disinformation campaigns originating from U.S. adversaries on social media platforms.
Following the 2020 election, Republicans established the House Judiciary Committee's Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government, chaired by GOP Representative Jim Jordan of Ohio. The subcommittee investigated alleged coordination between the Biden administration and technology companies to suppress political speech. Much of its focus targeted the short-lived Disinformation Governance Board, an advisory board created by DHS in 2022 whose stated mission involved combating misinformation, disinformation, and malinformation. Conservative groups attacked the board's director over social media posts; she resigned following death threats, and DHS subsequently dissolved the board.
During his first administration, Trump appointed a special prosecutor to investigate the FBI's inquiry into potential coordination between the Trump campaign and Russian operatives during the 2016 election. That investigation examined evidence collected by prominent cybersecurity experts who documented unusual communications between a Trump Organization email server and Alfa Bank, a major Russian financial institution.
Special Prosecutor John Durham subsequently subpoenaed and deposed dozens of security experts involved in collecting, reviewing, or commenting on the data. Alfa Bank's lawyers similarly pursued depositions. Durham ultimately indicted Michael Sussman, a former federal cybercrime prosecutor who reported the server communications to the FBI. Sussman was acquitted in May 2022. Last week, Trump appointed Durham to lead the U.S. attorney's office in Brooklyn, New York.
Quinta Jurecic at Lawfare notes that while the executive orders appear threatening, their vagueness leaves room for either extensive retaliation or minimal action. "The two orders establish that there will be investigations but leave open the questions of what kind of investigations, what will be investigated, how long this will take, and what the consequences might be," Jurecic wrote. "It is difficult to draw firm conclusions as to what to expect. Whether this ambiguity is intentional or the result of sloppiness or disagreement within Trump's team, it has at least one immediate advantage as far as the president is concerned: generating fear among the broad universe of potential subjects of those investigations."
On Friday, Trump moved to dismiss at least 17 inspectors general—federal watchdogs responsible for auditing and investigating executive branch activities and uncovering waste, fraud, and abuse. Lawfare's Jack Goldsmith argues the removals likely comply with law despite Trump bypassing a 2022 requirement for congressional notification. "Trump probably acted lawfully, I think, because the notice requirement is probably unconstitutional," Goldsmith wrote. However, he noted that constitutional limitations on Trump's replacement authority could complicate his ability to install loyalists in vacant inspector general positions. "The ultimate fate of IG independence during Trump 2.0, however, depends less on legal protections than on whether Congress, which traditionally protects IGs, stands up for them now. Don't hold your breath."
Among numerous Biden executive orders revoked last week was a December 2021 directive establishing the United States Council on Transnational Organized Crime, tasked with advising the White House on criminal activities including drug and weapons trafficking, migrant smuggling, human trafficking, cybercrime, intellectual property theft, money laundering, wildlife and timber trafficking, illegal fishing, and illegal mining.
The White House has not yet revoked a Biden executive order issued January 16, 2025, just days before Trump's inauguration. That directive focused on enhancing federal agency and contractor security while expanding government authority to sanction hackers targeting critical infrastructure.
Source: Krebs on Security