Plankey vows to boot China from U.S. supply chain, advocate for CISA budget

At his Senate confirmation hearing to lead CISA, Sean Plankey pledged to prioritize evicting Chinese intrusions from U.S. supply chains, focus on defending federal networks and critical infrastructure, and approach election infrastructure as a cybersecurity mission without engaging in content moderation. Senators pressed him on CISA’s budget cuts, organizational direction, and the boundary between cybersecurity and alleged “censorship,” while he expressed support for renewing the State and Local Cybersecurity Grant Program and the 2015 Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act with clarifying language. The hearing also highlighted uncertainty about CISA’s election security plans and Sen. Ron Wyden’s hold on the nomination over an unreleased report on telecom security and concerns related to nation-state threats like the Salt Typhoon hack.