Cyberwar at the White House

Anne Neuberger and the competition to set Biden’s cybersecurity agenda

- By William Turton

Anne Neuberger, the Biden administration’s Deputy National Security Advisor for Cyber and Emerging Technology, organized a virtual summit on ransomware for Oct. 13, 2021. She invited representatives from about 30 countries and the European Union, but no one from several of the key U.S. agencies handling cybersecurity, including the Department of State, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, and the newly created Office of the National Cyber Director.

Officials at all three agencies eventually received invitations to attend, but only as observers, and people at State and CISA came away feeling rankled, according to five people familiar with the summit who requested anonymity to discuss the politically sensitive event. The flap reflected mounting tension within the Biden administration as different factions vie for control over a critical policy area—and reinforced the impression that Neuberger, a former star at the National Security Agency (NSA), has developed into a sharp-elbowed power player within the White House. “Anne basically ran the summit like it was a covert operation,” says a former senior U.S. cybersecurity official familiar with the planning, who asked not to be named because sensitive details are involved.

The stakes of bureaucratic tussling are high. Over the last year gangs of criminal hackers, some with ties to the Russian government, have carried out a series of disruptive attacks on U.S. businesses and critical infrastructure, and Russian President Vladimir Putin has shown little inclination to cooperate in attempts to rein them in. Rising tension with China raises the prospect of cyberconflict with an even more formidable adversary.