CISA: No Infrastructure Cybersecurity, Just a Stepping Stone for IT Incompetents

By Duane Thresher, Ph.D.          November 8, 2021

As the name implies, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), part of the Department of Homeland Security, is the main U.S. Government agency responsible for infrastructure cybersecurity. This includes elections, for which CISA is already rightfully notorious and which I've investigated, and electrical, including nuclear, power plants, which CISA has ignored and I've written about in Handing Over America's Electrical Grid to the Russians and Nuclear 9/11, for example. As history shows, those in CISA are always IT incompetent, incapable of doing infrastructure cybersecurity and protecting America, and only concerned with using CISA as a stepping stone to even higher-paying jobs. Stop this dangerous national security IT incompetence — remember 9/11 Was Due to IT Incompetence — and let me, Dr. Duane Thresher, CEO of Apscitu Inc. and a real IT expert, do America's infrastructure cybersecurity.

First, as I wrote in What is IT and What Makes Me an Expert?, I prefer the term "IT security" over "cybersecurity", since any word with cyber in it sounds like it came from bad science fiction, which it did. For the purposes of this article about the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency though, which is so dangerously IT incompetent it seems like it must be bad science fiction (also true of the NSA and CIA; see 9/11 Was Due to IT Incompetence), I will use the term cybersecurity.

Back in April 2018 I wrote Handing Over America's Electrical Grid to the Russians, in which I asked and answered, "So who is protecting America's electrical grid from its greatest threat, state-sponsored foreign hackers?"

The answer then was Jeanette Manfra , Assistant Secretary for Cybersecurity, under the National Protection and Programs Directorate (NPPD), precursor to CISA, of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

Jeanette Manfra is IT incompetent, having no IT education; see The Most Important IT Credential: An IT Education in Principles of IT Incompetence.

Before joining NPPD in July 2017, Manfra worked for Booz Allen Hamilton, the IT incompetent NSA (National Security Agency) contractor that let its IT incompetent (high school dropout) employee Edward Snowden, now living in Russia, hack the NSA; see 9/11 Was Due to IT Incompetence. Jeanette Manfra was added to the Government and Business IT Incompetents Hall Of Shame when I wrote Handing Over America's Electrical Grid to the Russians.

In November 2018 President Donald Trump elevated the mission of the NPPD and it became CISA, still under DHS, and Jeanette Manfra's title became Assistant Director for Cybersecurity.

Finding any evidence of infrastructure hacking on her watch would have been a career-threatening embarrassment — breaking her stepping stone (a version of the government-business revolving door) — so Jeanette Manfra would not have even if she was capable of doing so. IT incompetent Jeanette Manfra left CISA in January 2020 to become, incredibly, Google's Global Director of Security, where she is making a lot more money than the already outrageous $171,291 salary she made at CISA. While this was yet another Google diversity hire — see IT Hiring: Trading IT Competence for Diversity in Principles of IT Incompetence — more importantly it was for Google to profit from Manfra's government connections. This hiring was probably in violation of Title 18 (crimes and criminal procedure) of U.S. Code, § 207 (restrictions on former officers, employees, and elected officials of the executive and legislative branches), a law written exactly to prevent such hirings; see IT Hiring: IT Incompetence Breeds Disloyalty and Corruption in Principles of IT Incompetence.

Also in the November 2018 NPPD to CISA change, Chris Krebs became Director of CISA, having been acting Under Secretary for Homeland Security in the NPPD since August 2017, and Matthew Travis became Deputy Director of CISA. Bryan Ware became Jeanette Manfra's replacement as Assistant Director for Cybersecurity in January 2020.

CISA's IT incompetent Chris Krebs, Matthew Travis, and Bryan Ware and the cybersecurity of the 2020 U.S. Presidential Election became notorious. All were essentially fired for their incompetence in this by President Trump in November 2020. Finding any evidence of election, or other infrastructure, hacking on their watches would have been a career-threatening embarrassment — breaking their stepping stone — so they would not have even if they were capable of doing so. They all had new higher-paying jobs ready to go when they were fired.

The firings did not break their stepping stone — the publicity actually greatly helped — because of the hatred of President Trump by the left, including the media, who just claimed Trump wanted some election hacking evidence manufactured and fired them in retaliation for not doing so. CISA, in particular Chris Krebs, said "There is no evidence that any voting system deleted or lost votes, changed votes, or was in any way compromised." But this is the same tired old fallacy that all IT incompetent organizations use to avoid responsibility when they are hacked: that because they didn't find any evidence, no hacking occurred. But think about how stupid that is: if you don't want to find evidence, you won't. As a former scientist, I can tell you that one of the basic tenets of science is "absence of evidence is not evidence of absence". See for example HealthCare.gov Hacked.

CISA itself, as a part of DHS, was probably hacked in 2020, months before the 2020 U.S. Presidential Election in November 2020, in The Doomsday Microsoft Government Email Data Breach.

I first investigated Chris Krebs, Matthew Travis, and Bryan Ware when I was doing a 3-part series, as yet unpublished, 2020 U.S. Presidential Election Hacked, Part I: Undetectable So Unreported, Part II: Government Responsible, and Part III: How (see also Foreign Hacking of New Hampshire Voting Machines from February 2020). As a real IT expert, I can tell you that it is quite possible the 2020 U.S. Presidential Election was hacked.

Former CISA Director Chris Krebs is IT incompetent, having no IT education; see The Most Important IT Credential: An IT Education in Principles of IT Incompetence.

Chris Krebs was the Cybersecurity Policy Director at Microsoft from February 2014 to March 2017, before he joined CISA, and was planning on working for Microsoft again, at a higher-paying level, with his profitable government connections from stepping stone CISA.

Working for Microsoft was a reason for Chris Krebs not to find any evidence of hacking in the 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. The Doomsday Microsoft Government Email Data Breach was Microsoft's fault so if any evidence was found it would have implicated Microsoft. Krebs was part of Microsoft's protection in the federal government. See Microsoft Guilty But Protected by NSA, AB PAC, India, and DelBenes and note also that according to the Federal Election Commission, Krebs donated to Microsoft's political action committee (MSVPAC).

Chris Krebs did not end up working directly as an employee of Microsoft, but only because he saw and exploited an opportunity created by The Doomsday Microsoft Government Email Data Breach. After he was fired for IT incompetence by President Trump after the 2020 U.S. Presidential Election in November 2020, Chris Krebs started an IT security consulting firm with, incredibly, Alex Stamos, the IT incompetent Yahoo-then-Facebook Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) who was responsible for both Yahoo's and then Facebook's massive data breaches; see Yahoo-Then-Facebook CISO Alex Stamos Allows Yet Another Massive Data Breach. The first customer of the Krebs Stamos Group was SolarWinds, the software company whose biggest customer was the federal government and that most are blaming — although Microsoft was really to blame — for The Doomsday Microsoft Government Email Data Breach. Microsoft will also, if they haven't already, hire the Krebs Stamos Group, which will also probably be a violation of Title 18 (crimes and criminal procedure) of U.S. Code, § 207 (restrictions on former officers, employees, and elected officials of the executive and legislative branches); see IT Hiring: IT Incompetence Breeds Disloyalty and Corruption in Principles of IT Incompetence.

Former CISA Deputy Director Matthew Travis is IT incompetent, having no IT education; see The Most Important IT Credential: An IT Education in Principles of IT Incompetence.

In January 2020, the Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification Accreditation Body (CMMC-AB) was incorporated in Maryland, next to Washington D.C., supposedly as a non-profit, but any corporation that takes all the money it makes and uses it on expenses, like huge salaries for its officers, can be declared a non-profit corporation. The U.S. Department of Defense, which was also hacked in The Doomsday Microsoft Government Email Data Breach, has made CMMC-AB "the sole entity authorized to accredit defense contractor cybersecurity". Without this accreditation, which the contractor has to pay for, the contractor can't get a defense contract, which are notoriously lucrative. Matthew Travis was probably in talks to join CMMC-AB even before they incorporated. After he was fired for IT incompetence by President Trump after the 2020 U.S. Presidential Election in November 2020, Matthew Travis became the first CEO of CMMC-AB on 1 April 2021, April Fools' Day. This hiring is also probably a violation of Title 18 (crimes and criminal procedure) of U.S. Code, § 207 (restrictions on former officers, employees, and elected officials of the executive and legislative branches); see IT Hiring: IT Incompetence Breeds Disloyalty and Corruption in Principles of IT Incompetence. Matthew Travis became one of the most powerful men in the Department of Defense — since it's all IT (cyber) these days — and he's IT incompetent and has no concern for national security, only his personal wealth, just like CISA's Jeanette Manfra, Chris Krebs, Bryan Ware, Jen Easterly, Nitin Natarajan, ...

Former CISA Assistant Director for Cybersecurity Bryan Ware is IT incompetent, having no IT education; see The Most Important IT Credential: An IT Education in Principles of IT Incompetence.

Right after he was fired for IT incompetence by President Trump after the 2020 U.S. Presidential Election in November 2020, Bryan Ware went to work for LookingGlass Cyber Solutions. LookingGlass does the IT for the Secret Service, which protects the president's life and knows a lot of personal, possibly damaging, information about the president. (Looking Glass is the name of the U.S.'s flying command and control center in case of nuclear war.) As I explained in Secret Service Outsources IT to IT Incompetent Foreign-Influenced Company in April 2018, LookingGlass is IT incompetent and run by foreigners. This hiring is also probably a violation of Title 18 (crimes and criminal procedure) of U.S. Code, § 207 (restrictions on former officers, employees, and elected officials of the executive and legislative branches); see IT Hiring: IT Incompetence Breeds Disloyalty and Corruption in Principles of IT Incompetence.

As I wrote in Nuclear 9/11, Jen Easterly is (Jul 2021 – present) now the Director of CISA, nominated by President Joe Biden (see U.S. Surrenders in IT War, Starts Paying Tribute to Russia). Easterly is IT incompetent. Again, an IT education is the most important IT credential and Easterly only has a bachelor's degree in a subject she won't reveal — so almost certainly not in IT — and a Master of Arts in "politics, philosophy, and economics" from a foreign university. Jen Easterly was added to the Government and Business IT Incompetents Hall Of Shame when I wrote Nuclear 9/11. Before CISA, Easterly was Head of Cybersecurity for investment bank Morgan Stanley from Feb 2017 – Jul 2021, during which time Morgan Stanley had a data breach for which they were fined $60 million. CISA is IT incompetent Jen Easterly's next stepping stone, part of the government-business revolving door.

Nitin Natarajan is (Feb 2021 – present) now the Deputy Director of CISA. Nitin Natarajan is IT incompetent. Again, an IT education is the most important IT credential and Natarajan only has a bachelor's degree in a subject he won't reveal — so almost certainly not in IT — and a non-IT Master of Arts. Natarajan started as a paramedic (in ambulances) for several years and leveraged that experience to get somewhat-related jobs in the government, stepping his way up. CISA is IT incompetent Nitin Natarajan's next stepping stone. While it might seem that paramedic experience could be helpful when a nuclear power plant undergoes a hacking and forced meltdown — even if caused by Natarajan's IT incompetence — Natarajan resides around Washington D.C. (as does Jen Easterly) and will be among the first to die horribly from radiation sickness when the Peach Bottom nuclear power plant is cyberattacked; see Hacking and Forced Meltdown of Nuclear Power Plants: Upwind of Washington, Baltimore, Philadelphia.

Jen Easterly and Nitin Natarajan are obvious examples of IT Hiring: Trading IT Competence for Diversity in Principles of IT Incompetence and are part of President Biden's scheme of playing the sexism and racism cards whenever possible and at whatever cost, including national security (Biden should note though that the racism card just backfired big time in the elections a week ago in Virginia, where I vote, albeit not confidently that the elections weren't hacked). As I wrote in Hacking and Forced Meltdown of Nuclear Power Plants: Upwind of Washington, Baltimore, Philadelphia, radiation sickness is equal opportunity death. It doesn't care about diversity; it kills regardless of sex or race ... or political affiliation.

CISA can't and won't do infrastructure cybersecurity and protect America from having its elections tampered with or from another 9/11, a far deadlier nuclear one. Let me, Dr. Duane Thresher, CEO of Apscitu Inc. and a real IT expert, do America's infrastructure cybersecurity.