Revolving Door in Homeland Security’s Censorship Group

Leaving CISA to work for CISA could only make sense in the Biden-Harris admin

The Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) may have a unique agenda – including censoring online speech the government finds inconvenient – but it shares at least one important quality with the rest of the Biden-Harris administration: a revolving door with powerful special interests involved in federal policy matters.

Kiersten Todt was CISA chief of staff until she resigned in the spring of 2023. The reason given on personnel documents, according to FOIA records obtained by Protect the Public’s Trust (PPT), was “Accepted a potion as government consultant.” That position? Senior Counselor to the Director-Consultant. That would be senior counselor to CISA’s director. Ms. Todt left CISA to remain with CISA.

In this “unpaid” position, she would be “provid[ing] guidance and consultation on priority initiatives of the Director, including industry engagement, artificial intelligence (Al), Corporate Cyber Responsibility, and strategic messaging. Advises, consults with, reports, and makes recommendations to the Director on the development, refinement, and implementation of policies, programs, planning, and training pertaining to CISA’s cybersecurity mission.”

That doesn’t sound all that different from what she would have done had she remained in-house. In fact, in a memo supporting her new appointment, the Acting Chief Human Capital Officer at CISA, whose name was redacted, wrote, “Ms. Todt’s experience as the former Chief of Staff at CISA uniquely positions her for this consultant role to provide advice and counsel on the Director’s priorities. Ms. Todt worked with Director Easterly on the development of these priorities and has unique relationships across industry and government that can help support the development of content and execution of the actions required to address these priorities.”

As to those “unique relationships across industry and government,” Ms. Todt holds multiple positions in the private sector/NGO world. She is president at WONDROS, “a global creative agency” with such clients as George Soros’s Open Society, universities, finance companies and tech firms. Along with leaders from MasterCard, Microsoft, IBM, and others, she founded the Cyber Readiness Institute in 2017. These connections as well as her access to the CISA director and sensitive materials within the agency, should raise some concerns about potential conflicts and the ability of her clients to gain competitive advantage from this role.

“This is unfortunately par for the course in the Biden-Harris administration,” said PPT Director Michael Chamberlain. “People come and go with little apparent regard for conflicts, at times even for the proper paperwork. When President Biden and Vice President Harris promised the most ethical administration in history I never imagined it would look like this. And, given what we’ve learned about CISA’s activities and the involvement of tech companies and universities in developing its domestic censorship agenda, it’s even more troubling.” 

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