Tenable Chairman and CEO Amit Yoran was disturbed by Congress’ recent decision proposing a 25% budget reduction for the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, so on Nov. 8 he sent a letter to Congress that was co-signed by 22 esteemed CISOs, entrepreneurs and business leaders, including Nikesh Arora, chair and CEO of Palo Alto Networks; George Kurtz, co-founder and CEO of CrowdStrike; and Ron Green, CSO of Mastercard.
Yoran said he wrote the letter because CISA is the “primary focal point of our defensive efforts” and, prior to the proposed budget cuts, the existential threat posed by cyberattacks had been “one of the few topics that has been unifying us. It has had bipartisan support.”
In this episode of CyberEd.io‘s podcast series “Cybersecurity Insights,” Yoran discussed:
- How CISA’s leadership and “operational execution of the mission” are important, regardless of whether the agency stays a part of the Department of Homeland Security or becomes an independent or cabinet-level agency.
- His previous experience in helping the U.S. government and the private sector understand and handle cyberthreats;
- His opinion about the cases the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Department of Defense have undertaken for enforcement.
Yoran previously served as RSA’s president after joining the firm through its acquisition of NetWitness, the network forensics company he founded and led as CEO. Prior to NetWitness, he served as founding director of the United States Computer Emergency Readiness Team program in the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. Yoran also was founder and CEO of Riptech, one of the first managed security service providers, which Symantec acquired in 2002.