Biden administration selects Anne Neuberger to lead response to SolarWinds hack: Senators

The Biden administration named Anne Neuberger, deputy national security adviser for cyber and emerging technology, to lead the federal government’s response to the SolarWinds hack affecting federal networks, according to Sens. Mark Warner, Virginia Democrat, and Marco Rubio, Florida Republican.

Hackers breaching SolarWinds computer network management software affected a U.S. government-estimated 18,000 public and private sector clients, including the Department of Homeland Security, Department of Justice, Department of Treasury, and parts of the Pentagon, among other federal agencies.

Ms. Neuberger previously served as director of the National Security Agency’s Cybersecurity Directorate before joining President Biden’s National Security Council.

Mr. Warner, Senate Select Committee on Intelligence chair, and Mr. Rubio, the intelligence committee’s top-ranking Republican, wrote a letter ripping the intelligence community’s response to the hack earlier this week. The senators pleaded with the federal government to assign a leader to handle the SolarWinds hack and later said on Wednesday that they welcomed Ms. Neuberger’s selection.

“The Committee looks forward to getting regular briefings from Ms. Neuberger and working with her to ensure we fully confront and mitigate this incident as quickly as possible,” said Mr. Warner and Mr. Rubio in a statement on Wednesday.

Mr. Biden’s National Security Council said Ms. Neuberger has led the federal government’s response since day one, according to reports.

Prior to Mr. Biden’s inauguration, former President Trump’s National Security Council responded to the SolarWinds hack late last year by creating a Cyber Unified Coordination Group including FBI, National Security Agency, Office of the Director of National Intelligence, and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency.

Mr. Warner and Mr. Rubio wrote to the heads of those agencies earlier this week and said they “lacked the leadership and coordination” needed to respond to the hack. The bipartisan duo added that they had, “little confidence that we are on the shortest path to recovery.”