Trump to nominate former RNC official to be national cyber director
Sean Cairncross, CEO, Millenium Challenge Corporation, speaks onstage during the 2019 Concordia Annual Summit in New York on September 24, 2019. President Trump intends to nominate Cairncross to be national cyber director. Riccardo Savi / Getty Images
It’s not clear how Sean Cairncross would address ongoing ONCD efforts, as the Trump administration has sought to refocus certain cyber priorities in the federal government.
President Donald Trump intends to nominate Sean Cairncross — a former RNC official and CEO of the Millennium Challenge Corporation humanitarian agency during the president’s first term — to be national cyber director, according to two people familiar with the matter and a document obtained by Nextgov/FCW.
Cairncross, who appears to not have any formal background in cybersecurity or intelligence, would be tasked with overseeing the office that has served as a key public-facing White House cyber policy interlocutor between federal agencies and Capitol Hill. He would replace Harry Coker, who led the office until departing with other colleagues last month when Trump took over at the White House.
The document, obtained late Tuesday night, listed Cairncross alongside dozens of other nominees the White House is poised to transmit to the Senate that will require confirmation in the high chamber. It marks the first formal nomination for a cybersecurity official in Trump’s second term. Politico first reported the news late Tuesday.
From 2019 to 2020, Cairncross was CEO of the MCC, a U.S. international development agency which provides grants to nations to encourage long-term economic development. He also helped with the RNC budget in last year’s election cycle and was chief operating officer of the RNC between 2015 and 2016. Cairncross did not respond to a request for comment on LinkedIn.
The Office of the National Cyber Director was stood up during the Biden administration following recommendations from a congressionally authorized cyber policy body. ONCD has notably overseen the rollout of a sweeping national cybersecurity strategy meant to shore up U.S. cyberdefenses and rejuvenate federal agency oversight of various critical sectors that support the nation.
If approved by the Senate, Cairncross would be the third confirmed leader to the office. Chris Inglis was its first director when the bureau was stood up four years ago. Kemba Walden then led the office in an acting capacity, followed by Harry Coker, who was confirmed in December 2023.
It’s not entirely clear how the Trump administration intends to use ONCD in future cyber proceedings. In the past few years, the cyber czar’s office has taken a regulation-focused approach to cyber matters, which may run head-on into the more relaxed oversight environment being set by the Trump administration. Trump officials are also tapering the size of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, the other major player in federal cyber operations, which sits in DHS.
As of Coker’s departure, ONCD has still been working through sweeping regulatory harmonization efforts to help streamline reporting rules for organizations when they’re hit by a cyberattack. The office is also trying to transition federal cyber jobs toward a skills-based hiring structure by this summer.
The office has also queued up a forthcoming software liability regime that aims to legally hold software makers accountable for lax security practices. Chief among ONCD’s efforts has been a goal to boost the size of the U.S. cyber workforce.