“I think [dismantling CISA] would be disastrous,” Michael Daniel, CEO of the Cyber Threat Alliance and former Special Assistant to President Obama and Cybersecurity Coordinator on the National Security Council Staff, tells CSO. “Reasonable people can disagree about how effective CISA has been, but we have labored for literally decades to create an effective cyber defense organization in the US government. And we are finally getting there with CISA. To make radical changes to that organization now just makes no sense to me whatsoever.”

Daniel says that eliminating CISA would be a significant threat to US national security. “I think it would significantly increase the cyber risk to the United States. It would put us at a huge disadvantage. It would dramatically undermine the cybersecurity of our critical infrastructure, putting many more Americans at risk of financial loss, and eventually even [become] a threat to public health and safety.”

Chris Painter, former US government official and cybersecurity specialist at the State Department, concurs. “I don’t think that makes any sense at all,” he tells CSO. “CISA and its predecessor at DHS certainly had growing pains, to be sure, but it’s beginning to hit its stride. It’s important to have that agency there as a civilian component of working to protect critical infrastructure, working hand in glove with other federal agencies, including State, DOJ, DOD, and others.”