Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) recentlyCooperate with many well-known security expertsIssue an open letter urging the Trump administration to stop targetingFormer U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) Director Christopher Krebsaction. The letter is still seeking more signatures, saying political retaliation for speaking the truth undermines the entire information security community and threatens America's democratic institutions.
"The Trump administration must stop politically motivated investigations into former Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency Director Christopher Krebs, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) and dozens of prominent cybersecurity and election security experts urged in an open letter. "
The letter, signed by prominent figures from academia, civil society and the private sector, states that security researchers play a vital role in protecting our democracy, securing our elections, and building, testing and protecting government infrastructure.
The Electronic Frontier Foundation said in the letter: "The President will place Krebs and SentinelOne Being placed in the crosshairs means that cybersecurity professionals are at risk of false and retaliatory attacks on their businesses and livelihoods if their findings do not match his narrative, echoing his recent bullying tactics against law firms. As cybersecurity professionals and members of the information security community, we strongly defend our professional obligation to report truthful findings, even if those findings do not align with those in power, and we stand by Chris Krebs in doing so.”
President Trump appointed Krebs as director of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security's Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency in November 2018, but Trump fired him in November 2020 after he publicly refuted Trump's false claims of widespread fraud in the 2020 presidential election.
On April 9, Trump issued a presidential memorandum directing Attorney General Pam Bondi and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem to investigate Krebs, and instructing Bondi and Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard to revoke the security clearances of Krebs and the cybersecurity company SentinelOne where he worked. In the letter, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) urged the immediate revocation of both actions.
"An independent information security community is critical to protecting our democracy and the information security industry itself," the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) wrote in the letter. “Only by being able to carry out our duties in a fair and objective manner, reporting truthfully on what is going on in these systems without fear of political reprisal, can we hope to keep these systems safe. We take on this responsibility knowing that if any one of us is targeted for our work to harden these systems, then all of us could be targeted. We must not let that happen. As long as we stand together, we will not let that happen.”
The Electronic Frontier Foundation also filed an amicus brief in support of four law firms that have been subject to retaliation over Trump’s unconstitutional executive orders.
Letter of support for Krebs: https://www.eff.org/document/chris-krebs-support-letter-april-28-2025
Sign the letter: https://eff.org/r.uq1r