Three Top FBI Cybersecurity Officials to Retire

www.wsj.com ^ | Updated July 19, 2018 6:01 p.m. ET | By Dustin Volz and Shelby Holliday

[Red Badger]

Three of the top cybersecurity officials at the Federal Bureau of Investigation are retiring from government service, according to people familiar with the matter—departures that come as cyberattacks are a major concern for the country’s security agencies.

Senior U.S. intelligence officials warn that the country is at a “critical point” facing unprecedented cyberthreats, including Russia’s ongoing attacks on the American political system. The retirements also come as the FBI is facing regular criticism from President Donald Trump and his supporters, and is working to attract and retain top cyber talent.

Scott Smith, the assistant FBI director who runs the Bureau’s cyber division, is leaving this month. His deputy, Howard Marshall, also left in recent weeks. Mr. Marshall has accepted a job at Accenture , a consulting firm that is expanding its cybersecurity portfolio. Mr. Smith is also expected to move to the private sector.

David Resch, executive assistant director of the FBI’s criminal, cyber, response and services branch, is departing the bureau as well. Mr. Resch, who was named to his senior post by FBI Director Christopher Wray in April, supervised Mr. Smith and Mr. Marshall.

Additionally, Carl Ghattas, executive assistant director of the FBI’s national security branch, has decided to leave for the private sector. And Jeffrey Tricoli, a senior FBI cyber agent who oversaw a Bureau task force addressing Russian attempts to meddle in U.S. elections, left last month for a senior vice president position at Charles Schwab Corp. , the Journal reported last week.

The FBI confirmed the departures. One U.S. official said more people are expected to leave soon, declining to provide additional names.

[piasa]

Thanks

[taxcontrol]

I work in cyber security and agree 100% with your assessment. I have often felt that both Secret Service and FBI need to have a program where they can deputize professionals in the field and call on them as needed.

[Presbyterian Reporter]

Thus far I am seeing a common thread among these FBI officials who have been fired or left the FBI. They were hired during or after the Clinton Filegate Scandal. This scandal was an example of the White House weaponizing the FBI.

“”””Filegate” began on June 5, 1996, when Republican Pennsylvania Congressman William F. Clinger, Jr., chair of the House Committee on Government Reform and Oversight, announced that the committee had found, during their ongoing “Travelgate” investigations, that FBI background reports on Travelgate figure Billy Dale had been delivered to the White House.[2] The following day, the White House delivered to the committee hundreds of other such files related to White House employees of the Reagan Administration and George H. W. Bush Administration,[2] for which Craig Livingstone, director of the White House’s Office of Personnel Security,[3] had improperly requested and received background reports from the FBI in 1993 and 1994, without asking permission of the subject individuals.[4] Estimates ranged from 400 to 700 to 900 unauthorized file disclosures”””

[READINABLUESTATE]

Can they still be issued a subpoena if they are no longer employed by the Government?

[Red Badger]

Yes, but getting them to show up is another question..................

[Fedora]

"FBI Carl Ghattas just confirmed that he has (and will share with Senate) the info fired Director Comey gave him re his talk w/ @POTUS.": Laurence Tribe (06/27/2017)

[SunkenCiv]

Retiing from what?!? Thanks Red Badger.

[GOPJ]

They’ve been doing a cr@ppy job, so I don’t see a downside.

The FBI's been so busy protecting corrupt white liberal elites that they haven't had time to protect Americans... Half the people who work for the DC FBI could leave and none of us would give a damn...

[GOPJ]

Well, our intelligence people DID spy on the American people AND leak information (INFORMATION WE ALL PAID TO HAVE THEM GATHER) to the Washington Post and New York Times and MSNBC so they could damage conservatives AND our duly elected leaders...

I mean, that counts for 'something' that they did... Oh and they started the War On Cops when they send 75 agents to Ferguson because some lying criminal yelled 'racist'...

Blood on their filthy hands...

Eff them and their stooges on Morning Joe...

[wildbill]

You have to HOPE they were given the choice of retire or be demoted because they failed in some respect to protect the country.

Perhaps they were cited for failing to correct or blow the whistle on Hillary;s server being hacked to send copies of all her email to Chinz (per Congressman Gomart in hearing)

[Lumper20]

I do not see why not. Retired Gens/military types like Flynn plus Petraeus were prosecuted/disciplined.

[piasa]

...In 2009, when Mueller ran the FBI, the bureau asked Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska to spend millions of his own dollars funding an FBI-supervised operation to rescue a retired FBI agent, Robert Levinson, captured in Iran while working for the CIA in 2007.——Mueller may have a conflict — and it leads directly to a Russian oligarch
The sHill ^ | 5/14/18 | John Solomon

“...the terms of Levinson’s release had been agreed to by Iran and the U.S. and included a statement by then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton pointing a finger away from Iran. At the last minute Secretary Clinton decided not to make the agreed-on statement.”——Mueller may have a conflict — and it leads directly to a Russian oligarch
The sHill ^ | 5/14/18 | John Solomon

[piasa]

Robyn Gritz….