The American government revoked Chris Krebs’s security clearance. Krebs is the head of intelligence and government policy at the Israeli-American cybersecurity company SentinelOne. The measure also applies to anyone associated with Krebs.
This writes Globes, Israeli business news. SentinelOne, founded by Israeli entrepreneur and CEO Tomer Weingarten, was dealt a severe blow after the US government revoked Chris Krebs’ security clearance. The government also denied access to classified information to individuals at organizations associated with Krebs, including SentinelOne itself.
Anti-American conspiracy
Krebs was the director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) during Trump’s first term in office. He was fired for publicly stating that the November 2020 presidential election, won by Joe Biden, had not been rigged. In a statement, Krebs called the election one of the safest ever, and in an opinion piece, he wrote that the election result should not be disputed in the service of a clear anti-American conspiracy.
Krebs joined SentinelOne in November 2023. The company has development centers in the US and Israel. Krebs was responsible for sales to US government agencies. This is a role he is not expected to be able to fulfill after the sanctions that have now been imposed on him and the company. Investors reacted lukewarmly. Although the share price of SentinelOne, like that of other tech companies, rose 16% yesterday after Trump’s announcement to suspend the tariff plan, this seems to be mainly a general market reaction. This brought the company’s market value to $6.2 billion.
Trump ordered the Department of Justice to investigate Krebs and to revoke all of his security clearances, as well as those of affiliated entities. According to The Washington Post, this also concerns SentinelOne and the University of Pennsylvania, where Krebs works. He served as director of CISA from 2018 to 2020, and before that as deputy secretary of Homeland Security for the National Protection and Programs Directorate between 2017 and 2018.
Misleading Covid messages
According to the White House, Krebs participated in a partisan task force. He also instructed CISA to censor negative messages about the laptop of Hunter Biden, the son of the former president, on social media. Trump claims that the laptop contains evidence of corruption and election fraud in 2020. In his memorandum, Trump also accuses Krebs of having filtered social media content about Covid that could have potentially misled the public.
Craig VerColen, vice-president of SentinelOne, told The Washington Post that the company will cooperate with any government investigation. He reported that fewer than ten employees have security certification. VerColen said he did not expect any of this to have a material impact on SentinelOne’s business operations.