President Joe Biden said he will tap Michael Sulmeyer, the U.S. Army’s principal cyber adviser, to be the Department of Defense’s inaugural cyber policy chief.
The role of assistant secretary of defense for cyber policy was established by the fiscal 2023 National Defense Authorization Act.
Sulmeyer in the past served as a senior director of cyber policy at the National Security Council and as a senior adviser at Cyber Command. He was also the director of the cybersecurity project at the Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs.
The move comes a little more than a week after the Defense Department rolled out its fiscal 2025 budget blueprint, which included $14.5 billion for cyber activities. The figure is about $1 billion more than the Biden administration’s previous ask. It is also up from FY23, when it sought $11.2 billion.
U.S. Rep. Mike Gallagher, a Wisconsin Republican, last year said the Senate was ready to “rapidly confirm” a nominee.
Gallagher leads the House’s Cyber, Information Technology and Innovation panel.
Colin Demarest was a reporter at C4ISRNET, where he covered military networks, cyber and IT. Colin had previously covered the Department of Energy and its National Nuclear Security Administration — namely Cold War cleanup and nuclear weapons development — for a daily newspaper in South Carolina. Colin is also an award-winning photographer.
