Chris Krebs, the former Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency head who was targeted in a sweeping executive action last week by President Donald Trump, is leaving SentinelOne to more openly fight the White House’s challenges against him.
Krebs — the firm’s chief intelligence and public policy officer who served as the CISA director in Trump’s first term — made headlines at the end of his government tenure for contradicting unproven claims that the 2020 election was stolen from the president.
Trump signed an executive order last Wednesday night directing the Justice Department to investigate the former top cybersecurity official and ordered the head of every relevant federal agency revoke his security clearance. The directive also “suspends any active security clearance held by individuals at entities associated with Krebs, including SentinelOne, pending a review of whether such clearances are consistent with the national interest.”
Krebs, in an interview with The Wall Street Journal, said he disagreed with the low profile many companies have taken in pushing back against the president.
“I don’t think this lay-low-and-hope-this-blows-over approach is the right one for the moment we’re in,” he said.
In an email posted to SentinelOne’s website, Krebs said the decision to leave was solely his and that he told company CEO Tomer Weingarten “what I firmly believe: this is my fight, not the company’s, and I offered my resignation.”
In both the email and a LinkedIn post, he said: “For those who know me, you know I don’t shy away from tough fights. But I also know this is one I need to take on fully — outside of SentinelOne.”
The LinkedIn message ended with “Illegitimi non carborundum” — a Latin phrase that roughly translates to “Don’t let the bastards grind you down.”
After the 2020 presidential election was decided, Krebs said it was “the most secure in American history” and that there was “no evidence that any voting system deleted or lost votes, changed votes, or was in any way compromised.” Trump soon after called that statement from Krebs “highly inaccurate” without providing evidence, and fired him in a tweet.
The move against Krebs, five years after his firing, reflects a broader effort in Trump’s second term to silence those he sees as political adversaries who challenged his legitimacy. Several cybersecurity professionals decried the move in private discussions with Nextgov/FCW, though many cyber firms have not publicly spoken out.
“In regard to the Executive Order dated April 9, 2025 focused on Chris Krebs in his prior role as a government employee, we will actively cooperate in any review of security clearances held by any of our personnel – currently less than 10 employees overall and only where required by existing government processes and procedures to secure government systems. Accordingly, we do not expect this to materially impact our business in any way,” SentinelOne said in a statement last week.
CISA has drawn vast criticism from both Trump and other members of the GOP for its past efforts to combat mis- and disinformation posted about the 2020 election, COVID-19 and other flashpoint issues on social media. The efforts involved notifying companies of online content that contained elements of misinformation or disinformation — either deliberately crafted or strategically amplified — by both foreign adversaries and domestic actors.
Conservative legal challenges argued that the government’s role in flagging posts deemed misleading or false resulted in the suppression of politically conservative viewpoints. That dynamic has continued into Trump’s second administration, where Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem has vowed to curtail the size and scope of CISA.
Noem was seen in the room with Trump when he signed the order targeting Krebs last week. Trump, at point of signing, said the election was “badly rigged” and called Krebs a “wise guy.”
“My reaction was similar to 2020 when I got fired. I was like, ‘What? No. That can’t be real.’ But here we are,” Krebs told The Wall Street Journal Wednesday.
He observed that the last time he faced government scrutiny, it came from abroad — not from within the United States.
“I was sanctioned by the Russians and I’ve been effectively sanctioned by my own government as well,” he said.
