OMG WTF TARFU

The global cybersecurity community is still struggling to process the news that Christopher Painter, the Trump administration’s top cyber diplomat, will leave his State Department job at the end of the month.

[...]

A State Department official said the agency “will continue to address and prioritize these important cyber issues.”

But Secretary of State Rex Tillerson is considering closing the cyber office or merging it with another office and downgrading the cyber coordinator’s rank, according to a source familiar with internal planning.

  Politico

Just Wow. While they're in the middle of an investigation into collusion with Russia to influence the American election using cyber tools, and after Trump says he and Putin are considering how they might join forces on cyber security, Tillerson is thinking about shutting down the cyber office.

“It’s a step back from everything done over the last ten years,” said the source, who added that Tillerson was also considering “limiting the number of people who work on cybersecurity” at State. “They basically gave [Painter] two weeks notice,” the source told MC. “It’s clear they’re thinking about reorganizing it. … Clearly they don’t think it’s that important.”

[...]

Cyber policy experts urged Tillerson not to eliminate State’s dedicated cyber mission. Doing so “would mean the United States would be the only major country without a lead diplomat to discuss cyber norms and trying to reduce the ever-escalating cyberattacks we see around the world,” Healey said. The U.S. was the first country to create a high-level cyber diplomat role, and since then dozens of other countries have followed suit. “It is not just a shame if the U.S. were to surrender that leadership, but would mean the future internet will have more Russian and Chinese characteristics.”

If there is anything to be found in circumstantial evidence, I think we have a hit.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

UPDATE:

And, oh yeah, add that to this:

Is Tillerson whittling State down to just himself?