Israeli-US cybersecurity company SentinelOne (NYSE: S) has received a major blow after the US administration has revoked the security clearance of its chef intelligence and public policy officer Chris Krebs and suspended the security clearance of those "held by individuals at entities associated with Krebs," including SentinelOne.
Krebs was the director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) during the first Trump administration who was fired for telling him that the elections won by Joe Biden in November 2020 were not rigged and were entirely in order. Krebs issued a statement calling the US election "one of the most secure ever" and even wrote an opinion piece in late 2020 in which he argued that "the election results should not be challenged in service of a clearly anti-American plot."
In November 2023 Krebs joined SentinelOne, founded by Israeli entrepreneur and CEO Tomer Weingarten, and which operates development centers in the US and Israel. Krebs took the job long before Trump was re-elected, with responsibility for sales to government agencies, primarily in the US, a role he is unlikely to be able to fill after the sanctions imposed on him and SentinelOne as a result. Investors appear to have been unimpressed: Like other tech stocks, SentinelOne's share price rose 16% last night after Trump announced the suspension of the tariff plan, giving a market cap of $6.2 billion.
Trump has ordered the Justice Department to investigate Krebs, as well as to strip him and all entities related to him of their security clearance. According to "The Washington Post," the security clearance also applies to SentinelOne and the University of Pennsylvania, where he is employed. Krebs served as director of CISA between 2018 and 2020, and as Under Secretary of Homeland Security for the National Protection and Programs Directorate between 2017 and 2018.
According to the White House, Krebs took part in a "partisan task force" in which he ordered CISA, which he headed, to censor negative discourse on social media on the affair of the laptop of the former president's son, Hunter Biden, which Trump claims contained evidence of corruption and proof that the 2020 election was rigged. According to Trump's memorandum, Krebs is also accused of trying to filter, together with social networks, content about Covid that could have misled the public.
SentinelOne Vice President Craig VerColen told "The Washington Post" that the company would cooperate with any government investigation and that at least 10 of the company’s employees have security clearances. "We don’t expect this to materially impact our business in any way," he said. However, it is doubtful that as long as Krebs is employed by the company, SentinelOne will be able to continue to sign new agreements with US government agencies.
Published by Globes, Israel business news - en.globes.co.il - on April 10, 2025.
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