Brian Harrell, appointed by the President of the United States in December 2018 to serve as the Department of Homeland Security’s Assistant Secretary for Infrastructure Protection, resigned his post last week and is headed to the private sector. 

According to Cyberscoop, Harrell wrote in his resignation letter, "During my time at [the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency], we have responded to hurricanes and historic floods, provided expertise after mass-shootings, engaged thousands of critical infrastructure owners and operators, and we are now providing the private sector assistance during COVID-19.”

Harrell served as the first Assistant Director for Infrastructure Security within the newly renamed U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA). He was recognized as Security Magazine's Most Influential People in Security. He is the former Managing Director of Enterprise Security at the Duke Energy Corporation. He is also the former Director of the Electricity ISAC and Director of Critical Infrastructure Protection Programs at the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) where he was charged with helping protect North America's electric grid from physical and cyber-attack.Harrell has spent time during his career in the U.S. Marine Corps and various private sector agencies with the goal of protecting the United States from security threats.

Harrell has spearheaded several projects at CISA, such as organizing cybersecurity drills for critical infrastructure companies, including "Cyber Storm" exercise,  a national cyber exercise designed to simulate response to a cyber crisis impacting the nation’s critical infrastructure. He also helped run CISA's security team for the last two Super Bowls.