The Senate on Thursday confirmed Katherine Sutton, a cyber policy and technology expert, as the assistant secretary of defense for cyber policy.
The upper chamber voted 51-47 to confirm Sutton and other nominees for several federal government positions.
President Donald Trump nominated Sutton for the Department of Defense position in March.
In this capacity, she will oversee DOD’s policy for cyber operations and concurrently serve as principal cyber adviser to the secretary of defense.
Who Is Katherine Sutton?
Sutton has over 20 years of experience in cyber policy, technology development and legislative oversight.
Since 2023, she has served as chief technology adviser to the commander and director of Pentagon operations at U.S. Cyber Command. In this role, she advises the commander on the development of engineering policies and strategies to execute the command’s authorities for acquisition, workforce management, service-like functions and enhanced budget control.
Before joining USCYBERCOM, the national security official was a professional staff member on the Senate and House Armed Services Committees.
Sutton spent 15 years at Sandia National Laboratories, where she served as a research and development cybersecurity manager, Congressional Fellow to HASC’s Emerging Threats and Capabilities Subcommittee and nuclear nonproliferation R&D technical adviser at the National Nuclear Security Administration.
The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign graduate has a master’s degree in electrical engineering from Stanford University.
