U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson will consolidate the State Department‘s Office of the Coordinator for Cyber Issues, or S/CCI, into the Bureau of Economic and Business Affairs as part of a reorganization effort, Bloomberg reported Wednesday.Tillerson’s decision comes as he aims to reduce overlapping functions and eliminate offices that affect regional bureaus’ authority on certain matters.
S/CCI was established in 2011 under the Barack Obama administration to coordinate the federal government’s cyber efforts with other countries.
The report said Christopher Painter is due to depart from his current role as the State Department’s cyber coordinator by the end of the month.
Painter helped negotiate a cyber pact between the U.S. and China in 2015 and his office also sought to cooperate with Russia to establish “cyber norms” through global forums, according to Bloomberg.
