August 26, 2025

Airbnb co-founder Joe Gebbia takes on new White House design chief role; Wyden seeks review of federal court cybersecurity, citing ‘incompetence,’ ‘negligence’

4 minutes

The Trump White House has tapped Tesla board member and Airbnb cofounder Joe Gebbia to take the lead on its initiative to redesign the federal government’s digital footprint. Gebbia announced that he was appointed as chief design officer in a Saturday post to X, formerly known as Twitter. That role was established by President Donald Trump via executive order last week along with a new National Design Studio and an initiative to improve digital and physical spaces called “America By Design.” Gebbia said in his X post that his directive “is to update today’s government services to be as satisfying to use as the Apple Store: beautifully designed, great user experience, run on modern software.” Gebbia thanked Trump for supporting the new initiative and asked people interested in joining the studio to reach out with a link to their work. Prior to his appointment as the design chief, Gebbia also worked with DOGE to modernize the Office of Personnel Management’s mostly paper-based retirement processing.

Sen. Ron Wyden on Monday urged Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts to seek an independent review of federal court cybersecurity following the latest major hack, accusing the judiciary of “incompetence” and “covering up” its “negligence” over digital defenses. Wyden, D-Ore., wrote his letter in response to news this month that hackers had reportedly breached and stolen sealed case data from federal district courts dating back to at least July, exploiting vulnerabilities left unfixed for five years. Alleged Russian hackers were behind both the attack and another past major intrusion, and may have lurked in the systems for years. Wyden wrote in his letter: “The courts have been entrusted with some of our nation’s most confidential and sensitive information, including national security documents that could reveal sources and methods to our adversaries, and sealed criminal charging and investigative documents that could enable suspects to flee from justice or target witnesses. Yet, you continue to refuse to require the federal courts to meet mandatory cybersecurity requirements and allow them to routinely ignore basic cybersecurity best practices.” That, Wyden said, means someone from the outside must conduct a review, naming the National Academy of Sciences as the organization Roberts should choose.

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