Dive Brief:
- Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency Director Jen Easterly will step down on President-elect Donald Trump’s Inauguration Day, the agency confirmed Monday. NextGov reported the news Thursday.
- Other political appointees will join Easterly in resigning as the agency prepares to transition to the new administration.
- “All appointees of the Biden Administration will vacate their positions by the time the new administration takes office at noon on Jan. 20,” Valerie Mongello, external relations advisor and executive communications program lead at CISA, said Monday via email. “At CISA, we are fully committed to a seamless transition.”
Dive Insight:
Easterly, the former head of firm resilience at Morgan Stanley, was nominated to become director of CISA in April 2021 and confirmed in July 2021.
Easterly led CISA through major changes during her role as director, which followed the 2020 Sunburst attacks and the May 2021 ransomware attack against Colonial Pipeline. She spearheaded CISA’s secure by design effort, to shift much of the responsibility for product security toward the software industry.
More than 250 companies have pledged to commit to secure by design practices.
Already, there’s been a turnover of top CISA officials. Brandon Wales, the former executive director at CISA, left the agency in August and was named VP of cyber strategy at SentinelOne in September. Wales served as interim director of CISA after Trump fired Chris Krebs after the 2020 election.
Bridget Bean is the current executive director, making her the highest ranking career official at CISA.
Officials had no information on what Easterly’s immediate plans are after leaving CISA.
Trump plans to nominate Kristi Noem as secretary of the Department of Homeland Security which oversees CISA. The future of CISA has been the subject of considerable speculation, amid concerns certain functions could be moved under different government agencies.
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