CISA director Jen Easterly to depart agency on January 20

Jen Easterly, the director of the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), will depart the government agency after more than three years at the helm.

Both Easterly and the agency’s deputy director Nitin Natarajan will depart CISA on January 20 as the new Trump administration begins, according to NextGov, which first reported the departures, citing sources. 

CISA spokesperson Antonio Soliz confirmed the executive leadership departures in an email to TechCrunch. “All appointees of the Biden Administration will vacate their positions by the time the new Administration takes office at noon on January 20,” said Soliz.

Easterly is the second director to lead CISA since the agency’s founding in 2018. Soon after taking office, the Biden administration nominated Easterly in April 2021 to head the cybersecurity agency, filling the eight-month vacancy left behind after then-President Trump fired the agency’s first director, Chris Krebs, for publicly debunking Trump’s false claims that the 2020 U.S. election was rigged.

During Easterly’s tenure at CISA, the cybersecurity agency pioneered new initiatives aimed at encouraging device makers to secure their products and technologies by default, and continued to educate and inform the wider industry of cybersecurity risks, all the while helping to defend the U.S. government from Russian-backed hacks and Chinese hacking groups targeting U.S. critical infrastructure. 

CISA was also key in helping to support the Ukrainian government against the full and wide-scale invading Russian forces, including cyberattacks, in 2022.

Prior to CISA, Easterly served as the head of Morgan Stanley’s cybersecurity division, and previously held several senior positions in the U.S. Army, the National Security Agency, and U.S. Cyber Command. 

The Trump administration’s transition team has not yet said who it will pick, if anyone, to head CISA from January 20. 

A photo of several prominent hackers and security researchers, including Mudge and Lesley Carhart, with CISA director Jen Easterly in January 2024.Image Credits:Jen Easterly / X

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