CISA Director Jen Easterly to resign, cybersecurity experts weigh in

Jen Easterly, Director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), is set to resign on Inauguration Day, January 20, 2025. President Biden nominated Easterly in April 2021, and the Senate unanimously confirmed her appointment in July 2021. Prior to serving as the CISA Director, Easterly was Morgan Stanley’s Head of Firm Resilience, constructing the Firm’s Cybersecurity Fusion Center, where she served as the first Global Head.

During her time as the CISA Director, Easterly was responsible for rolling out Secure by Design principles to reduce the occurrence exploitable flaws in products before public release. Jason Soroko, Senior Fellow at Sectigo, remarks, “Under Jenn Easterly, CISA’s proactive initiatives such as ‘Secure by Design’ and faster reporting of attacks by companies were positive for both the sell and buy side of the cybersecurity industry. What could be seen as regulatory burden was actually a positive call to arms to do the right thing. CISA should continue its work and look at initiatives to promote more public-private partnerships as well as look at what it can do to promote a strong cybersecurity workforce.”