Former CISA Director Jen Easterly Will Lead RSA Conference

"The organization puts on the prominent annual gathering of cybersecurity experts, vendors, and researchers that started in 1991 as a small cryptography event hosted by the corporate security giant RSA. RSAC is now a separate company with events and initiatives throughout the year, but its conference in San Francisco is still its flagship offering with tens of thousands of attendees each spring."

""The conference is the crown jewel, but now we are also a year-round global membership entity for cyber professionals," Easterly tells WIRED. "We are internationalizing more deeply and I'm excited to expand the innovation sandbox, the early stage expo and startup ecosystem, and that's really about supporting the next generation of AI-driven cyber companies and secure by design innovators to produce high-quality software. In many ways we are living through an inflection point.""

"Easterly's appointment as CEO certainly comes at a moment of great transition for the cybersecurity industry. AI tools are beginning to enhance the capabilities of both attackers and defenders, and security experts have a crucial role to play in securing AI platforms themselves along with the infrastructure supporting the services. At the same time, the Trump administration's stark alterations to US foreign and domestic policy seem poised to alter private-sector cybersecurity and public-private partnerships in North America and around the world."

Jen Easterly has been appointed CEO of RSA Conference (RSAC), which hosts a flagship annual cybersecurity conference in San Francisco and operates year-round as a global membership organization. RSAC began in 1991 and now attracts tens of thousands of attendees while running events and initiatives throughout the year. Easterly plans to internationalize RSAC, expand the innovation sandbox and early-stage expo, and support AI-driven cyber startups and secure-by-design software. Her leadership arrives as AI amplifies attacker and defender capabilities and as security teams must secure AI platforms and the infrastructure that supports them. Easterly brings public- and private-sector cybersecurity experience, including U.S. Army deployments, work at the NSA, and a role helping establish U.S. Cyber Command.

Read at WIRED