Former CISA Director Gene Easterly will lead the RSAC conference

Jane Easterly, A Long-time cybersecurity practitioner in the public and private sectors He led the US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency For more than three years, he was appointed Executive Director of the RSAC Conference, known as the RSAC.

The organization organizes the prominent annual gathering of cybersecurity experts, vendors and researchers that began in 1991 as a small crypto event hosted by enterprise security giant RSA. RSAC is now a separate company that holds events and initiatives throughout the year, but its conference in San Francisco remains its flagship showcase with tens of thousands of attendees each spring.

“The conference is the crown jewel, but we are also now a global entity with year-round membership for Internet professionals,” Easterly tells WIRED. “We are internationalizing more deeply and I am excited to expand the Innovation Fund, Early Show and Startup Ecosystem, and this is really about supporting the next generation of AI-driven cyber companies and secured by design innovators to produce high-quality software. We are in many ways living through an inflection point.”

Easterly’s appointment as CEO certainly comes at a major transformative moment in the cybersecurity industry. Artificial intelligence tools I started to enhance my abilities Both attackers and defendersSecurity experts have a critical role to play in securing the AI ​​platforms themselves as well as the infrastructure supporting the services. At the same time, the stark changes made by the Trump administration to… US State Department and Domestic politics It appears poised to change cybersecurity in the private sector and public-private partnerships in North America and around the world.

Easterly maintains that it is independent for life and that cybersecurity transcends all departments and borders. She served in several positions in the US Army, worked at the National Security Agency, helped create US Cyber ​​Command within the Department of Defense, and spent nearly five years in charge of global cybersecurity for Morgan Stanley, all before joining CISA in 2021.

Building trust and collaboration has been a top priority in her career. But the Trump administration She was not asked to stay at CISA During the transition period at the end of 2024, President Donald Trump did it Widely criticized The work that CISA has been doing in the area of ​​election integrity under her leadership and the leadership of her predecessor, Chris Krebs. Separately, in July, the Army directed the Military Academy at West Point to Cancel His employment offer was made to Easterly to become the Robert F. McDermott Distinguished Chair of the Academy’s Department of Social Sciences.

“I do not approach this leadership opportunity at RSAC through a lens of fear and speculation, but rather I approach it with the same optimism and relentless faith in the power of community that has been at the center of my service, both public and private,” Easterly says. “Cybersecurity is not a political endeavor, the RSAC is certainly not a political organization, and I am not a political person. I am a lifelong independent.”

Easterly says the RSAC will continue to welcome insights and collaboration from officials from all governments as part of its efforts to facilitate community building and cooperation in cybersecurity. She says there is “magic” that can happen when the security community has supportive forums to come together.

“Security and resilience are issues that affect every country, every industry, and every citizen,” she adds. “The strength of RSAC is that it brings together operators, technologists, innovators, researchers and policy makers across departments and across borders precisely because it is grounded in experience and mission, not policy.”

Updated at 9 a.m. ET, January 15, 2026: It has been clarified that the flagship event of the RSA Conference LLC has now been rebranded as the RSAC Conference.