But ex-CISA boss and new RSAC CEO Jen Easterly will be there
UPDATED The US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency won't attend the annual RSA Conference in March, an agency spokesperson confirmed to The Register. Sessions involving speakers from the FBI and National Security Agency (NSA) have also disappeared from the agenda.
"Since the beginning of this administration, CISA has made significant progress in returning to our statutory, core mission and focusing on President Trump's policies for maximum security for all Americans," CISA spokesperson Marci McCarthy told us. "CISA has reviewed and determined that we will not participate in the RSA Conference since we regularly review all stakeholder engagements, to ensure maximum impact and good stewardship of taxpayer dollars."
McCarthy declined to comment on whether the decision had anything to do with former CISA director Jen Easterly being named chief executive of RSAC last week.
Easterly, who was appointed to lead America's top cyber-defense agency under the Biden administration, joined her predecessor and CISA's first-ever director Chris Krebs in President Trump's line of fire back in July.
In a now-deleted LinkedIn post, the US Military Academy at West Point announced that Easterly - who graduated from West Point in 1990 - would return to the academy as a Robert F. McDermott Distinguished Chair in West Point's Department of Social Sciences, where she previously taught economics and national security.
Soon after, far-right conspiracy theorist Laura Loomer criticized Easterly's appointment on X, and the next day, Army Secretary Dan Driscoll directed West Point to rescind Easterly's offer before she even began her new gig.
Last week, Easterly announced that she's joined RSAC as its new CEO, and almost immediately, rumors began swirling that Trump cybersecurity officials would boycott the industry's "largest and most influential conference" to protest Easterly's appointment.
Following publication of this article, the FBI and NSA sessions and speakers have also disappeared from the cybersecurity conference’s agenda.
These included a session on the Hunt for China’s Typhoons, billed as a “behind-the-sceenes” look at the FBI, NSA, and private industry’s joint operations to disrupt Bejing’s espionage campaigns targeting US critical infrastructure; an FBI cyber warfare talk; and a seven-agent panel on how to engage with the FBI and develop an incident response plan.
The FBI, NSA, and RSAC did not immediately respond to The Register’s questions about the sessions being removed from the agenda, but we will update this if we receive any responses.
Federal cyber officials historically have active speaking roles at RSAC, with both Easterly and Krebs previously delivering keynotes, speaking on panels with other government network defenders, and talking to the press. In 2024, Easterly and co even wrangled nearly 70 tech providers into signing a Secure by Design pledge.
That all changed, however, last year, with the National Security Agency abruptly canceling its popular State of the Hack panel and CISA declining any press interviews or roundtable discussions.
In a last-minute addition to the 2025 agenda, however, Homeland Security boss Kristi Noem did appear on the keynote stage and said CISA had gone off the rails. She vowed to put the agency "back on mission."
A year later, however, it appears that she's been sidetracked with ICE's militaristic occupation of major American cities. ®