The US government’s cybersecurity agency CISA on Tuesday confirmed that director Jen Easterly and deputy Nitin Natarajan will depart on January 20, clearing the way for a leadership overhaul by the incoming administration.

A CISA spokesperson told SecurityWeek that all appointees of the Biden-Harris administration will leave by inauguration day. “All appointees of the Biden Administration will vacate their positions by the time the new Administration takes office at noon on January 20th. CISA is fully committed to a seamless transition.”

Easterly, a decorated intelligence officer and military official, took control of CISA in 2021 and invested heavily in promoting Secure by Design principles, reducing risk from ransomware infections, creation of the KEV (Known Exploited Vulnerabilities) catalog and the Shields Up campaign.

Easterly’s departure comes at a crucial time, especially as the US government scrambles to stave off nation-state intrusions at major telcos and critical infrastructure installations.

Just last week, CISA issued a joint statement with the FBI confirming Chinese government-backed hackers known as Salt Typhoon are conducting a “significant cyber espionage campaign” against US targets.

“Specifically, we have identified that PRC-affiliated actors have compromised networks at multiple telecommunications companies to enable the theft of customer call records data, the compromise of private communications of a limited number of individuals who are primarily involved in government or political activity, and the copying of certain information that was subject to U.S. law enforcement requests pursuant to court orders. We expect our understanding of these compromises to grow as the investigation continues,” CISA said, 

Under Easterly, CISA has established itself as the go-to agency for federal incident response and cybersecurity mitigation guidance but it has generated controversy in some circles for not providing substantial ROI for its multi-billion-dollar annual budget.

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