When I walk into Jen Easterly’s office on a bright January day in Arlington, Virginia, I’m greeted by a giant shark head lurking on the floor. I instantly spot a Rubik’s Cube—an Easterly hallmark—emblazoned with the logo of the organization she’s run for the past three and a half years—the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, or CISA, which President Donald Trump created during his first term. Easterly, who is 56 years old, jumps to her feet to greet me.
The first thing that hits me is her denim pants, which have a dragon on one leg and a serpent on the other. Then she launches into updates on CISA’s animated “Secure Our World” video series and, in the same breath, laments that she hasn’t had time for a private guitar lesson in weeks. Seemingly a regular day on the job for her, except for one thing.
As of January 20, Inauguration Day, Easterly’s time at CISA would be over. Trump had fired the agency’s first director, Chris Krebs, after CISA refused to question the integrity of the 2020 election, and Easterly now says she wasn’t asked to stay. Rumors are swirling that CISA programs—or even the entire agency —may soon be on Trump’s chopping block.
The timing couldn’t be worse for the nation to lose its top cybersecurity cop. A Beijing-linked group called Salt Typhoon spent months last year rampaging through American telecoms and siphoning call logs, recordings, text messages, and even potentially location data. Many experts have .