Schneier on Security

Clive Robinson • April 13, 2021 10:33 AM

They are both NSA insiders from the Obama era.

Jennifer Easterly is ex West Point Military and rose to become Deputy counterterrorism with a side order of cyber-security. She was involved at a senior level with the design of what eventually become U.S. Cyber Command. As part of the transition team for President Biden she took the lead role in the development of the current administration cyber policy.

After something like three decades of Army and GS, four years ago she joined Morgan Stanley. Jennifer is currently Managing Director of Morgan Stanley’s React and Global Head of the their Cybersecurity Fusion Center.

If approved she will fill the vacant Director role formally held by Chris Krebs that has been empty since President Trump fired him very publically in a tweet… CISA was originally seen as a fairly minor agency when created back in 2018 but due to many incidents it has become a fairly heavy weight role. Especially with the recent ill winds of SolarWinds and other highly embarrassing if not vexatious events occuring.

Let’s hope she has not out grown her jogging shoes, because not only is she going to have to hit the ground running this is going to be a gruelling marathon. Especially as one Senetor has called the job “a single neck to squeeze”.

John “Chris” Inglis is a former Deputy Director of the National Security Agency. A post he retired from back in early 2014. Which it has been said he was forced out of by the Ed Snowden fall out that also claimed General Alexander[1]. He will if approved be the first National Cyber Director. What that will involve will be anybodies guess at the moment.

Since 2015 he has been Professor in Cyber Security Studies, at the United States Naval Academy. In the mid 90’s he spent a year as Deputy Chief NSA Office of Encryption Policy. With a year at the end of the decade as Deputy Chief, in the Operations Directorate for the Office of China and Korea. Something that might prove invaluable with the way things are “cooking up” in the South China seas and may well boil over into fairly serious cyber activity.

Interestingly he is well qualified in engineering and computer science, which kind of makes a difference to your usual political appointee. I would as a consequence expect him to have a way better grasp of the technological side of things, which is very likely to become of significant relevance in very short order.

[1] Once tipped to be the first Civilian Director of the NSA, Ed Snowden caused a massive shake up and “Chris” got unceremoniously “brushed” out the door,

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/dec/13/nsa-deputy-director-john-inglis-retire