CISA Director Wants to Promote Proactive Approach in Dealing With Cyber Intrusions

Jen Easterly, the new director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, wants to be more proactive in dealing with cyber incidents and break the cycle of cleaning up after big hacks.

Easterly, who recently spoke with CyberScoop, expressed disappointment in the reactive approach to cyber intrusions, arguing that federal and private sector organizations are unable to keep up with threats.

Moving forward, she intends to promote a culture of preparing for incidents in order to reduce the impact of hacks.

CISA has taken a step in that direction, having recently published new guidance to help organizations protect sensitive and personal information from ransomware-caused data breaches. One of the sections in the guidance focuses on prevention and recommends maintaining offline, encrypted backups of data and adopting basic cyber incident response plans, among others.

Easterly also launched a cyber defense center to foster collaboration between federal agencies, the private sector and state and local governments on pre-attack planning.

Speaking at the recent Black Hat security conference, Easterly said the Joint Cyber Defense Collaborative will enhance teamwork that often happens only after a major incident.

Companies that signed up for JCDC, including Amazon Web Services, AT&T, Crowdstrike, FireEye Mandiant and Google Cloud, will work together to develop comprehensive cyber defense plans and joint exercises.

CISA is also looking to spend the $650 million boost that it got from a previous coronavirus relief package to improve its ability to scan federal civilian networks for malicious code, according to Easterly.