Risk & Repeat: What is the future of CISA?

With a new president in the White House, the future of CISA is anything but certain.

President Donald Trump was inaugurated as the 47^th president of the United States on Monday, and on the same day CISA Director Jen Easterly stepped down. No successor has been named at press time.

In addition, South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem, Trump's nominee to lead the Department of Homeland Security (which oversees CISA), said during testimony Friday the security agency has gone "far off-mission" -- citing its work combatting misinformation and disinformation -- and that CISA should be made "smaller" to focus its efforts on securing critical infrastructure.

Although CISA has focused efforts into combatting misinformation and disinformation campaigns -- particularly those originating from foreign adversaries such as Russia and Iran -- the agency also conducts physical and cyber security trainings, assists with incident response, makes efforts for public outreach, develops resources for defenders and more.

Noem's comments appeared to reference CISA's work during the 2020 presidential election, when the agency pushed back against Trump's unfounded claims of widespread voter fraud and election system hacking. Trump fired former CISA Director Chris Krebs as a result, and CISA became a target of Trump supporters and Republican officials who argued the agency was overstepping its bounds.

Informa TechTarget editors Rob Wright and Alex Culafi discuss the future of CISA on this episode of the Risk & Repeat podcast.

Alexander Culafi is a senior information security news writer and podcast host for TechTarget Editorial.