YouSaid · the spoken record

Jen Easterly

lines on the record: 77
first: 2023-06-12
most recent: 2023-06-12
sittings or episodes: 1
sources: podcast

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2023-06-12 · On with Kara Swisher · Sorry, Donald. Jen Easterly Plans To Make Elections Boring Again. · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Aztec stuff. That would be good for me. Anyway, the number is 1888 Kara, please plz. And we will talk about anything you want. We like to do these shows and we love to hear from our listeners at all times and always with great questions. So again, call 1888 Kara, please PLZ.”
2023-06-12 · On with Kara Swisher · Sorry, Donald. Jen Easterly Plans To Make Elections Boring Again. · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Oh God, two factor authentication, multi-factor, whatever, it's two-factor really. Oh, change your password or get a password manager. I guess don't click on stupid things, you idiots. Yeah.”
2023-06-12 · On with Kara Swisher · Sorry, Donald. Jen Easterly Plans To Make Elections Boring Again. · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yes, that's true, but the original Internet people was all diamonds and roses and daffodils, and it never was, this could kill humanity. And I get that it could be just a flex or a virtue signaling or whatever, but no one ever said it publicly. And so I get that they could try to neuter some of these efforts. But I think everyone's aware that this time we have to get it right.”
2023-06-12 · On with Kara Swisher · Sorry, Donald. Jen Easterly Plans To Make Elections Boring Again. · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I don't know. Maybe. Maybe right now there's more of a prevalence that Elon Musk crowd sort of hates government even as they benefit from it extensively, whether it's Palantir or space stuff or whatever. But they always manage to put a deep state kind of ideas around the government.”
2023-06-12 · On with Kara Swisher · Sorry, Donald. Jen Easterly Plans To Make Elections Boring Again. · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“We're helping you, and you're doing this, you're spying on us too, and the manner in which they spied. And, you know, I thought, I just, I remember it being them being very exercised and distrustful of government during that period. And, you know, they cooperate today behind the scenes in ways we probably don't. Be surprised about. And they're also”
2023-06-12 · On with Kara Swisher · Sorry, Donald. Jen Easterly Plans To Make Elections Boring Again. · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Look, tech companies and government have worked together for decades and decades and decades and decades. Like, it's not, this is not a new, fresh relationship. And so there's always been a cooperative thing. And then, of course, subpoenas to get certain information. And as more information is grown online, that's where the subpoenas come from. We all understand that. But I think with Snowden, I was there and covered it for recode. And they were very surprised the extent of what the government was doing in terms of spying. And I was surprised they were, not everybody, of course, but I think a lot of them were very much.”
2023-06-12 · On with Kara Swisher · Sorry, Donald. Jen Easterly Plans To Make Elections Boring Again. · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, it would be nice if 90 days before the election, all the social media companies would shut the fuck up. They should do that like they do in other countries or in free.”
2023-06-12 · On with Kara Swisher · Sorry, Donald. Jen Easterly Plans To Make Elections Boring Again. · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“In some way Yeah, exactly. I love when she pulls out the. I can use an AK47 to just be careful. I know how to take a man down with one touch, you know, that kind of thing.”
2023-06-12 · On with Kara Swisher · Sorry, Donald. Jen Easterly Plans To Make Elections Boring Again. · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And that makes sense, actually, for that particular agency. There's other agencies in Congress dealing with the social media companies. But I think it's best if she looks as non-partisan as possible. She really is the personification that having worked for Conda Lisa Rice, who very few people can argue isn't conservative and Republican, et cetera, to the Biden administration. So she's really got to look like I'm here to help you do a better job. Let's let the chips fall where they may in terms of the election, but I'm here to make sure they're secure. And I think that's probably the best thing.”
2023-06-12 · On with Kara Swisher · Sorry, Donald. Jen Easterly Plans To Make Elections Boring Again. · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And in practice, they tend to be once you get near them, they tend to be a lot more cooperative. But she definitely didn't want to slap around the election deniers very much.”
2023-06-12 · On with Kara Swisher · Sorry, Donald. Jen Easterly Plans To Make Elections Boring Again. · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“She had to. I mean, I think on the field, it's a little more complex. We hear from the noisiest people. We have to listen endlessly to that, you know, that yammering Carrie Lake. So the eighth shades. Yeah, exactly. And I think in most states, most people, the people who are loudest get the most attention.”
2023-06-12 · On with Kara Swisher · Sorry, Donald. Jen Easterly Plans To Make Elections Boring Again. · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I know Yeah, yeah, I guess a lot about a person. I have everything multi-factor authenticated, but I cannot get my mom to use it or anyone who's even slightly, I mean, it's hard for people who are smart about it to use these things, but she's right, but honestly, can they not come up with something better? Shouldn't be one guy in your office who clicks on a stupid link, phishing link, and then you're all fucked.”
2023-06-12 · On with Kara Swisher · Sorry, Donald. Jen Easterly Plans To Make Elections Boring Again. · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Pick one. I would, I know you hate the word, and I do too. You should call it something different. No, I think we should enable multi-factor authentication in all of our systems. Anything that holds sensitive data, we should enable multi-factor authentication at enterprises. Because at the end of the studies show that is the thing that drives down risks better than anything. Yeah, it's locking the doors and double bolting them. So it's like a technical answer, which people are not going to love, but quite frankly, it's the best thing we can do. All right, everybody, multi-factor authentication. I'll say it. And I would take anyone who comes up with a better thing. I wonder if Mark Andreessen does multi-factor authentication. I'm sure he does. He probably has one of his minions do it. Please multi-factor authentication means something like that. Anyway, thank you so much. And my pleasure.”
2023-06-12 · On with Kara Swisher · Sorry, Donald. Jen Easterly Plans To Make Elections Boring Again. · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“can agree maybe we can agree on that maybe we can not a fan of killer robots i know but maybe there are things we can agree on we've agreed on many others like we've become such a short term society part of that is just the technology itself but you know i'm reading this great book by a classmate of mine from oxford it's called the good ancestor and essentially the argument is we need to look at what is going to be inherited by seven generations from now what are we creating what's the earth we're creating what's the capabilities that we're creating and stop thinking about you know the next week the next quarter the next election it's really hard to do but quite frankly we need to do it or else we're not going to leave the world we want to leave for our kids one use plastic that's we're leaving them okay last question if you could wave a magic wand and fix one cyber threat what's the most consequential thing you do increase cybersecurity for all power generation companies eliminate Russian hackers pause AI”
2023-06-12 · On with Kara Swisher · Sorry, Donald. Jen Easterly Plans To Make Elections Boring Again. · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“No, no, I do. I think technologists are hysterical about how China is going to beat us and then not hysterical enough about the threats. I think we need to have a much more reasoned debate about that. Mark stopping hysterical about China. Let me ask, regulation, what would you like to see? What about AI? I mean, I think the EU is way ahead as they've been ahead in many things to include privacy regulation. I think if people have a lot of concerns with the EU AI Act, I think there should be some discussion about maybe how you can take what is good about that. This would be a really good opportunity for us to actually have a conversation with China. Maybe we think about, you know, AI is going to be the most powerful. It's also going to be the most powerful weapon. And governments need to figure out how we are going to control the capabilities weaponized. At least killer robots.”
2023-06-12 · On with Kara Swisher · Sorry, Donald. Jen Easterly Plans To Make Elections Boring Again. · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Right? There's a lot of fear mongering going on on China. And I just think we need to step back and have a more reasoned conversation about this. There was a really good piece in foreign affairs from Helen Toner from Georgetown's Center for Security and Emerging Technology and two of our colleagues basically talked about China is actually not hurtling into this space. Their LLMs are less advanced than ours. They're actually fast followers. So if we slow down a little bit, they'll need to slow down. Also, their macroeconomic conditions investment. They certainly are. What they have going on with semiconductors, they're actually behind. And frankly, that might become more behind. And what they're ahead on is regulation. And they are putting very strict rules in place that govern how you test, how you develop, and how you generate content.”
2023-06-12 · On with Kara Swisher · Sorry, Donald. Jen Easterly Plans To Make Elections Boring Again. · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“What are we going to do about it? I mean, if you actually think it can lead to the extinction of humanity, why are you making it? Maybe we could come together in self-regulation. Maybe we could pause. Maybe we could slow down and don't put all the burden on governments to put regulation in place, but say, I don't like that regulation. And we're going to keep on just hurtling forward as Mark Andreessen would want us to do without really thinking about the implications of that. So just sort of one piece. The second hang people feel like any regulation can crush innovation at the end of the day. Sure, that's their argument. But we've seen emission standards lead to electric cars. We've seen accessibility have the cut-curbed effect where you can use accessibility for a bunch of different things. You've seen financial regulation lead to fraud detection and to secure payments, right? So regulation done the right way can spur innovation. You can accept that. And the last thing, China.”
2023-06-12 · On with Kara Swisher · Sorry, Donald. Jen Easterly Plans To Make Elections Boring Again. · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And then you alluded to this statement 22 words mitigating the risk of extinction from AI needs to be a global priority on the scale of societal risks like pandemics and nuclear war. 22 words that I think to be somewhat uncharitable is an exquisite exercise in risk transference. Here are my 22 words.”
2023-06-12 · On with Kara Swisher · Sorry, Donald. Jen Easterly Plans To Make Elections Boring Again. · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Go back to your point about some of the industry executives saying that they're worried. At the end of the day, we've heard a bunch of perplexing things. First, we've heard cases being made to include Congress on the need for regulation. We've also heard that government doesn't know how to do this, industry has to regulate, but at the end of the day, that makes no sense because businesses are built to maximize profits for shareholders. They're not built for security. So I really don't get that. We've heard issues with the EU AI Act so that people want to pull out of Europe. And then there was a reversal on that. But the EU AI Act, the schema in there is not too different from the AI risk management framework that was put out by Commerce's NIS National Institute for Science and Technology. And so I think the only difference is that the EUAI Act has teeth. So I don't totally understand that.”
2023-06-12 · On with Kara Swisher · Sorry, Donald. Jen Easterly Plans To Make Elections Boring Again. · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Jeff Hinton, but even Sam Altman put out a statement saying this is very problematic for humanity. But Mark Andreessen, a very famous guy who was part of the Netscape browser, important technology leader, just published a long post where he says, AI will save the world. He says that the, quote, public conversation about AI is presently shot through with hysterical fear and paranoia. What's your response? I will respond first as usual. Mark is thinking of Mark, and Mark Denver does anything wrong, and he's moved on from Facebook. And let me just read this quote, the greatest risk of AI is that China wins global dominance and that we, the United States and the West, do not, I recently had Tristan Harris on, thinks the AI arms race will actually foster AI adoption by China. So tell me what your thoughts are. Let me just hit three points here. So let's...”
2023-06-12 · On with Kara Swisher · Sorry, Donald. Jen Easterly Plans To Make Elections Boring Again. · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Well, we've talked about technology, product safety, AI is just another flavor of that. And I don't think looking at the internet, looking at software, looking at social media, we should expect that AI is going to be safe as it is designed. So just sort of that as a basis, right? Let's just assume this. Yes, they're in a mad rush. Right, right. For profits. There's a bunch of different things to be concerned about. I would start with the uncertainty. What do we know about these capabilities and how they can be used both for good, but also for evil? I mean, you have to look at that lens. I think it's irresponsible to only say AI can save the world and do all these great things and not to imagine that they can also be used by terrorists, by rogue nations to do a whole range of bad things. Although many of them have talked about the end of civilization, the people that are making it are worried. And obviously you mentioned”
2023-06-12 · On with Kara Swisher · Sorry, Donald. Jen Easterly Plans To Make Elections Boring Again. · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Agree, it's a shiny object. But let's move on to something bigger, AI. You've said AI is the most powerful technology of this century and you worry about the incentives to maximize profit, to build better AI. What are your biggest AI, as you said, related cybersecurity concerns? You mentioned the ability to flood the zone with information, confusion, anything else that's important from your perspective?”
2023-06-12 · On with Kara Swisher · Sorry, Donald. Jen Easterly Plans To Make Elections Boring Again. · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“People will be addicted and they'll use them, which is the things I worry about TikTok is the same thing in social media, is just the effect it's having on our kids and people generally. And I worry, frankly, that this becomes the shiny object. TikTok is a very tactical issue. We need to be focused much more broadly on Chinese technology that can be used to give them a foothold for disruption and destruction. Like that's where the focus needs to be.”
2023-06-12 · On with Kara Swisher · Sorry, Donald. Jen Easterly Plans To Make Elections Boring Again. · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“No, I mean, I don't think you need to prove it. Certainly we have a lot of evidence of the threat from, and just to be very clear, I am not worried about TikTok as a cybersecurity threat. I'm worried about the massive amount of data that will be available to the Chinese government because of the ways their laws are structured and that data can be used for all kinds of purposes to include targeted influence operations. That is one reason why TikTok is not on government devices, and I know there's discussions about potential bans. I think it would be very difficult in practice to make those bans work. But by the way, when you talk about TikTok, you have to talk about the end shitification of TikTok because that's such a great word in Corey Doctorow's article, which basically says platforms will die. But even though they won't be of value to customers anymore,”
2023-06-12 · On with Kara Swisher · Sorry, Donald. Jen Easterly Plans To Make Elections Boring Again. · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“You see that inducing societal panic ain't going to be that difficult, and we need to be prepared for it. So speaking of China, TikTok, obviously, you said you support a total ban. I have asked this of senators, several senators. Do you have proof that TikTok is a threat to national security? You kind of have to show your cards on that. from my perspective. Or do you support based on a theoretical threat that any Chinese-based social media company that's wildly populist country is there for surveillance and propaganda? I think that myself, but do you need to prove it?”
2023-06-12 · On with Kara Swisher · Sorry, Donald. Jen Easterly Plans To Make Elections Boring Again. · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Very few people read, but it's incredibly important. It's the Intel community's annual threat assessment. Everybody should go to the part on China Cyber where it says that in the event of a conflict, which we know is potential given what's happening in Taiwan and the Straits there, China is almost certainly going to launch aggressive cyber operations against our critical infrastructure pipelines, rail transportation,”
2023-06-12 · On with Kara Swisher · Sorry, Donald. Jen Easterly Plans To Make Elections Boring Again. · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Talented in terms of their cyber capabilities, but the real formidable adversary, the ones putting the most resources and capabilities into this is China. And we put out a cybersecurity advisory, I think it was last week or the week before that talked about Chinese intrusions into critical infrastructure and what companies and businesses need to do to look for those intrusions. Essentially, it was a technique called living off the land, which is using the processes that are native to your computer to actually hijack them so that you can borrow in there. And it could be burrowing in for espionage, but some of the targets we're seeing are not about espionage, but about potentially disrupting and destroying our critical infrastructure. You know, there's a document that comes out every year that very...”
2023-06-12 · On with Kara Swisher · Sorry, Donald. Jen Easterly Plans To Make Elections Boring Again. · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Like the do you like music more than a feeling? Not much, but go ahead. All right, fine. More than a feeling, more than a password. Okay. So it's a whole idea. It's just more than a password, right? But the good news is actually a lot of companies are going passwordless. So you won't have to, you know, you can do a thumbprint or your face recognition. So you don't have to remember all of those different passwords, but you can get a password keeper, which makes things easier. You update your software, which will hopefully have to do less of if software producers produce better software. And, you know, the whole phishing email thing, you need to have people be aware of what are the basic links. Those are the basics. I think most people fail at them almost constantly, unfortunately. You made an analogy about cyber threats from Russia and China, and you said Russia is the hurricane, and China is climate change. Can you explain what you meant by that? I mean, we worry all the time Russia's...”
2023-06-12 · On with Kara Swisher · Sorry, Donald. Jen Easterly Plans To Make Elections Boring Again. · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“To get people excited about cybersecurity. But that's not it. No. So you can't PSA your way out of the strategic issue, but that doesn't mean explaining good cyber. It doesn't mean good cyber hygiene goes away. We obviously have an individual and a business responsibility. What we're saying is all the responsibility can't be on you and on a small business. Exactly. I mean, technology companies should bear the biggest part of that burden. And that's what we're saying. So what we're trying to do is what are the very simple steps that people need to do to keep ourselves, our family safe. And it's not rocket science at the end of the day. Look, it's four things that people can do that doesn't take a computer science degree. First and foremost, enable multi-factor authentication. That just troops off the tongue. I know. I know. It's terrible. We create these words. That's why.”
2023-06-12 · On with Kara Swisher · Sorry, Donald. Jen Easterly Plans To Make Elections Boring Again. · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Understanding the threat. It's very hard because they have accepted all these free maps and dating services and everything else, which I call them cheap dates. But do you think that they understand the vulnerabilities? Because it really, there are so many points of failure, including individuals. You've said we can't just PSA our way out of this. It can't be this is your brain on drugs. This is your brain on cyber. Should there be a national program to educate citizens? What should they be listening to in order to understand it besides getting hacked someday? Is that your recommendation? This is your brain on cyber. No, moms don't tell people your social security number is my PSA, which recently happened. Yeah, we're looking at, we're actually launching a PSA campaign, you know, one of the, even though you said you can't PSA, you're way out of it. Look, one of the recommendations, which we're not going to take, was cybersecurity fuck yeah.”
2023-06-12 · On with Kara Swisher · Sorry, Donald. Jen Easterly Plans To Make Elections Boring Again. · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Were naive actually, which was interesting. By the way, so 10 years on, which is interesting from Snowden, I think the landscape has changed markedly. I think that even just over the last couple years, some of it because of these high-profile hacks like solar winds and memorial pipeline, I have seen industry and government come together in a pretty productive way. You remember Log4J, that was the software vulnerability in December of 2021, pretty catastrophic vulnerability. That was a place where industry came together, government, fantastic researchers, to enable us to really urgently mitigate threats from this software vulnerability. And I think even the Russia campaign, our Shields Up campaign where we work with industry to help them mitigate threats to Russia and non-denial anymore. But one of the things is actual citizens and Americans.”
2023-06-12 · On with Kara Swisher · Sorry, Donald. Jen Easterly Plans To Make Elections Boring Again. · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Did everything we could to ensure that these networks were remediated, but nation state actors can burrow in to spaces and can be very difficult to find. So can I say with 100% certainty that there's not nation state actors lurking in our infrastructure, no, which is why, again, we need state for software, we need CEOs and boards that treat corporate cyber responsibility as a matter of good governance, and that we all recognize, like, this ain't something the government's going to solve or that industry can solve, we have to work together in what we call persistent operational cloud. I always thought there was the distrust between government and technology companies came from the Snowden revolutions. You know, at the time, I covered them, and they were surprised, I have to say. And I was surprised they were surprised. They were like, can you believe this? I'm like, uh-huh. Yeah, I can. I remember them feeling betrayed many of them. I always thought.”
2023-06-12 · On with Kara Swisher · Sorry, Donald. Jen Easterly Plans To Make Elections Boring Again. · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Bad things from happening. What we need to do is to assume that disruptions will occur and then build the processes and the networks so that we prepare for those disruptions. We have to be able to do that so that we can reduce risk to the American people. So are these Russians out of the networks? Did you just say that they are we?”
2023-06-12 · On with Kara Swisher · Sorry, Donald. Jen Easterly Plans To Make Elections Boring Again. · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“That's one thing, and we're calling for radical transparency so that we understand what's But I think we can start to nudge if we show it the clear market signal is from the producers to the consumers, and we continue to use our platform to get there. And it's got to be a global platform. And the product that we put out in April, we had six countries with us on it, the FBI, NSA. And again, we're working with industry on this, who I think gets it, but it's hard because there's never been any regulation of technology. No, never, never been it. And also going back to Solar Winds, CISA has said the federal government has managed to evict the Russian hackers out of Americaners. Others say perhaps not. I'm not sure we can be sure that we booted them out at all. You know, they were in these vulnerable systems and they could be hiding there for as long as they need to. Yeah, I agree with you. I mean, we live in a world where the products that we have are not secure by design or secure by default. And quite frankly, it is super hard to prevent.”
2023-06-12 · On with Kara Swisher · Sorry, Donald. Jen Easterly Plans To Make Elections Boring Again. · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Model cybersecurity would ultimately be the responsibility of every CEO and every board. How do we get here? Because I haven't seen them concerned about safety of anything so far. Okay, first of all, it's not easy. Their own yachts. They're very concerned about their own security. Okay, so 1965, Ralph Nader wrote the book, Unsafe at Any Speed. Yes. It was until 1983 that we got seatbelt legislation, right? I don't think we have that long to wait to move us from unsafe at any CPU speed to a place where technology products are in fact safe. So what are we trying to do? Well, we're working with technology companies to ensure that they understand what we think safe products are, what is secure by design, meaning tested, developed such that you reduce the number of vulnerabilities and flaws that can be exploited by malicious threat actors. So now we can actually move to safer code. There are things that we can do.”
2023-06-12 · On with Kara Swisher · Sorry, Donald. Jen Easterly Plans To Make Elections Boring Again. · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I want to assume that. Please don't. Care about the safety and security of their customers. They do not. Maybe one guy. So let's assume they care about health customers and the safety of their customers. At the end of the day, what has been missing is a clear signal. Consumers actually don't know what to ask for. They're like, okay, I'm going to assign this user agreement. I'll just press approve because I can't turn my phone on. And essentially what that is saying is you accept all liability for everything that will go wrong for this device. So we've been forced in a place where the users have all the security placed upon us and we just assume that that's normal. So part of what we're trying to do is to move the Overton window. So now you have not this normalization of software that's unsafe, but actually software that's created secure by design, secure by default. This is what you call. Let me just say you wrote in Foreign Affairs magazine, and the quote is under this new.”
2023-06-12 · On with Kara Swisher · Sorry, Donald. Jen Easterly Plans To Make Elections Boring Again. · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“You know, famously, software is eating the world and like, frankly, we're all getting food poisoning from it. So the issue goes back to the fact that we have normalized this acceptance of software that comes full of holes, full of flaws, full of vulnerabilities, right? And so we've accepted it. We've normalized it, which is why we think the only approach to sustainable cybersecurity to getting ahead of these complex, dynamic, increasingly sophisticated cyber threats is to move up the chain so that the software that we buy is much more secure, secure by design, secure by default. But you can't make them, right? You don't have an ability, a stick to make them do it because they spend their own money to beef up cybersecurity. Why should they? Yeah. So a few things, right? First of all, I have to assume that businesses care about the safety and security.”
2023-06-12 · On with Kara Swisher · Sorry, Donald. Jen Easterly Plans To Make Elections Boring Again. · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“JBS Foods. So there was a series of events that occurred in 2021 that, again, really got the sense of urgency about what we needed to do to improve cybersecurity. And it's interesting because it's a software supply chain attack, which I think people are going to go, oh, what? Like it's not like a hack that you think of a virus steal my credit card kind of thing, but the increase has been massive over the last three years, according to a recent study. even think about protecting ourselves when this software, which is the glue of network, I don't know how else to explain it, it's glue and they're in the glue and they're hiding in the glue. And these are attacks from the private sector vulnerability because we rely so much on the private sector, but has implications for the whole nation. How do you deal with that across multiple industries then? Is it even possible because of the landscape we have? I mean, I think you say the critical thing here. So a lot of what's common is the software.”
2023-06-12 · On with Kara Swisher · Sorry, Donald. Jen Easterly Plans To Make Elections Boring Again. · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“It's never helpful to have a cyber incident, but that helps set the agenda. So Russian intrusions, essentially for espionage, it was getting into the supply chain, as you said, so to have those impacts to steal data. Then, as you mentioned, we had colonial pipelines. So that was a ransomware attack by a Russian-affiliated cyber threat actor that essentially got into the information technology. So think about part of your business in the colonial pipeline. It did not get into the part of the pipeline that actually controls the flow of gasoline. But there was a uncertainty. And so they shut that down. And then, of course, the gas was limited to the eastern seaboard. It caused a bit of a panic. So these events, as well as others, there was Chinese exploitation of Microsoft Exchange servers. There was the Kaseya hack.”
2023-06-12 · On with Kara Swisher · Sorry, Donald. Jen Easterly Plans To Make Elections Boring Again. · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Are we with those, the colonial pipeline and the solar wind, explain each of them for people who didn't understand and what the fallout solar winds is the name of a company that provides essentially just to think of it as like sort of it provides software to a lot of different companies to help manage their networks. In December of 2020, it was revealed that there was Russian infiltration of solar wind that gave them a foothold in a variety of networks. They're in the glue, essentially. Yeah, inside the networks. So essentially this became a pretty big deal because this was during the transition and sort of in some ways it helpfully helped set the agenda for this administration to put cybersecurity, make it a top priority. So actually in some ways it was pretty”
2023-06-12 · On with Kara Swisher · Sorry, Donald. Jen Easterly Plans To Make Elections Boring Again. · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Will operate them with impunity. So I worry a lot about that. And I look at it through the lens of, quite frankly, like short history of information technology is the history of unsafe technology. Well, you think about like 1983, TCPIP. So you have, it was never meant for security, right? It was Dan Kamitsky. The internet was meant to move pictures of cats, very good at moving pictures of cats. But you have internet with viruses. You have software full of vulnerabilities, right? So you force the user to patch them. You have social media that is full of disinformation. And quite frankly, separately causing real mental health issues that I worry about is I'm a mom. And now we're hurtling in the world of AI. So it's interesting. I want to get to AI in a second, but you didn't mention, for example, the colonial pipeline, cyber attack in 2021, or solar winds attacked, which was one of the biggest cybersecurity attacks.”
2023-06-12 · On with Kara Swisher · Sorry, Donald. Jen Easterly Plans To Make Elections Boring Again. · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Elections aren't the only critical infrastructure that you have to protect. This happens every couple years. We have pipelines, government networks, millions of cell phones. What keeps you up Oh, yeah, of course. Fabulous. Pearl Roth's book. After I read that, everything kept me up. So what are you most nervous about? I mean, look, so whatever, 35 years, counterterrorism until cybersecurity, as you might expect, I don't sleep very much as it is. So I think what has been worrying me a lot lately, to be honest, is what we're seeing with these incredible developments on artificial intelligence. And I see it through the lens, right, of counterterrorism. I believe in the power of technology. But I think it's a leader's job to be able to leverage the power of imagination and to avoid the failure of imagination. And I think there's not enough of a healthy debate about how these tools can be used by very bad people who”
2023-06-12 · On with Kara Swisher · Sorry, Donald. Jen Easterly Plans To Make Elections Boring Again. · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“With tech people, it attracts, I think, attention. Right. There's an element of sexism involved too. Oh, you think? Yeah, I do. You think that? I think that. What do you think? Yes. Yes. Okay.”
2023-06-12 · On with Kara Swisher · Sorry, Donald. Jen Easterly Plans To Make Elections Boring Again. · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“We had a pandemic. We had an entire reorganization. What I want to do is be able to attract the best talent and then hold on to that talent as long as we can. So I get out there and I talk about culture and I talk about mission and I talk about operations and I talk about what it's like to work at CISA. And like to be honest, Karen, notwithstanding what that article said, over the last two years, we've hired 1,105 people. So that's a lot for a government agency. Right. So I think we're doing pretty well. And I think, I guess last thing I'd say is, look, nobody's banging on Nate Fick for getting out around the world and meeting with foreign partners. But, you know, when a woman who has a tattoo and a nose piercing and likes to wear the looks that she likes, goes out there and you probably can handle a gun.”
2023-06-12 · On with Kara Swisher · Sorry, Donald. Jen Easterly Plans To Make Elections Boring Again. · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Enemies foreign and domestic. Were you surprised when they attack Chris? For example, I mean, they seem to attack anybody. Yeah, I think it got really, really difficult. So does that make you want to keep a lower profile or a higher one last December? There was a scathing article about you published in the cyber industry news site CyberScoop reporters spoke to 32 insiders and they essentially said you've been too much focused on promoting your personal brand and that's distracted you from articulating a clear vision within the agency Do you worry about that? Yeah, I mean that article I think it quoted Jim Langevin who came back on top and so I'm sort of dismissive of that one piece but I think for the core point you know it's not about me right it's like Ted Lasso it's not the lasso way it's never about me it's about you know the Richmond way it's the sis away now sis is a new agency that's been through a lot of stuff right got our director fired”
2023-06-12 · On with Kara Swisher · Sorry, Donald. Jen Easterly Plans To Make Elections Boring Again. · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“You said you went to West Point, you served in the NSA under Condoleezza Rice. You were confirmed unanimously by the Senate. So your commitment to the country is obviously clear. Thank you. And yet I wouldn't be shocked if people started personalizing tax against you as part of the deep state in this day. Are you prepared for this? I mean, you're not Lena Khan, but I mean, there will always be haters going to hate. I hate a lot. I have enjoyed a good amount of support. Certainly, I think as you know very well, you have to have a thick skin in any sort of public position. To me, what's most important is my family. And so to make sure that my family is safe and secure is number one as it was, I think, for Chris as well. But what I would want people to know is, you know, at the end of the day, somebody who puts on a uniform and spends 21 years in the U.S. Army and combat zones all over the world, it's not about ego. It's not about money. It's about protecting and defending the constitution of the United States of America from all.”
2023-06-12 · On with Kara Swisher · Sorry, Donald. Jen Easterly Plans To Make Elections Boring Again. · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Where we come out on this is, first of all, we have to make sure that at the state and local level, that those election officials feel like they can avail themselves of our capabilities. Right, I got it. So physical security assessment, cybersecurity assessments. And that's the most important thing. That's our core mission. Right. But if they don't believe you or imagine you're a George Toros band, we have not, we have not had any issues with people saying, I'm not going to avail myself of your resources because I think you're part of whatever, right? And by the way, like I'm an independent. So I've been in the Bush administration. So just to bring your audience out there. So I have not come across that. And we work very hard to be seen as nonpartisan, which is increasingly difficult because of the specter of disinformation and misinformation. You mentioned earlier you're independent.”
2023-06-12 · On with Kara Swisher · Sorry, Donald. Jen Easterly Plans To Make Elections Boring Again. · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“As concerned about disinformation. They do everything they can to look at this as not a partisan issue. I mean, keeping elections safe and secure and resilient are about safeguarding the fabric of our democracy. And my experience with state and local election officials is they agree with that, notwithstanding the rest of the political. In Alabama, Indiana, South Dakota, Wyoming, Florida, Secretaries of State are outright election deniers. Or refuse to say President Biden won at the local level. It might be even worse in Pennsylvania. 18 candidates who spread election misinformation are likely to win their races in November and a position to oversee how their counties run elections. How do you, that's not your job, but how do you fight that and how do you interface with these officials? I've interfaced with all those officials, actually”
2023-06-12 · On with Kara Swisher · Sorry, Donald. Jen Easterly Plans To Make Elections Boring Again. · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Trying to do this if they actually believe the election wasn't stolen? Well, I mean, I'll tell you in my experience over the last two years, working with state election directors, with secretaries of state, generally they don't take a partisan view toward it. They actually want the American people to have confidence in the integrity and security of their elections when they go to the ballot box. And by the way, just to emphasize I have talked to Republican Secretaries of State, Democratic Secretaries of State. They're all concerned about disinformation. This is not a party issue. Do you think they believe the election was stolen?”
2023-06-12 · On with Kara Swisher · Sorry, Donald. Jen Easterly Plans To Make Elections Boring Again. · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT