Ep. 527 — Jen Easterly

The Axe Files with David Axelrod

CNN

News

4.6 • 7.7K Ratings

🗓️ 23 March 2023

⏱️ 63 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

CISA Director Jen Easterly got an early taste of government as a sixth grader when her class was featured in a commercial for then-presidential candidate Ronald Reagan. The ad never made it to air, but Director Easterly continued in public service. After spending decades in the Army and the private sector, Director Easterly now leads the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, or CISA. As head of CISA, she works to protect against cyberattacks on everything from U.S. election infrastructure to systems Americans use every day, like water, schools, and hospitals. Director Easterly joined David to talk about what she believes makes a good leader, cyber threats from Russia and China, the potential downsides of A.I. and TikTok, and why cybersecurity needs to be a collaborative effort.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	And now, from the University of Chicago Institute of Politics and CNN Audio, the Axe Files,
0:12.5	with your host, David Axelrod.
0:19.0	Jenny Stirlie is one of the most interesting people you could know.
0:22.4	West Point graduate, Rhodes Scholar, 22-year Army veteran of Bosnia, Haiti, Iraq, and
0:28.4	Afghanistan.
0:29.6	White House National Security Aid, and now, director of the blandly named, but incredibly important,
0:36.6	cyber security and infrastructure security agency.
0:40.4	There she oversees one of the most terrifying and underappreciated portfolios and government,
0:45.4	protecting our country against cyber attacks.
0:48.2	I sat down this week with director Easterly to talk about her fascinating journey in America's cyber challenge.
1:00.4	Director Easterly, it is great to be with you.
1:07.5	So welcome.
1:08.5	Thank you.
1:09.5	I want to talk about your extraordinary portfolio, which should be of interest and concern to
1:16.4	every American, but I also want to talk to you about your extraordinary life.
1:22.4	And let's begin there, because you've really had quite a breadth of experiences that are
1:32.2	very relevant to what you're doing today.
1:35.8	But let's start with your family, because you come from a family of public servants,
1:42.4	and your mom and dad had very, very sort of histories, your dad, I guess his family
1:48.8	goes back to folks who fought in the Civil War.
1:51.5	Right.
1:52.3	Mom was an emigrate from Eastern Europe.
	...

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