The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, the FBI and the National Security Agency have withdrawn from the RSAC Conference, one of the world’s biggest cybersecurity gatherings, after the event’s organizer appointed a Biden administration official as its CEO.
The names of CISA, FBI, and NSA officials disappeared from the schedule for RSAC eight days after the conference’s eponymous organizer named Jen Easterly, CISA’s director from 2021 to 2025, as its chief executive.
The FBI and the NSA declined to comment on their withdrawals from the event, which will take place March 23-26 in San Francisco. In a statement, CISA director of public affairs Marci McCarthy said the agency has “determined that we will not participate in the RSA Conference since we regularly review all stakeholder engagements, to ensure maximum impact and good stewardship of taxpayer dollars.” CISA did not respond to a follow-up email asking why the agency made that decision only after Easterly’s hiring.
Officials from the three agencies had been scheduled to speak on panels covering a range of topics, from public-private partnerships to incident response to nation-state hackers’ abuse of edge devices. Chris Butera, the acting deputy head of CISA’s cyber division, was expected to represent the agency, accompanied by senior FBI Cyber Division officials and the head of the NSA’s Cybersecurity Collaboration Center.
RSAC did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the government’s withdrawal from the annual conference.
Federal agencies have participated in RSAC for years, both to showcase their work and to strengthen relationships with foreign allies, private companies, academic researchers and independent experts. The Trump administration’s withdrawal from the conference fits a pattern of disengagement from the cybersecurity community that has worried many former officials and other experts.
The Trump administration has framed CISA’s year-long retrenchment as a necessary course correction for an agency that the Biden administration led astray. In her statement, McCarthy said CISA has “made significant progress in returning to our statutory, core mission and focusing on President Trump’s policies for maximum security for all Americans.”
Easterly, a 25-year Army veteran, political independent and former White House and NSA official, became a target of the Trump administration after criticizing President Donald Trump’s loyalty mandate at the 2025 RSAC Conference. Three months later, the U.S. Military Academy at West Point rescinded a job offer it had made to Easterly following a far-right activist’s criticism of the offer.
