RE:WIRED 2021: Jen Easterly on Partnering With Hackers

We want to ignite the power of hackers

and researchers and academics.

Because at the end of the day,

the world is full of vulnerabilities,

and I feel like the offense is dominating the defense.

And so, I wanna make sure that we are tapping into

the brilliance and the goodness of that community

to help us identify and to close those vulnerabilities,

and I think it's incredibly important.

I had some really good outreach after that.

We are gonna continue to recognize great folks

that reach out to us to identify vulnerabilities.

There are many of them,

and I think it's hugely important.

So, I'm very much hoping to

what I call ignite the community,

and I'll be bringing some folks

on our soon-to-be-announced Cybersecurity Advisory Committee

who specifically I'm gonna ask to help me do that.

But we have to do things differently, Garrett.

In many ways, the status quo is unacceptable.

The status quo of the .gov is unacceptable.

That was illuminated strongly during Solar Winds.

But the status quo of our critical infrastructure security

is what I perhaps worry about the most,

and that has to be an effort working with industry,

working with state and local,

particularly when it comes to election infrastructure,

to do everything we can

to ensure the security and resilience.

And a lot of that starts with the basics.

But having a team to identify those vulnerabilities

and willing to report them to the government.

And we are obligated to take action

to make sure that we are closing those vulnerabilities

in a rapid way.

'Cause what I don't want

is these vulnerabilities get sold off at the highest bidder

to adversaries or to others who use them

in evil and malicious ways.

And so, again, I'm hoping to ignite that hacker community.

So, please partner with us and bring it on.