Feds Skipping Infosec Industry's Biggest Conference This Year (theregister.com)
- Reference: 0180722392
- News link: https://news.slashdot.org/story/26/02/02/1935214/feds-skipping-infosec-industrys-biggest-conference-this-year
- Source link: https://www.theregister.com/2026/01/24/cisa_skipping_rsa_exclusive/
> The US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency [1]won't attend the annual RSA Conference in March, an agency spokesperson confirmed to The Register. Sessions involving speakers from the FBI and National Security Agency (NSA) have also disappeared from the agenda.
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> "Since the beginning of this administration, 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," CISA spokesperson Marci McCarthy told us. "CISA has reviewed and 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."
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> McCarthy declined to comment on whether the decision had anything to do with former CISA director Jen Easterly being named chief executive of RSAC last week. Easterly, who was appointed to lead America's top cyber-defense agency under the Biden administration, joined her predecessor and CISA's first-ever director Chris Krebs in President Trump's line of fire back in July.
[1] https://www.theregister.com/2026/01/24/cisa_skipping_rsa_exclusive/
attendance (Score:2)
[1]Apparently around 40,000 people attend RSA security conference [wikipedia.org]. I didn't realize so many people were interested in cryptography.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RSAC_Conference
Bunker Mentality (Score:2)
So they are afraid to engage with the knowledgeable public.
Focused on what now? (Score:2)
> focusing on President Trump's policies for maximum security for all Americans
I'm sure for most participants, attending the conference is about staying current on the latest technology and proceedings. For the others, some will be attending for business networking, others for job hunting, but most experts go to the conferences to stay current on the latest things they may have missed.
The most likely reasoning here is petty: "I don't want anybody supporting someone who isn't fully loyal to the brand". It sure smells that way from the announcement and news articles. It isn't about "
just embarrassment (Score:2)
Probably they just don't want to sit through a whole conference with people laughing at them after [1]our cybersecurity chief uploaded sensitive documents to a public ChatGPT [csoonline.com].
[1] https://www.csoonline.com/article/4124320/cisa-chief-uploaded-sensitive-government-files-to-public-chatgpt.html
Petty (Score:2)
"declined to comment on whether the decision had anything to do with former CISA director Jen Easterly being named chief executive of RSAC last week."
More than likely it is. So far this admin has made a point to hate on anything a democrat administration has done regardless if it was good for the country or not.