Trump administration Fundamental changes in U.S. fiscal policy, diplomatic relations and global strategy are combined with massive shots across the federal government – U.S. cybersecurity priorities presented this week at the country’s two of the country’s most prominent digital security conferences in Las Vegas have created uncertainty around U.S. cybersecurity priorities. “We are not retreating, we are moving in a new direction,” Robert Costello, chief information officer of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, said Thursday in the Critical Infrastructure Defense Team at Black Hat.
Like the rest of the federal government, the Trump administration has been combing intelligence and cybersecurity agencies to eliminate officials seen as unfaithful to its agenda. In addition to these changes, the White House is also hostile to former U.S. cybersecurity officials. For example, in April, Trump specifically directed all departments and agencies to revoke the security permit of former CISA director Chris Krebs. Last week, the Army Secretary revoked an academic appointment after criticism from far-right activist Laura Loomer, who argued former CISA director Jen Easterly was scheduled to fill it in the pastry. In all of this, former NSA and Cyber Command head Paul Nakasone spoke with Defcon founder Jeff Moss during a stage discussion on Friday, focusing on the importance of AI, cybercrime, and partnerships in digital defense.
“I think we’ve entered a space in the world, technology has become politics, and basically each of us is in conflict,” Moss said at the beginning of the discussion. Nakasone was the consent of Openai’s board member on the grounds that Trump launched the Stargate AI infrastructure initiative in January, while Oracle’s Masayoshi son Larry Ellison and Openai’s Sam Altman were Oracle’s Larry Ellison. “And then two days later, it happened to be [the Chinese generative AI platform] DeepSeek comes out, “Nakasone is dead.” It’s amazing. ”
Nakasone also reflects the population differences between the U.S. federal government and the tech industry.
“When I was a director of the National Security Agency (NSA) and commander of the U.S. Cyber Command, I went to the Bay every quarter, or I would have gone to Texas, Boston or elsewhere to see technology,” he said. “Every place I’ve been, twice the age of the people I talked to. Then, when I got back to DC, I was one of the young people there when I was sitting at the table. OK, that’s a problem. It’s a problem for our country.”
Throughout the discussion, Nakasone responds to traditional rivals and rivals in large part to deal with traditional American competitors and rivals (including China, Iran, North Korea and Russia) as well as specific digital threats.
“Why don’t we think differently about ransomware, I think this is one of the huge scourges our country suffers,” he said. “We are not making progress on ransomware.”
Sometimes, though, Moss tries to direct conversations to geopolitical changes and conflicts around the world that exacerbate uncertainty and fear.
“How do you be neutral in this environment? Can you stay neutral? Or since last year the world environment is Ukraine, Israel, Russia, Iran, just choose your choice, the United States – is anyone stay neutral?” Moss asked at the beginning of the conversation. He later added: “I think because I feel stressed by the chaos of this situation, so I want to feel how to control it?”
Nakasone cites Moss’ comments on an open source software platform that uses open source software platforms as an alternative to community building, and Nakasone hints at Moss’s view that the world is entering a volatile flux state.
“It will be the interesting storyline we play through ’25 and ’26. When we come back [to Defcon] There is a discussion next year and we can still feel that way, oh, are we really neutral? I don’t feel like it. I think it will be very, very difficult. ”
