Military and national security

Jen Easterly

Former director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency; CEO of RSAC

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Portrait source: Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, Public domain

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"Perhaps a non-nation-state actor doesn't have the latest large language model or the most effective large language model, they don't have control of it and they lose control of their agents, and suddenly there is an attack on our critical infrastructure."

Jen Easterly

Former director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency; CEO of RSAC

In an Axios newsletter, Jen Easterly said a non-state actor could lose control of AI agents, leading to an attack on critical infrastructure.

Former director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency and former NSA deputy for counterterrorismDate not establishedAxios Future of Cybersecurity newsletter

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"With AI, or with the potential for AI, it could strike not only at whatever that targeted computer might be, but it can also strike at backup systems that could be developed." Gen. Paul Nakasone, former head of the NSA and Cyber Command "Perhaps a non-nation-state actor doesn't have the latest large language model or the most effective large language model, they don't have control of it and they lose control of their agents, and suddenly there is an attack on our critical infrastructure." "That would likely be against something that is less well-protected — could be water, it could be our food supply, it could be anything like that. One of the lesser protected of the 16 critical infrastructure sectors that our nation has."

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“Artificial Intelligence holds immense promise in enhancing our nation’s cybersecurity, but as the most powerful technology of our lifetimes, it also presents enormous risks,”

Jen Easterly

Former director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency; CEO of RSAC

In CISA's November 14, 2023 press release announcing the agency's first Roadmap for Artificial Intelligence, then-director Jen Easterly said AI holds immense promise in enhancing the nation's cybersecurity but, as the most powerful technology of our lifetimes, also presents enormous risks.

Director, Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security AgencyPublished November 14, 2023 · date of remarks not establishedCISA press release: DHS Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency Releases Roadmap for Artificial Intelligence

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CISA’s roadmap lays out the steps that the agency will take as part of our Department’s broader efforts to both leverage AI and mitigate its risks to our critical infrastructure and cyber defenses.” “Artificial Intelligence holds immense promise in enhancing our nation’s cybersecurity, but as the most powerful technology of our lifetimes, it also presents enormous risks,” said CISA Director Jen Easterly. “Our Roadmap for AI, focused at the nexus of AI, cyber defense, and critical infrastructure, sets forth an agency-wide plan to promote the beneficial uses of AI to enhance cybersecurity capabilities;

What this quote does not say

The quotation does not specify which risks are enormous, their probability, their time horizon, or whether Easterly considered them existential.
The quotation is a prepared press-release statement, not a transcript of spontaneous remarks.

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That’s why meaningful guardrails matter—not to slow innovation, but to ensure it advances securely and responsibly. The developers of the most capable systems should be held to the highest standards for rigorous evaluation, secure test environments, independent red teaming, clear release criteria, continuous monitoring, and transparent disclosure when something goes wrong.

Jen Easterly

Former director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency; CEO of RSAC

In a July 2026 post on the RSAC Conference blog, Jen Easterly wrote that meaningful guardrails matter not to slow innovation but to ensure it advances securely and responsibly, and that developers of the most capable AI systems should be held to the highest standards for rigorous evaluation, secure test environments, independent red teaming, clear release criteria, continuous monitoring, and transparent disclosure when something goes wrong.

CEO, RSACPublished July 22, 2026 · date of remarks not establishedRSAC Conference blog

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For decades, we’ve assessed cyber risk by asking: What could a determined human adversary accomplish? Increasingly, the question is what thousands—eventually millions—of highly capable AI systems can accomplish at machine speed. That’s why meaningful guardrails matter—not to slow innovation, but to ensure it advances securely and responsibly. The developers of the most capable systems should be held to the highest standards for rigorous evaluation, secure test environments, independent red teaming, clear release criteria, continuous monitoring, and transparent disclosure when something goes wrong. But guardrails at a handful of leading American companies will not, by themselves, be enough. Increasingly capable models are proliferating around the world, including powerful Chinese open-weight models.

What this quote does not say

The phrase 'should be held' does not specify whether the standards should be voluntary, regulatory, statutory, or enforced by another mechanism.
The extracted text carries no byline; authorship, date and role are established from the page markup, not from the reading text.

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