Cyber Policy in a New Washington: Priorities from Pennsylvania Avenue
George Barnes, Frank Cilluffo, Mark Montgomery, Alexandra Seymour, Moira Bergin
RSA Conference 2025 · Day 1 · Policy
As the first hundred days of the Trump administration concluded, a panel of former senior intelligence officials and active Capitol Hill staff directors gave an unusually candid assessment of where cyber policy stands in Washington — what the new administration will do, what it should do, and what the 119th Congress can realistically deliver. The conversation ranged from Volt Typhoon and Salt Typhoon prepositioning in U.S. critical infrastructure, to the contested question of separating NSA from Cyber Command, to the practical legislative calendar facing cyber bills with Senator Rand Paul in the Senate. ---
AI review
The most candid Washington insider panel RSA 2025 produced. Montgomery's three-category framework for the new administration is immediately useful. Bergin's minority-voice observation that 'momentum for cyber policy ebbs and flows with crises' is the most honest political diagnosis of the conference. Barnes on NSA's Cybersecurity Collaboration Center, Seymour on the Cyber Pivot Act, and the Rand Paul legislative reality check are all substantive. Watch this if you need to understand what the next two years will and won't deliver.