America’s Cybersecurity Crisis Starts With Software (w/Jen Easterly)
The Long Game with Jake Sullivan and Jon FinerShow Notes
President Trump is preparing to sign a major executive order on AI and cybersecurity at a moment of growing concern over cyber threats from China, Russia, Iran, and criminal ransomware gangs.
Jen Easterly, former Director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency and now CEO of RSAC, the world's largest cybersecurity community, joins Jake Sullivan and Jon Finer to discuss:
Why America has a software security problem, not just a cybersecurity problem
How insecure software shifted risk from tech companies onto consumers
Why AI tools like Mythos and GPT-5.5 Cyber could fundamentally change cyber defense
What China’s Volt Typhoon campaign revealed about U.S. infrastructure vulnerabilities
How cyber warfare has shaped conflicts in Ukraine and Iran
Jake and Jon close the episode with a discussion of the latest developments in the Iran war, rising tensions around Cuba, the Ebola outbreak in the Congo, and President Trump’s summit with Xi Jinping in Beijing.
Follow The Long Game so you never miss an episode. New episodes drop weekly.
Watch the video version of this episode on YouTube.
Show notes are available here.
Transcript coming soon.
Email Jake and Jon at [email protected].
The Long Game is produced by the Vox Media Podcast Network. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
More from The Long Game with Jake Sullivan and Jon Finer
Israelis are preparing to vote in their first election since the October 7 terrorist attacks. Barak Ravid, global affairs correspondent for Axios, joins Jake and Jon to discuss the stakes of the election. Will Benjamin Netanyahu be re-elected for a historic seventh term as prime minister?
President Trump has struck a diesel deal with Russia as fuel prices squeeze Americans. But what does easing restrictions on Russian exports mean for Ukraine and for efforts to end the war? Jake Sullivan and Jon Finer examine the deal’s potential economic impact, the growing tension between Washington and Kyiv, and the prospects for an energy ceasefire as winter approaches.
Javier Blas, Bloomberg Opinion’s energy and commodities columnist, joins Jake Sullivan and Jon Finer to explain why the Iran war has produced an oil market few expected: crude prices hovering around $100 a barrel while tankers are braving missile attacks, and sharper pain for people buying diesel, jet fuel, and heating oil.
Anne Applebaum, Pulitzer Prize-winning author and staff writer at The Atlantic, joins Jake Sullivan and Jon Finer to discuss how far-right ideology and private profit have become intertwined in the Trump administration’s approach to the world; the subject of her new cover story for The Atlantic.