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Army CISO Easley departs for role at the Pentagon

Maj. Gen. Matt Easley has taken a role as the deputy principal information operations advisor to the secretary of defense.
Maj. Gen. Matt Easley spoke to Association of the United States Army annual meeting attendees during the October 13, 2021 Army Advanced Technologies (Cloud and Data) Warriors Corner event at Washington, D.C.'s Walter E. Washington Convention Center. (DoD photo)

Maj. Gen. Matt Easley has stepped down from his role as director of cybersecurity and chief information security officer for the Army.

Easley has taken a role as the deputy principal information operations adviser to the secretary of Defense within the office of the undersecretary for policy.

The fiscal 2020 National Defense Authorization Act created the role of principal information operations adviser, which since then has been fulfilled by the undersecretary of Defense for policy, currently Colin Kahl. As such, Easley will report through Kahl to Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin on matters of information operations.

Easley served as the Army’s director of cybersecurity since August 2020, shortly after the service’s Office of the CIO was restructured. Before that, he was director of the Army’s Artificial Intelligence Task Force for roughly two years.

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In a LinkedIn post, Army CIO Raj Iyer wrote of his departed colleague: “A bittersweet moment for us in the Army Chief Information Officer family as we bid farewell to Major General Matt Easley, our first Chief Cybersecurity Officer in the new OCIO. Matt has set us up on an awesome path to zero trust for both IT and Operational Technology. The Army’s FISMA scorecard under his leadership is the best across the entire DoD. Thank you Matt for everything you have done for us and best wishes on a very critical role in the DoD moving forward.”

Easley was recognized last fall as one of the 2021 CyberScoop 50 in the government category.

The Army did not comment on Easley’s departure.

Billy Mitchell

Written by Billy Mitchell

Billy Mitchell is Senior Vice President and Executive Editor of Scoop News Group's editorial brands. He oversees operations, strategy and growth of SNG's award-winning tech publications, FedScoop, StateScoop, CyberScoop, EdScoop and DefenseScoop. Prior to joining Scoop News Group in early 2014, Billy embedded himself in Washington, DC's tech startup scene for a year as a tech reporter at InTheCapital, now known as DC Inno. After earning his degree at Virginia Tech and winning the school's Excellence in Print Journalism award, Billy received his master's degree from New York University in magazine writing while interning at publications like Rolling Stone.

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