Washington, D.C. – The Payments Leadership Council’s Founding Director Raj Date issued the following statement today after the Senate confirmation​​ of Jen Easterly as the Director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Agency (CISA), following the confirmation of Chris Inglis as the first-ever National Cyber Director last month.

“We would like to congratulate Jen Easterly and Chris Inglis on their confirmations​​ as CISA Director and National Cyber Director, respectively, and commend the administration’s ongoing commitments to strengthening national cybersecurity with effective government leaders. 

The recent large-scale cyberattacks against U.S. economic targets have made it clear that protecting America’s cyber infrastructure is more important than ever. As digital networks play an increasing role in our broader economy, including in our payments, energy, healthcare, and education systems, we must continue to build sophisticated cyber defenses across public and private sectors. 

The payments industry is eager to collaborate closely with the federal government and private sector partners to improve our nation’s cybersecurity. We look forward to public policy proposals that will help assist the standardization of cyber incident reporting, advance a cross-sector approach to information sharing, streamline the security clearance process for private cyber experts, and foster international partnership for global cybersecurity.”