FBI Cyber Division Deputy Assistant Director Cynthia Kaiser is leaving government service to oversee ransomware research at Halcyon, the company announced Tuesday.
After serving some 20 years at the FBI, Kaiser will lead Halcyon’s Ransomware Research Center and oversee various partnerships to aggregate ransomware threat information and disrupt ransomware hackers. She most recently headed the FBI’s Cyber Policy, Intelligence and Engagement Branch and has been involved in a number of ransomware takedown operations led by the bureau.
“I’m excited to join Halcyon and continue to work to defeat ransomware,” Kaiser said in a prepared statement. “Ransomware is unlike any other threat. It’s big business; an entire ecosystem of sophisticated, motivated, unscrupulous actors who are becoming increasingly aggressive and continually deploying more advanced tools.”
Ransom malware continues to be a persistent cyber threat due to its low cost of deployment and high impact on victims. A 2024 intelligence community assessment showed U.S. ransomware takedown operations slowed the rate of attacks but that the trend still continued upward.
Kaiser’s colleague, Deputy Director for Cyber Operations Brett Leatherman, recently told Nextgov/FCW in an interview that the “continued onslaught of ransomware attacks” continues to be a priority for the bureau.
Kaiser is the latest cybersecurity official to leave federal service amid a broader departure of cyber leaders throughout the government. Fiscal year 2026 budget proposals would see the FBI’s budget obligations drop by $560 million, alongside a loss of nearly 1,900 staff.
In a press conference last year, Kaiser told Nextgov/FCW that eradicating Chinese hackers from U.S. networks involves a slew of takedown operations that “frustrate, delay and impede them” from their activities.
“I don’t think that anybody here would say we’ve done one operation and just eradicated everything,” she said. “That’s not how this works.”
