The Lawfare Podcast: A Conversation with Bryan Vorndran, Assistant Director of the FBI Cyber Division
What are the cybersecurity challenges that the FBI is facing?
Published by The Lawfare Institute
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Bryan Vorndran is Assistant Director of the FBI's Cyber Division, a position he's held since around March 2021. Prior to that, he was the special agent in charge in New Orleans, and he's worked in Afghanistan and on the Joint Terrorism Task Force at the Washington Field Office.
David Kris, Lawfare contributor and former Assistant Attorney General for the National Security Division, and Bryan Cunningham, Lawfare contributor and Executive Director of the University of California, Irvine’s Cybersecurity Policy & Research Institute, sat down with Bryan to talk about his career trajectory, the FBI's top cyber challenges, the Bureau's relationships with other agencies and private sector entities, and the challenges posed by the People's Republic of China.
David Kris is a founder of Culper Partners, with more than 30 years of experience in the private sector, government, and academia. He has been a corporate director, general counsel, deputy general counsel, and chief compliance officer; assistant attorney general for national security, associate deputy attorney general, and a trial attorney at the Justice Department. He serves on advisory boards for several government agencies and as a FISA Court amicus curiae. He is the author or co-author of several works on national security and teaches national security law. He is a member of the board of directors of Lawfare.
Bryan Cunningham, practicing law at Zweiback, Fiset, & Coleman, LLP, is an international expert in privacy and data protection law, cyber security, trade secrets, employee monitoring, and government surveillance issues. Bryan developed this unique practice through extensive experience in senior U.S. Government intelligence and law enforcement positions. He served as Deputy Legal Adviser to then-National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice. He also served six years in the Clinton Administration, as a senior CIA officer and federal prosecutor. He drafted significant portions of the Homeland Security Act and related legislation, helping to shepherd them through Congress. He was a principal contributor to the National Strategy to Secure Cyberspace, worked closely with the 9/11 Commission and has provided legal advice to Presidents, National Security Advisors, the National Security Council, and other senior government officials on intelligence, terrorism, cyber security and other related matters.
Bryan’s practice has included assisting Fortune 500 and multinational companies to comply with complex, and often conflicting, data protection requirements under U.S. federal law, U.S. state laws, and the numerous specific requirements in the European Union and other overseas jurisdictions. He also has counseled start-ups and other companies in general matters and created and directs a privacy advisory committee for a multi-billion dollar company.
As the principal author of legal and ethics chapters in authoritative cyber security textbooks, Bryan is also a frequent media commentator on privacy, cyber security, electronic surveillance, intelligence, and other national security issues. He has appeared on CNN, Bloomberg, ABC, Fox, CNBC, NPR, and PBS, and has been published in numerous national newspapers and overseas publications.
Bryan is the current Executive Director of the University of California, Irvine’s Cybersecurity Policy & Research Institute. He was founding vice-chair of the American Bar Association Cyber Security Privacy Task Force and was awarded the National Intelligence Medal of Achievement for his work on information issues. He has served on the National Academy of Sciences Committee on Biodefense Analysis, the Markle Foundation Task Force on National Security in the Information Age, and the Bipartisan Policy Center Cyber Security Task Force.
Bryan Vorndran is Assistant Director of the FBI's Cyber Division, a position he's held since around March 2021.
Jen Patja is the editor and producer of the Lawfare Podcast and Rational Security. She currently serves as the Co-Executive Director of Virginia Civics, a nonprofit organization that empowers the next generation of leaders in Virginia by promoting constitutional literacy, critical thinking, and civic engagement. She is the former Deputy Director of the Robert H. Smith Center for the Constitution at James Madison's Montpelier and has been a freelance editor for over 20 years.
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