CISA braces for deep staffing cuts
The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency is looking to push out as much as a third of the agency's total headcount, in addition to contract personnel from a major threat hunting team, according to three sources familiar with the matter.
Why it matters: The cuts are likely to impact "every single part of the agency," one of those sources told Axios — dealing a huge blow to the country's cybersecurity posture following earlier rounds of layoffs and contract cuts.
Zoom in: CISA is expected to start reducing its workforce through a second "Fork in the Road" email, two sources told Axios.
- That email could go out as soon as this weekend, but the specifics of the cuts keep changing, the sources said.
- Depending on how many people take the offer, the agency could then send out "reduction in force" notices at a later, unspecified date, the sources added.
- CBS reports that the agency plans to cut as many as 1,300 employees.
Another industry source told Axios that the cuts include 75 contract personnel who work on CISA's threat hunting operations — which searches for signs of vulnerabilities or breaches on civilian federal networks.
- Those personnel worked on threat hunt contracts with Nightwing, a cyber company that spun out of Raytheon last year, and technology services vendor Peraton.
- Most federal agencies don't have the budget or manpower to set up their own threat hunt teams, and CISA's work typically helped identify hacking campaigns targeting the whole of government.
- CISA declined to comment.
Catch up quick: This is the latest hit to the nation's cyber defense agency during the second Trump administration.
- The agency has cut funding to several election security efforts, spurring concerns among state and local election officials who relied on the agency for threat intelligence about adversaries targeting their elections.
- CISA said last month that it was terminating contracts "where the agency has been able to find efficiencies and eliminate duplication of effort," including in its red team operations.
- And last month, CISA fired — and then had to reinstate — more than 130 probationary employees.
