The Trump administration’s campaign to purge the federal workforce has already driven roughly 1,000 employees out of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, nearly the same number that President Donald Trump’s recently released CISA budget proposes cutting.
Between buyouts, early retirements and layoffs, “we've lost about 1,000 people, down to around 2,200,” one CISA employee told Cybersecurity Dive. That figure does not include private contractors, many of whom have also stopped working for CISA following the abrupt cancellations of their contracts.
More than 600 employees left CISA as part of the second and most recent round of departures, which were part of what the Department of Homeland Security called its Workforce Transition Program.
Two people familiar with the matter said that number is closer to 700.
The departures, which included many top-level and mid-level career officials, threaten to undermine CISA’s ability to defend federal networks and support critical infrastructure operators, experts said. “We lost so many people," said a second CISA employee, who also requested anonymity.
The agency’s Cybersecurity Division, which monitors federal networks for intrusions and provides defensive services to other agencies, has been particularly hard hit. A third CISA employee said the division — the agency’s largest — “has lost close to 200” people, while another said it went from around 1,100 people to around 850. A fourth employee said the division was down to “about 800 people.” (All of the employees who spoke to Cybersecurity Dive requested anonymity to avoid retaliation.)
CISA’s team of Cybersecurity Advisers, the field staff who help connect companies with federal resources, went from around 164 people nationwide to about 97, according to a fifth CISA employee.
Axios first reported some of the CISA departure numbers.
RIF to come?
CISA finds itself at a pivotal moment as the summer begins. Employees are still bracing for a potential Reduction in Force program, although multiple people said that the agency may now forgo a RIF because so many people have left voluntarily. Meanwhile, the agency recently gained its first senior political appointee, Deputy Director Madhu Gottumukkala, and the Senate is set to hold a confirmation hearing on Thursday for Trump’s nominee to lead the agency, Sean Plankey.
In a statement, CISA Executive Director Bridget Bean argued that the agency remained well-positioned to fulfill its core responsibilities.
“CISA is doubling down and fulfilling its statutory mission to secure the nation’s critical infrastructure and strengthen our collective cyber defense,” Bean said. “We were created to be the cybersecurity agency for the nation, and we have the right team in place to fulfill that mission and ensure that we are prepared for a range of cyber threats from our adversaries.
