NEW: CISA employees are scared, angry, and worried about how Trump's cuts and policies are weakening their agency.
Partnerships are strained, leadership is bowing to Trump, and layoffs & other departures have left worrisome gaps.
My @wired.com story: https://www.wired.com/story/inside-cisa-under-trump/
Partnerships are strained, leadership is bowing to Trump, and layoffs & other departures have left worrisome gaps.
My @wired.com story: https://www.wired.com/story/inside-cisa-under-trump/
Comments
The nation is so exposed right now; fingers crossed nothing catastrophic happens in the interim.
The National Vulnerability Database (NVD) has long been the clearinghouse for data on software vulnerabilities (CVEs). It had serious problems through 2024 and there's been a lack of communication about staffing, etc, in 2025.
My reporting unpacks the sprawling consequences of the changes we've seen at CISA — even as more cuts loom.
"You've got a lot of people who ... are looking over their shoulder as opposed to looking at the enemy right now," one employee told me.
CISA has lost ~10% of its workforce — hundreds of people — since Trump took office, employees said.
"A very large brain drain," one told me.
Trump essentially weaponized a key new workforce-recruitment program against recent hires.
But cuts have hit other teams, including analysts who help critical infrastructure operators deal with hacks and support staff who modernize CISA's investigative and defensive tools.
International travel is frozen. Communications with other countries and even people at other agencies require high-level approval. Private-sector partners, eyeing DOGE, are concerned about sharing sensitive data.
“We would have delegations go back and forth,” another said, adding that CISA was trying to learn from and emulate Britain’s cyber agency.
Now, there are new roadblocks to collaboration with "Five Eyes" (UK, CA, AUS, NZ).
"... the agency increasingly embraced new roles supporting private companies ..."
'imposing absurd requirements on' would be my experience vs "supporting".