CISA Braces for Major Workforce Cuts Amid Security Fears

Uncertainty is rife among staff at the U.S. Cyber Defense Agency ahead of a Monday night deadline to accept the Department of Homeland Security’s surprise resignation offer and unconfirmed reports that agency leaders are preparing to slash up to a third of the entire workforce, according to multiple staffers and officials familiar with the situation.

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The Department of Homeland Security has given all employees – including those at agencies like the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency – until midnight Monday to choose between staying on the job or accepting a deferred resignation, early retirement or separation payout ahead of expected workforce cuts. A purge of top cyberofficials and teams across government has raised alarms that the chaos could leave federal systems and critical infrastructure increasingly vulnerable to cyberattacks (see: Trump’s Cyber Rollbacks Expose States to Ransomware Attacks).

CISA could lose up to 1,300 employees under upcoming reduction plans – an exodus that officials say would severely weaken the federal government’s ability to manage vulnerabilities across agencies and critical infrastructure sectors like water, energy and transportation. Staffers granted anonymity to speak freely described the atmosphere as “tumultuous” and “extremely unnerving,” with open talk of private-sector job hunts and mounting doubts about staying in public service.

“Nobody knows what’s coming next – if you don’t take the payout, you might not even have a job next week,” one staffer told Information Security Media Group. “How can anyone do their jobs with that kind of uncertainty?”

An official familiar with the reduction plans said the cuts could leave certain divisions of the agency severely understaffed, hindering their ability to provide critical mission support – a far broader reduction than previous dismissals, which primarily targeted CISA’s election security and misinformation teams. Following a federal judge’s order to reinstate probationary employees affected by layoffs led by the Department of Government Efficiency, CISA rehired approximately 130 employees only to place them on immediate administrative leave (see: CISA Rehires Fired Employees, Immediately Puts Them on Leave).

A CISA spokesperson told ISMG in a statement that the agency “is committed to supporting employees through this transition while continuing to carry out our mission.”

The statement added that CISA was providing the deferred resignation program and other options to “offer employees flexibility, time to plan and the support needed to make an important personal and professional decision.”

Experts have long warned that slashing CISA’s funding and staff would expose U.S. infrastructure to crippling cyberattacks (see: CISA Cuts Expose US Critical Infrastructure to New Threats).

It is not immediately clear how many CISA staffers have already accepted the resignation offer or payout option. The agency had approximately 3,400 staffers before President Donald Trump took office, according to the most recent data.