Layoffs at the government’s top cybersecurity agency could make critical U.S. infrastructure more vulnerable to hacks by groups with ties to foreign adversaries, sources told NOTUS.
The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency laid off more than 100 people last month as part of the Department of Government Efficiency’s efforts to shrink the government. Among those staffers were agents tracking the activity of threat groups like Salt Typhoon and Volt Typhoon, recently laid-off workers and a congressional aide familiar with the matter told NOTUS.
“I don’t think there was any criteria at all. It was just random,” said Kelly Shaw, CISA’s former lead of CyberSentry, a system that monitors for breaches from known cybercriminals and malicious state actors.