Firings and Staff Cuts at CISA Imperil Efforts to Stop Chinese Hacking

In testimony before Congress about Chinese cyberattacks, Rob Joyce, former cybersecurity director at the NSA, told Congress that he had  “grave concerns that the aggressive threats to cut U.S. government probationary employees will have a devastating impact on cybersecurity and national security.” 

The government already has a LOT of trouble hiring competent cybersecurity staff because the government’s pay scale is much lower than what qualified people can make in the private sector.

This is going to be even harder than it was to recruit top talent considering that anyone the government hires now would be considered probationary and subject to being fired, apparently for no reason, with no ability to appeal that decision.

Joyce continued by saying “Even if they are not eliminated, the pervasive uncertainty and doubt in the current environment are forcing them to seek secure opportunities for their families outside national security,” 

Current  Idaho National Laboratory’s Emma Stewart and former Office of the Director of National Intelligence official Laura Galante confirmed Joyce’s assessment of the situation.

In addition, Stewart said that if they lose the most senior, most qualified people to a more stable private sector job it “will challenge how we coordinate and deploy in future … [and] our abilities to deter these attacks.”

In the short term this apparent money saving idea may be appealing, but we need to consider the long term impact to both the country’s security and the government’s ability to recruit top talent.

Again, as I said before, this puts even more pressure on business leaders to protect their own organizations since it is unclear if the government is going to be in a position to protect them.

Credit: The Record

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