Mass federal layoffs will hurt cybersecurity, former top US security official says

By AJ Vicens

 

DETROIT (Reuters) - The mass culling of workers from federal payrolls will have a "devastating" impact on cybersecurity and national security, a top former National Security Agency official said on Wednesday.

 

Rob Joyce, former NSA director of cybersecurity, told the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party of the harm from aggressive threats to cut U.S. government employees.

 

"Eliminating probationary employees will destroy a pipeline of top talent, essential for hunting and eradicating PRC threats," Joyce said at the hearing on the threat posed by the People’s Republic of China’s cyber operations targeting U.S. critical infrastructure, telecommunications and other sectors.

 

More than 100,000 federal workers have either taken early retirement or been laid off as part of President Donald Trump and billionaire advisor Elon Musk’s efforts to radically pare down the size and role of federal agencies.

 

It is unclear how many workers have left the NSA, which handles foreign signals intelligence operations.

 

More than 130 positions have been cut from the Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) as of Feb. 14, a CISA spokesperson said. The agency oversees defense of civilian federal networks and coordinates information-sharing between private industry and government. 

 

National security positions were exempted from Trump’s plans to reduce the federal workforce, but some of the actual cuts have included such jobs.

 

The White House did not respond to a request for comment.

 

The NSA declined to comment.

 

The DHS’s cuts will save the government about $50 million, an agency spokesperson told Reuters late Wednesday. "We are actively identifying other wasteful positions and offices that do not fulfill DHS’s mission."

 

 (Reporting by AJ Vicens; Editing by Richard Chang)