Post

New from me: Inside CISA as Trump prepares to take power. Employees are worried that he'll end key projects, drive away star talent, and generally weaken the agency's role in protecting the government and the nation from hackers. My @wired.com story: www.wired.com/story/cisa-c...

CISA staffers expect Trump to spurn efforts to raise the tech industry's security baseline. "Compliance efforts like secure-by-design may not have the support that they currently benefit from," one employee said. Also at risk: Election security aid and incident reporting rules.

As a U.S. cyber official put it to me of Trump's team, "They do not think it's the role of the US government to make [the] private sector act in a certain way."

One CISA staffer even told me that they expect to see the "persecution of those who have done election security work" after Trump takes office.

It's not just marquee projects like secure-by-design. Trump could also weaken CISA's oversight of other federal agencies, which grew under Biden, sometimes in ways that rankled those other agencies. Separately, one of CISA's most powerful tools could be unexpectedly threatened.

During CISA Director Jen Easterly's tenure, CISA has recruited cyber industry luminaries and up-and-coming talent, simultaneously improving its capabilities and burnishing its credibility. Employees are worried that Trump will repel those kinds of "star hires," eroding CISA's workforce gains.