Federal CISOs are bracing for further cyber cuts in wake of Trump budget

A hiring freeze and deep cuts in President Donald Trump's budget has federal CISOs worried.

Despite having a severe workforce shortage, federal CISOs are bracing for further cuts to their cybersecurity personnel under President Donald Trump’s proposed budget.

Current and former government CISOs warned of their potential struggles Tuesday at the SINET ITSEF conference in Mountain View, Calif., saying that cuts on top of a hiring freeze compounds already mounting technical staffing challenges.

According to Department of Health and Human Services CISO Chris Wlaschin, the agency is preparing for a $15.1 billion budget cut under the proposed budget. Additionally, Wlaschin said HHS currently faces a 30 percent vacancy rate across information technology positions in the department today. If money quickly evaporates from the agency’s budget, that vacancy rate is slated to grow.

“We are struggling to compete against private sector and other agencies,” Wlaschin said, pointing to disparities in pay and training that drive potential employees away from HHS. In anticipation of cuts, HHS is working hard to “run lean” by focusing on core assets like the Centers for Disease Control and National Institutes of Health.

Right next to budget cuts, the civilian freeze means HHS has to file and seek administration exceptions for cybersecurity professionals.

“The challenge is getting background checks done, getting credentials issued and getting them on board,”  Wlaschin said. “It’s a slow painful process but we’re working through it.”

HHS is a vast federal department of over 80,000 employees, totaling 11 total divisions with over a $1 trillion annual budget as of 2016.

NIH, which Wlaschin specifically called a “core asset,” faces a budget cut somewhere between $5.8 billion to $25.9 billion.

Brig. Gen. Greg Touhill, the former federal CISO and panel moderator, pointed explicitly to the lack of diversity as a contributor to the workforce shortage in cybersecurity. A recent study showed only 11 percent of cybersecurity professionals are women and they are paid less than men at every level of the industry.

Traction on Capitol Hill over the budget is in its early stages and faces stiff criticism from Democrats.

Government

• FBI officials say AI is bolstering adversaries, emphasizing need to focus on cyber basics, patching

• Feds accuse China of ‘systematic’ distillation of U.S. AI models

• CIA’s Michael Ellis says cyber intelligence is changing how the agency operates

• The G7 tells industry to hurry up and prep for post-quantum encryption

Technology

• European parliament members call for slowdown of Serbia’s EU entry over spyware use

• FCC proposes public scorecard to rate telecoms on anti-robocall efforts

• Pegasus, NoviSpy variant spyware found on devices of Serbian activists

• Wyden seeks upgraded NSA security guidance on commercial VPN use

Threats

• Chinese espionage groups swarm to exploit triple-link chain of zero-days

• Microsoft discloses two actively exploited zero-days among 974 vulnerabilities

• Russian national extradited to US for alleged involvement in bank-account takeover scheme

• Attackers exploit zero-days in consistently besieged SonicWall product

Policy

• Whistleblower says USPS deploying new, ‘untested’ IT systems governing mail-in ballots

• ‘Watershed 250’ test program in Texas looks to private sector for water cybersecurity help

• Former sexual abuse victims say Grok used their images, videos to train deepfake capabilities

• Cyber threats nudge Trump to sign executive order on foreign equipment in U.S. energy infrastructure