CISA CIO Robert Costello exits agency

His nearly five-year tenure had recently been marked by turmoil.

The chief information officer at the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency announced his departure Tuesday, ending his nearly five-year run at CISA.

Robert Costello, an 18-year veteran of the Department of Homeland Security, posted about the move on LinkedIn.

“Serving as CIO at CISA has been one of the greatest privileges of my career,” he said. “Together, we strengthened our cybersecurity posture, modernized critical systems, and built capabilities that will endure. I am incredibly proud of what we accomplished as a team.”

Costello’s tenure had recently grown turbulent, with conflicting accounts of whether the since-departed acting director of CISA, Madhu Gottumukkala, had tried to force him out. Costello last week received transfer orders for possible reassignment to another agency.

Costello had supporters on the Hill and elsewhere, with House Homeland Security Chairman Andrew Garbarino, R-N.Y., saying as recently as last month that it was good that an earlier reported attempt to move Costello out of the CISA CIO job had fallen short.

As CIO at the agency, Costello advocated for top-notch tech as a recruiting boon. He has been involved in efforts to respond to vulnerabilities within CISA. He has sometimes served as a public face for the agency at events, has touted new tools designed to enhance CISA services and has argued for greater use of artificial intelligence in his role.

“Throughout my career at CISA, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), and in the United States Air Force, I have been guided by a commitment to protecting our nation and advancing the greater good,” Costello said. “It has been the honor of a lifetime to serve alongside public servants whose integrity and professionalism set the standard.”

Costello did not indicate his future plans beyond leaving the federal government and a “commitment to service and to this nation.”

Costello’s move isn’t the only recent shakeup at the agency. CISA recently got a new acting director, Nick Andersen, to replace Gottumukkala after the former acting director left for a DHS headquarters post, as the nomination of Sean Plankey to lead CISA continues to stall. The acting chief human resources officer, Kevin Diana, also reportedly received transfer orders.

CISA director pick Sean Plankey withdraws his nomination

Plankey had been waiting for more than a year, prompting the request to withdraw him as the one tapped to lead an agency now in further upheaval.

Gottumukkala out, Andersen in as acting CISA director

Across party lines and industry, the verdict is the same: CISA is in trouble

Government

• 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

• Jail time for Maine child in 764 marks turning point in federal law enforcement

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