Elon Musk's Office of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has fired more than 100 employees working for the US government's cybersecurity agency CISA, including “Red Team” staff.
People who asked not to name said that when network access was revoked without prior warning, the affected employees were immediately x.
The layoffs that occurred in late February and early March are the latest staff cuts to clash with federal cybersecurity agencies since the start of the Trump administration.
CISA spokesman Tess Hier declined to comment on the latest job cuts affecting agencies and did not say how many employees were affected. Hyre told TechCrunch that CISA's Red team “remained operational,” but the agency “considers all contracts and ensures that they are consistent with the new administration's priorities.”
Have you ever been affected by CISA layoffs? From non-work devices, you can safely contact the Carly page at a signal of +44 1536 853968 or email it at carly.page@techcrunch.com.
One of the affected people told TechCrunch that employees of the CISA Red team simulate real attacks to identify network security weaknesses before attackers take place, were affected by the reduction in DOGE enhancements.
Another person affected by the layoff who asked to remain anonymous due to fear of government retaliation told TechCrunch that layoff employees would also include staff who worked for CISA's Cyber Incident Response Team (CIRT), which is responsible for penetration testing and vulnerability management for networks belonging to the federal government department and territory of the United States.
“I have no knowledge of what will happen to these government systems,” the person said.
The person said that in total, more than 80 employees supporting continuous surveillance have been fired, with 30 to 50 employees working in case response.
One of the affected employees told TechCrunch he was looking for “Doge-Resistant Gigs.”
“The Doge felt like a ballistic missile without a guidance system,” the person said.
This is due to the third known job cut count affecting CISA employees since January 20th. Reports show that more than 130 CISA employees have been cut by DOGE, and CISA employees working on election security took leave in January.