As CISA braces for more cuts, threat intel sharing takes a hit

HELLFIRE

https://www.theregister.com/2025/04/08/cisa_cuts_threat_intel/ – How will ‘gutting’ civilian defense agency make American cybersecurity great again?

Analysis Slashing staff at the US govt’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, aka CISA, and scrapping vital programs, isn’t exactly boosting national security, say infosec and national security officials watching America’s digital defenses unravel in real time. As CISA braces for the ax to potentially fall on nearly 40 percent of its employees, with CBS reporting over the weekend that as many as 1,300 of its 3,300-strong workforce may get the boot, lawmakers and cyber experts worry these latest cuts will exacerbate digital threats to US networks, which are already under daily fire from nation-state spies and cybercrime gangs. One of the ways we will see this weakening of critical organizations’ defenses play out is in the elimination of threat-intelligence sharing efforts between the government and private sector. … None of these moves bode well for network defenders tasked with fending off Russian and Chinese attackers — nor for America’s ability to mitigate these threats in cyberspace. … During a congressional hearing last week on China’s Salt Typhoon and other state-sponsored threats, Matt Blaze, the McDevitt Chair of Computer Science and Law at Georgetown University, told lawmakers that CISA has been understaffed “from the beginning.” …

Usual preface : sharing strictly and solely from a security POV to the exclusion of everything else. The mention of Salt Typhoon should be a reminder that – much like a fire or police department – you don’t cut the budget irregardless of fire or crime going up or down.

Regards

Rook

Sounds like throwing away your umbrella in a rainstorm because you are not getting wet.

egeezer

As a small part of a private/public security information sharing partnership, my personal view is that we need more, not fewer resources to deal with existing, evolving and potential threats to all sectors from several state and non-state actors.

Rook

egeezer …we need more, not fewer resources to deal with existing, evolving and potential threats…

Seems like the smart thing to do.
I think these shenanigans with foreign actors are just going to get more aggressive in the future, and we’re going to be under-prepared to deal with them.

egeezer

Rook Seems like the smart thing to do.

Unfortunately, that does not seem to be a characteristic of the present policies and actions.

GrumpyCanadian

Rook Considering the number of countries that are being mistreated, yet still expected to show gratitude and avoid any sort of retaliation, threats may come from unexpected sources. They are already formidable when not being actively challenged and their economy threatened; when China says “fight to the end”, the appropriate suggestion is “be afraid; be very afraid!”.

Yet in typical style, these people start to disrespect, undervalue and even fire the very teams responsible for defending against (or at least discovering) such threats. To think this is the guy who is after a Nobel prize… I wouldn’t even give him the Dirty Dunce Cap!

Rook

Our adversaries in cyberspace (like China, Russia, and North Korea) will still be our adversaries, but it does seem like we’re trying to add others to the list.