The government tech media continues its close coverage of the Trump administration’s push to cut spending on programs seen as wasteful or unnecessary. As you might imagine, the loss of so many government workers as well as the termination of many government programs has led to concerns about cybersecurity and other critical government functions. As we’ve seen in recent weeks, reporters and editors in this space are watching closely. Here’s a roundup of what they’ve written on these issues this week:
Cybersecurity Concerns Grow
We saw a continuing stream of stories highlighting widespread concerns about the potential for cybersecurity and privacy intrusions following recent moves to cut the federal workforce and other spending:
- As a result of cybersecurity and privacy concerns raised by congressional Democrats, the Office of Personnel Management Inspector General’s office said it will investigate Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) access to various government systems as part of its existing cybersecurity-related investigations, according to a report by Matt Bracken in FedScoop.
- David DiMolfetta of Nextgov/FCW shared news that the lead Republican on the House Homeland Security Committee’s cybersecurity panel plans to relay his concerns to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) about the termination of the Critical Infrastructure Partnership Advisory Council, a group relied upon by critical infrastructure operators for cyber and physical threat intelligence. In his coverage for CyberScoop, Tim Starks wrote that business groups told lawmakers they fear cyber threat information sharing could drop off in light of the administration’s move.
- DiMolfetta’s colleague Natalie Alms reported on a lawsuit against the Social Security Administration (SSA) and DOGE detailing what former agency officials allege was a push to unlawfully access protected and personal systems and data. Amid those concerns, a federal judge called for DOGE to release internal documents about how it operates, according to an article by Grace Dille for MeriTalk.
- Lisbeth Perez of MeriTalk covered a separate ruling by a district judge calling on DOGE to release records and answer questions about the scope of their authority and their plans to reduce federal spending. The ruling came in response to a lawsuit by 14 state attorneys general who claim DOGE’s actions are unconstitutional.
- Perez also published comments by Randy Resnick, director for the the Department of Defense (DOD) Zero Trust Portfolio Management Office, on the uncertain effects DOGE will have on cybersecurity readiness. Resnick is most concerned about potential funding cuts to these functions, the article said.
- In an interview with host Francis Rose for Fed Gov Today, Ken Bible, former chief information security officer at the DHS, expressed concern that many federal cybersecurity workers are probationary employees, which makes them vulnerable to layoffs that would result in degraded national security.
- Colin Wood reported in StateScoop that the DHS is cutting funding for the Multi-State Information Sharing and Analysis Center, which provides cybersecurity resources to state and local governments such as state intelligence briefings on emerging threats, notices on the latest security patches and incident response support. In Route 50, Chris Teale noted that the department also terminated a partnership with the Election Infrastructure Information Sharing and Analysis Center, which provides similar services related to elections.
- Congressional Republicans pushed back against some of these concerns, Bracken wrote in FedScoop. In a “contentious” markup session, Republicans struck down resolutions from Democrats seeking information related to the DOGE access to Treasury Department and SSA IT systems.
- But in what may be a prelude to even more contention, DiMolfetta reported late in the week that DOGE head Elon Musk met with leaders at the National Security Agency and U.S. Cyber Command.
A Look at the Bright Side
It wasn’t all gloom and doom this week. Here’s a quick roundup on some of the more optimistic takes on our current moment:
- Speaking at an industry event this week, Pentagon CIO Mark Gorak said the new administration’s changes and disruption could help enable or accelerate activities such as IT modernization and cybersecurity recruiting, as reported by Brandi Vincent in DefenseScoop.
- A similar perspective was shared by former federal CIO Suzette Kent in an op-ed piece for Nextgov/FCW, in which she asserted that the current moment provides an “inflection point” for agencies to align their workforce with innovative modernization efforts. MeriTalk’s John Curran covered a speech by Kent this week calling on the administration to embrace “an enterprise approach to IT…versus approaches that are siloed in individual agencies.”
- And in what may be reassuring news for government contractors, analyst Alex Rossino wrote in GovWin that federal IT business opportunities continue to flow despite all of the news around contract cancellations. “The federal IT market remains robust and very much worth competing in. So far at least, DOGE does not appear to be a factor for the large majority of federal IT contractors to be concerned about,” Rossino reported.
On that note, I’ll close out this week’s roundup. I’ll be back next week with more of the trending news highlights in the government tech space.