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DOGE axes CISA 'red team' staffers amid ongoing federal cuts:
Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has fired more than a hundred employees working for the U.S. government's cybersecurity agency CISA, including "red team" staffers, two people affected by the layoffs told TechCrunch.
The people, who asked not to be named, said affected employees were axed immediately when their network access was revoked with no prior warning.
The layoffs, which happened in late February and early March, are the latest round of staff cuts to hit the federal cybersecurity agency since the start of the Trump administration.
CISA spokesperson Tess Hyre declined to comment on the latest round of job cuts affecting the agency and wouldn't say how many employees had been affected. Hyre told TechCrunch that CISA's red team "remains operational" but said the agency is "reviewing all contracts to ensure that they align with the priorities of the new administration."
One of the people affected told TechCrunch that CISA red team employees, who simulate real-world attacks to identify security weaknesses in networks before attackers do, were affected by the DOGE-enforced cuts.
Another person affected by the layoffs, who asked to remain anonymous due to fear of government retaliation, told TechCrunch that laid-off employees also include staffers who worked for CISA's Cyber Incident Response Team (CIRT), which is responsible for penetration testing and vulnerability management of networks belonging to U.S. federal government departments and agencies.
[...] This is by our count the third known round of job cuts to affect CISA employees since January 20. More than 130 CISA employees were cut by DOGE earlier in February, according to reports, and several CISA employees working on election security were placed on leave in January.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Mykl on Wednesday March 12, @09:39PM (6 children)
DOGE won't go after the military. It would be too unpopular with the MAGA base.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 13, @03:40AM (3 children)
The military itself, but what about military contractors?
(Score: 2) by Mykl on Thursday March 13, @05:29AM
They probably _should_ have a really close look at all of those Military and other Government contracts, but will probably not peer too closely as they will be attached to friends or donors.
And while eliminating a few juicy contracts might reduce Government spending, it won't reduce the size of the Public Service, which is what I think the real point is.
(Score: 2) by Thexalon on Thursday March 13, @10:36AM (1 child)
I'm no expert, but I'm reasonably confident that any contracts that might exist between the DoD and either Tesla or SpaceX or the Boring Company will either not be touched by DOGE, or actually increased a bit. Because "efficiency", or something.
"Think of how stupid the average person is. Then realize half of 'em are stupider than that." - George Carlin
(Score: 3, Informative) by ElizabethGreene on Thursday March 13, @01:53PM
AFAIK, the Boring company has precisely zero Federal contracts. SpaceX does have Federal contracts, taken via competitive bid, and their competitors regularly complain that their prices are too low. [1]
[1] - https://finance.yahoo.com/news/europe-complains-spacex-rocket-prices-121300737.html [yahoo.com]
(Score: 2) by epitaxial on Thursday March 13, @12:51PM (1 child)
MAGA doesn't care one bit until it affects them directly. https://www.military.com/daily-news/2025/03/05/va-plans-fire-83000-employees-musks-help-eliminating-pact-act-staffing-increase.html [military.com]
They're still cheering.
(Score: 2) by Mykl on Thursday March 13, @09:11PM
The VA is ex-military, and are generally anti-war