The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) of the United States has placed multiple members of its election security team on administrative leave, as confirmed by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to TechCrunch.
The Associated Press reported on Tuesday, citing an informed source, that 17 employees from CISA are on leave while their roles are reviewed.
Tricia McLaughlin, assistant secretary of the DHS, confirmed in a statement to TechCrunch that the CISA employees involved in handling foreign influence operations and disinformation efforts have been placed on administrative leave.
While McLaughlin did not specify the number of employees on leave, she did not contest the Associated Press’s report of 17 individuals.
“As Secretary Noem mentioned during her confirmation hearing, CISA must realign its focus on its core mission, starting with election security,” McLaughlin told TechCrunch. “The agency is currently assessing how it has approached its election security responsibilities, especially in relation to misinformation, disinformation, and related activities.”
“During this evaluation, those involved with mis-, dis-, and malinformation, as well as foreign influence operations and disinformation, have been placed on administrative leave.”
The personnel affected had collaborated with election officials to mitigate a variety of cybersecurity threats, such as ransomware and the physical safety of election staff. The Associated Press reported that 10 of these employees were regional security election officials employed to enhance election security in anticipation of the upcoming 2024 election.
This development occurs amid confusion regarding CISA’s future, an agency created in 2018 during the first Trump presidency. As of now, President Trump has not appointed a successor to former CISA director Jen Easterly, who left the agency on January 20.
CISA opted not to comment further and referred inquiries to the DHS.
Updated with remarks from the Department of Homeland Security.
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