The nation faces cybersecurity vulnerabilities with potentially devastating consequences for Americans unless government and industry make significant changes quickly, Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) acting Director Nick Andersen warned Sept. 9.
Speaking at the Billington CyberSecurity Summit in Washington, D.C., Andersen offered a sobering assessment of the current cyber threat landscape, warning that risks to critical infrastructure could disrupt everything from water and energy to transportation and communications.
“We know the worst that can happen, and if we don’t make some very serious, very significant changes in quick succession, we’re going to have to have a lot of awkward conversations really, really soon,” Andersen said.
“You all are going to have to go home and look your family, look your friends in the eyes, and explain to them how you knew the worst that could happen and why we didn’t do enough,” he told the audience.
Andersen said the threat is not a hypothetical future scenario and stressed that the consequences could directly affect daily life.
“It’s the impacts to Americans in the way that we live,” Andersen said. “That’s what’s most critically at risk here.”
Andersen said CISA is prioritizing public health and safety, the economy, national security, and critical infrastructure because the government cannot protect every system equally. Resilience will require government and industry to prioritize limited resources toward mitigating the most significant potential consequences, he added.
Andersen said he expects adversaries to continue targeting civilian-operated critical infrastructure and warned that those attacks are “only going to get worse” and become more significant, including through their psychological impact on Americans.
Meanwhile, CISA is working to bolster its workforce. Andersen said at least 250 prospective employees have tentative job offers and are awaiting final steps, including security clearances, before receiving start dates.
CISA lost roughly one-third of its workforce during the first year of the second Trump administration. Those losses came from reductions in force at the agency, as well as voluntary departures during the historic 76-day shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security, CISA’s parent agency.
In June, Andersen said CISA embarked on a hiring push to bring in 329 new employees, and that DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin is in support of the agency’s workforce expansion plans.
Later in June, Mullin told lawmakers that CISA plans to recruit roughly 600 individuals over the next year.