President-elect Donald Trump’s effort to cut federal budgets as part of a government waste-cutting agenda is raising concerns that agencies could have fewer resources available for cybersecurity, potentially leaving federal networks vulnerable to hackers and nation-state cybercriminals.

But others are confident that Trump’s team — which has historically been shaky on cybersecurity and national security issues during his first term — will continue to devolve cybersecurity into critical areas and aim to preserve essential spending.

Led by billionaire Elon Musk, the proposed budget-cutting plan would include a new commission with Musk himself as leader.

“I will create a government efficiency commission tasked with conducting a full financial and performance audit of the entire federal government and making recommendations for drastic reforms,” ​​Trump said in September.

Government institutions have become a prime target for hackers in recent years. The well-documented Colonial Pipeline and SolarWinds Orion incidents, in particular, spurred Biden-era interest in bolstering the U.S. cyber posture through a broad executive order near the beginning of the decade. A the second order of cyber security may soon be on the way before the end of this year.

“I think there’s an ancillary risk to the (federal) enterprise’s cybersecurity defense because it tends to just be a pot that people feel they can pull from without too many prying eyes,” said a former technology official at The White House, who, like several others in this story, requested anonymity to speak openly about their views on how a second Trump administration could affect federal cyber spending.

When sweeping federal budget cuts are introduced, cyber and technology spending is often targeted first because the immediate impact on operations is minimal, the former official added.

Nextgov/FCW has reached out to a Trump campaign spokesman for comment.

Government targets continue to face a never-ending barrage of cyber attacks. Last summer, Chinese cyberspies breached the email inboxes of top federal officials, prompting examination from a powerful Department of Homeland Security review committee. Earlier this year, Russian hackers also accessed email correspondence from several agencies.

More recently, it was discovered to have a separate group of Chinese hackers buried in silence into US telecommunications providers and the infrastructure that facilitates court-authorized wiretapping requests, obtaining sensitive communications from high-ranking officials and individuals affiliated with both major 2024 presidential campaigns.

The US government’s budget for cybersecurity extends beyond well-known agencies such as the Office of the National Cyber ​​Director and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Agency. It also includes dozens of other agencies’ chief information security officers, their support staff and recurring services booked with contractors that provide IT and cybersecurity products used to protect networks from unauthorized access.

Budget cuts could create risks for the workforce, according to a senior staff member of the Cyber ​​Security and Infrastructure Security Agency, who expressed fears about technology and cyber security experts leaving the public service due to budget cuts or the desire not to work under a second Trump administration.

“They were morally affected (in 2016). And I’m worried because I see this happening again. We have made a great effort to strengthen the workforce and expand the capacity of the workforce. I am concerned about this decline,” the employee said.

Near the end of Trump’s first presidency, a controversial initiative to reclassify the government’s Schedule F jobs sought to reassign thousands of federal employees to “politically-related” roles and strip them of civil service protections. Trump promised he would reintroduce this move as he and his former team frequently lamented that “rogue bureaucrats” stood in the way of his policy agenda during his first term in the White House.

“A reduction in agency budgets, especially those with cyber missions or cyber and IT staff within any agency, makes us increasingly vulnerable to attack and falling behind our economic aspirations,” said a another former White House cybersecurity official who handled the cyber workforce. problems.

Others believe that cyber security funding will be considered a priority. A former Trump White House official said cuts to the cyber and national security budget are unlikely to begin immediately once the former president is back in office.

“Just like in today’s commercial world, you don’t fund a project in perpetuity just because it sounds nice. You have to get a result,” the former official said. “Far too often in government we fund things in perpetuity because it’s harder to stop it. And I think that’s probably a tone that will change with the (new) administration.”

One industry executive predicts that Trump and his colleagues would choose to allocate more cyber spending.

“I think there’s an equal or better chance that he will … project the power and change the situation on these cyber attacks,” Alex Santos, co-founder and CEO of Fortress Information Security, said in an interview. “If we deter China and other countries from hacking us, then we don’t have to spend all this money to defend against these cyber attacks now. You could combine the concerns you’ve heard from others and what I’m saying and say the best defense is a strong offense.”

The fate of CISA under a new Trump term has also been called into question. Trump fired the agency’s director at the time, Chris Krebs, for declaring that the 2020 presidential election was safe and that the results were valid. And GOP concerns about CISA-fueled censorship of its communications with social media companies — which its leadership has vehemently denied — have become a flash point in a recent Supreme Court case that the Biden administration ultimately won.

Reforming CISA is among the goals outlined in Project 2025, a Heritage Foundation handbook widely seen as a guide for the next administration, though Trump has distanced himself from its creation.

“I would like to think that awareness of how critical cybersecurity is to national security will also support future decision-making in the incoming administration,” said a former senior CISA official. “My hope is that there would be an appreciation and awareness for what CISA has done and, more importantly, what it can do.”

But despite the details of the agency’s policy, some believe the need to improve U.S. cyber capabilities is equally valued by both sides.

“Cybersecurity is a bipartisan issue between Trump and the current administration, and the priority to build on cybersecurity remains constant, transcending party lines,” said Lisa Plaggemier, who leads the nonprofit National Cybersecurity Alliance. “Each administration has built on the progress of its predecessors to enhance our nation’s resilience against cyber threats.”