--- title: America's Cyber Defense Agency Is Burning Down and... description: CISA has lost approximately 1,000 employees (one-third of its workforce) in the past year, leaving it critically understaffed while Chinese state-sponsored... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/america-s-cyber-defense-agency-is-burning-down-and-nobody-s-coming-to-put-it-out-rk2sjkhne twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: America's Cyber Defense Agency Is Burning Down and Nobody's Coming to Put It Out | daily.dev og:description: CISA has lost approximately 1,000 employees (one-third of its workforce) in the past year, leaving it critically understaffed while Chinese state-sponsored... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/america-s-cyber-defense-agency-is-burning-down-and-nobody-s-coming-to-put-it-out-rk2sjkhne og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/Rk2sJkHne.png og:image:alt: America's Cyber Defense Agency Is Burning Down and Nobody's Coming to Put It Out og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # America's Cyber Defense Agency Is Burning Down and Nobody's Coming to Put It Out **[Hacker News](https://daily.dev/sources/hn)** · 9 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary CISA has lost approximately 1,000 employees (one-third of its workforce) in the past year, leaving it critically understaffed while Chinese state-sponsored threat groups like Volt Typhoon remain embedded in U.S. critical infrastructure. The acting director uploaded sensitive documents to public ChatGPT and failed a counterintelligence polygraph, resulting in six career staff being placed on leave. Sean Plankey, the qualified nominee for permanent director, has been blocked from confirmation since March 2025 due to unrelated Senate holds. The agency's operational capacity has been severely degraded at the exact moment when nation-state adversaries are pre-positioned inside communications, energy, water, and transportation systems. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [CISA on Life Support](https://daily.dev/posts/cisa-on-life-support-1x7wmm9gs) · Security Boulevard · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [US cybersecurity weakened by congressional delays despite Plankey renomination](https://daily.dev/posts/us-cybersecurity-weakened-by-congressional-delays-despite-plankey-renomination-kmmz7hc0b) · CSO Online · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [The Circus at CISA Continues](https://daily.dev/posts/the-circus-at-cisa-continues-c8u7wv1iw) · Security Boulevard · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [Things Were Even Worse at CISA Than We Thought](https://daily.dev/posts/things-were-even-worse-at-cisa-than-we-thought-dcrlmdamt) · Security Boulevard · 0 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#cyber](https://daily.dev/tags/cyber) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/america-s-cyber-defense-agency-is-burning-down-and-nobody-s-coming-to-put-it-out-rk2sjkhne) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"America's Cyber Defense Agency Is Burning Down and Nobody's Coming to Put It Out","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/america-s-cyber-defense-agency-is-burning-down-and-nobody-s-coming-to-put-it-out-rk2sjkhne","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/america-s-cyber-defense-agency-is-burning-down-and-nobody-s-coming-to-put-it-out-rk2sjkhne"},"datePublished":"2026-02-12T14:37:54.444Z","dateModified":"2026-02-12T14:38:17.221Z","description":"CISA has lost approximately 1,000 employees (one-third of its workforce) in the past year, leaving it critically understaffed while Chinese state-sponsored...","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/eb74500f1dd561890c7ddc1bec4c229e?_a=AQAEunF","thumbnailUrl":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/eb74500f1dd561890c7ddc1bec4c229e?_a=AQAEunF","isAccessibleForFree":true,"articleSection":"Hacker News","inLanguage":"en","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180}},"author":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Hacker News","logo":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/t_logo,f_auto/v1/logos/hn","url":"https://daily.dev/sources/hn"},"commentCount":0,"discussionUrl":"https://daily.dev/posts/america-s-cyber-defense-agency-is-burning-down-and-nobody-s-coming-to-put-it-out-rk2sjkhne","interactionStatistic":[{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":0},{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"CommentAction"},"userInteractionCount":0}],"keywords":"cyber","timeRequired":"PT9M"} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https://daily.dev"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Hacker News","item":"https://daily.dev/sources/hn"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"America's Cyber Defense Agency Is Burning Down and Nobody's Coming to Put It Out"}]} ```