White House instructs agencies to avoid firing cybersecurity staff, email says
Source: Reuters
White House instructs agencies to avoid firing cybersecurity staff, email says
Alexandra Alper
Thu, March 13, 2025 at 2:04 PM EDT 2 min read
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The White House is urging federal agencies to refrain from laying off their cybersecurity teams, as they scramble to comply with a Thursday deadline to submit mass layoff plans to slash their budgets, according to an email seen by Reuters.
Greg Barbaccia, the United States federal chief information officer, sent the message on Wednesday, in response to questions about whether cybersecurity employees' work is national security-related, and therefore exempt from layoffs.
"We believe cybersecurity is national security and we encourage Department-level Chief Information Officers to consider this when reviewing their organizations," he wrote in the email to information technology employees across the federal government which has not been previously reported.
Describing "skilled cyber security professionals" as playing "a vital role in mission delivery and information assurance," he said, "We are confident federal agencies will be able to identify efficiencies across their non-cyber mission areas without negatively affecting their agency's cyber posture," he added.
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