CISA staffers offered deferred resignations, extending broader cybersecurity fears

CISA staffers offered deferred resignations, extending broader cybersecurity fears toggle caption Jim Watson/AFP via Getty Images Employees at the Department of Homeland Security's Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, or CISA, were initially excluded from broader government offers to take deferred resignation offers, in part due to their role in national security and defending critical infrastructure. Sponsor Message "Team CISA, I am writing to provide an update that CISA employees may participate in the Deferred Resignation program," wrote Bridget Bean, who was identified in an email shown to NPR as the "senior official performing the duties of director" at CISA. The "Fork in the Road" program mirrors language posed to then-Twitter employees after the social media company was acquired by Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, who is now leading President Trump's government advisory team called DOGE, or the Department of Government Efficiency. The Agency's digital strategy, no longer available online, was developed during the first Trump administration and lauded by the conservative think tank Heritage Foundation's Project 2025 as a way to "promote safe 5G access in emerging markets and combat Beijing's efforts to equip regimes with tools to stifle democracy."