DHS Eyes 600 New Cybersecurity Hires, New Director for CISA

https://www.govinfosecurity.com/dhs-eyes-600-new-cybersecurity-hires-new-director-for-cisa-a-32105

Publish Date: 2026-06-29 17:37:00

Source Domain: www.govinfosecurity.com

Author:

Using an unordered list, summarize the following article with between 4 and 8 key points.

Cyberwarfare / Nation-State Attacks
,
Fraud Management & Cybercrime
,
Government

DHS Secretary Says Agency Has Funding But Lacks Skilled Cybersecurity Personnel

Tiffany Wang •
June 29, 2026

Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin, sworn in the job in March, told Congress, “We need the people, and we need the expertise.” (Image: Shutterstock)

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency isn’t short on cash. It’s short on people. Spending that money on hiring a director and 600 employees will help, Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin told Congress in a hearing Thursday.See Also: New Attacks. Skyrocketing Costs. The True Cost of a Security Breach.
The DHS chief, who was sworn in on March 24, said President Donald Trump has already met with the candidate to lead CISA. Once the director is in place and able to hire new people, Mullin said he and the new CISA director will need a year to rebuild the agency back to where it needs to be.
“Truth is, we actually have the resources we need. We need the people, and we need the expertise,” Mullin said.
CISA is about half-staffed right now and needs to hire talent to regain its reputation as the go-to source for cybersecurity, Mullin said.
“Do we need to hire everybody back? No. Do we need to hire about 600 people back? Yes,” Mullin said. “But I don’t want to put bodies in position. I want to put the talented individuals that know what they’re doing and have partnerships with our state and local officials.”
The agency’s former acting director, Madhu Gottumukkala, ended his nine-month tenure in February and moved into the role of DHS director of strategic implementation before leaving that position a month later.
CISA’s former acting executive assistant director for cybersecurity, Nick Andersen, has since been promoted to acting director.
Trump nominated former DHS senior advisor Sean Plankey to serve as permanent director, but Plankey asked to be eliminated in April, saying the Senate clearly was not going to confirm him. He became CEO of a defense technology company in May.
At the same time, roughly 1,000 employees, about one-third of CISA’s workforce, have left the agency during the second Trump administration, Axios reported. Soon after the beginning of his second term, Trump effectively dismantled CISA’s election security program, ending or suspending initiatives designed to protect U.S. election infrastructure from cyberthreats.
The tumultuous past year of leadership turnover and workforce reductions has significantly diminished CISA’s threat intelligence-sharing capabilities, weakening public-private coordination essential to cyber defense.
“We know China is working every single day, and they’re even working harder to try getting into our systems. They’ve made that part of their future plans. They feel like that’s important for them,” Mullin said. “That’s where the private-public partnership is vitally important. That’s where CISA is going to play a major role because we can’t expect Meta or Google to do it on their own. They’re fighting truly an army from CCP or from North Korea or militias from Russia or Iran from the IRGC.”
“We have to have an all-out frontal approach and be proactive. We can’t be reactive in this,” he said.