{"id":177137,"date":"2026-01-12T17:36:00","date_gmt":"2026-01-12T22:36:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/2026\/01\/12\/cisa-director-void-leaves-cyber-agency-embroiled-in-uncertainty\/"},"modified":"2026-01-12T17:40:13","modified_gmt":"2026-01-12T22:40:13","slug":"cisa-director-void-leaves-cyber-agency-embroiled-in-uncertainty","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/2026\/01\/12\/cisa-director-void-leaves-cyber-agency-embroiled-in-uncertainty\/","title":{"rendered":"CISA director void leaves cyber agency embroiled in uncertainty"},"content":{"rendered":"

CISA director void leaves cyber agency embroiled in uncertainty<\/a><\/p>\n

https:\/\/federalnewsnetwork.com\/cybersecurity\/2026\/01\/cisa-director-void-leaves-cyber-agency-embroiled-in-uncertainty\/<\/a><\/p>\n

Publish Date: 2026-01-12 17:36:00<\/a><\/p>\n

Source Domain: federalnewsnetwork.com<\/a><\/p>\n

Author: <\/a><\/p>\n

Using an unordered list, summarize the following article with between 4 and 8 key points. <\/p>\n

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency is on the verge of going a full year without a permanent leader, as cyber experts say the void is preventing CISA from moving forward on key issues and leaving an already reeling workforce in the lurch.
\nThe Senate earlier this month returned Sean Plankey\u2019s nomination to the White House after lawmakers failed to vote on it during last year\u2019s session. President Donald Trump formally nominated Plankey in March of last year.
\nPlankey is a widely respected official whose nomination had broad backing from industry and bipartisan support on Capitol Hill.
\nBut his nomination was placed under multiple holds, some of them unrelated to CISA or cybersecurity. Most recently, Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) had reportedly placed a hold on Plankey after the Department of Homeland Security terminated a Coast Guard cutter contract with a shipyard in Florida. Plankey has been serving as a senior advisor in the Coast Guard while he awaits confirmation.]]><\/p>\n

Now, it\u2019s unclear whether Plankey will be re-nominated or if the Trump administration will go in a different direction. CISA is currently being led in an acting capacity by Deputy Director Madhu Gottumukkala, who was chief information officer for the state of South Dakota when Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem was governor there.
\nMark Montgomery, the executive director of the Cyberspace Solarium Commission 2.0, said the uncertainty comes at a time when CISA \u201cdesperately needs strong leadership.\u201d
\n\u201cI think they can\u2019t focus,\u201d Montgomery said. \u201cThey can\u2019t come up with a strategic plan that\u2019s going to drive a four-year administration. They\u2019ve already lost a year. Every day, every week, every month, that you don\u2019t have your Senate confirmed person, you take risk. This is the civilian cyber defense agency. It needs strong, focused leadership.\u201d
\nSenate-confirmed leaders are typically more capable of advocating for their agencies, both within the administration and on Capitol Hill in front of lawmakers. Plankey\u2019s nomination fell by the wayside as cyber threats to U.S. critical infrastructure continued to rise last year, noted Bob Ackerman, a venture capitalist who founded AllegisCyber\u00a0Capital.
\n\u201cCISA owns the essential national security mission of protecting the homeland from such society-crippling cyber-attacks,\u201d Ackerman said. \u201cYet, while we wouldn\u2019t charge the U.S. Marines with executing their missions without a leader, CISA\u2019s mission to block and deter our adversaries has been left leaderless at this urgent moment of need.
\nOver the past year, Montgomery said CISA has not advanced public-private collaboration \u201cin any meaningful way.\u201d
\nFor instance, he said the cyber agency has yet to take significant actions to address Volt Typhoon. U.S. officials have accused the China-linked group of hacking into critical infrastructure networks, like power and water systems. In January 2024, then-FBI Director Chris Wray said the goal of the hacks was to \u201cdestroy or degrade\u201d those systems during a future conflict.]]><\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re 24 months since [Director] Wray laid out the Volt Typhoon challenge, and we still don\u2019t have an integrated policy to address it,\u201d Montgomery said. \u201cThat should come from CISA. It should have come from the Joint Cyber Defense Collaborative, the Joint Cyber Planning Office, and we haven\u2019t gotten it. And the reason is it takes interagency leadership, which you\u2019re not going to get from an acting director.\u201d
\nCyber experts also pointed to stalled efforts like the reinstatement of the Critical Infrastructure Partnership Advisory Council (CIPAC) as an example of where Plankey could make a difference.
\nThe Department of Homeland Security disbanded CIPAC last spring as part of a broader purge of federal advisory councils. CIPAC had provided authorities for government officials and industry to collaborate on cybersecurity issues through various sector coordinating councils.
\nIndustry officials had been encouraged by Noem\u2019s speech at the RSA Conference in late April 2025, during which she said CIPAC would be reinstated and \u201cwill bring more people to the table and be much more action oriented.\u201d
\nBut since then, DHS has not acted to revive CIPAC or any related authorities. Since the council was disbanded, there has been \u201cless engagement and less communication,\u201d Ari Schwartz, coordinator of the Cybersecurity Coalition, told Federal News Network.
\n\u201cI do think we do need to see some action on that,\u201d Schwartz said. \u201cI don\u2019t think that that can really wait around at this point.\u201d
\nCISA\u2019s workforce, meanwhile, has experienced deep cuts under the Trump administration, driven by deferred resignation and early retirements. Many who left were experienced staff that led CISA programs.
\nOffice of Personnel Management data shows CISA\u2019s headcount has gone from a high of 3395 employees in 2024 to 2376 staff at the start of this year.
\nOne CISA employee, who requested anonymity to speak candidly, said the last year at the agency was \u201cextremely difficult.\u201d]]><\/p>\n

\u201cFrom the onslaught of policy changes targeting us \u2013 like return-to-office, standard hours, contract delays and cuts \u2013 to the huge amounts of departures and the lack of new leadership in place, we as an agency made little to no progress and in some instances went backwards in my opinion,\u201d the employee said. \u201cFor 2026, I was expecting to finally get some concrete leadership direction and priorities, but with the CISA director still not in place and another possible shutdown looming, I\u2019m expecting another year of chaos and little progress.\u201d
\nBoth Montgomery and Schwartz said one positive at CISA over the last year has been Nick Andersen, who joined the agency in August as a political appointee leading CISA\u2019s cybersecurity division. Andersen has spoken at multiple public events, briefed the media on agency cyber directives, and met with industry groups.
\nBut Montgomery noted that doesn\u2019t outweigh not having a Senate-confirmed director.
\n\u201cYou lead CISA from the top and to go fight battles within DHS for the restoration of manpower, to lead interagency work to develop and execute an integrated defense plan against Volt Typhoon\u2019s operational preparation of the battlefield,\u201d he said.
\n Copyright
\n \u00a9\u00a02026 Federal News Network. All rights reserved. This website is not intended for users located within the European Economic Area.<\/p>\n

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CISA director void leaves cyber agency embroiled in uncertainty https:\/\/federalnewsnetwork.com\/cybersecurity\/2026\/01\/cisa-director-void-leaves-cyber-agency-embroiled-in-uncertainty\/ Publish Date: 2026-01-12 17:36:00 Source…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":177138,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/federalnewsnetwork.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/GettyImages-2149608739-e1752007043316.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[24],"class_list":["post-177137","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cybersecurity","tag-cybersecurity"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/177137"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=177137"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/177137\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":177139,"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/177137\/revisions\/177139"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/177138"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=177137"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=177137"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=177137"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}