The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency issued a Friday email to staff telling them to not speak to news reporters in an unauthorized capacity.
“In today’s culture of information saturation, it is imperative that we ensure all official information communicated on behalf of CISA is current, accurate, unbiased, and authoritative. This includes any official information communicated to the media,” reads part of the note issued by agency acting Director Madhu Gottumukkala.
CISA is “committed to a culture of transparency” but also has a “responsibility to ensure we meet the imperative laid out above and to that end, the Office of the Chief External Affairs Office (OCEAO/ /EA) is the only office authorized to facilitate official communication with the media,” it adds.
The email later states that internal products like memos, official correspondence, working documents, chat logs and town hall materials are not approved for external release.
The email was first reported by Politico and confirmed to Nextgov/FCW by three people familiar with its contents.
“CISA does not comment on leaked internal emails, especially when they’re about leaking internal emails,” CISA Director of Public Affairs Marci McCarthy told Nextgov/FCW when asked for comment.
The nation’s main civilian cyberdefense agency has undergone major workforce shifts this year, as its parent agency, the Department of Homeland Security, has sought to refocus the agency back to its “core mission” amid past GOP misgivings about its activities during the Biden administration.
Across DHS, several employees have been marked for reassignments to agencies focused on the Trump administration’s border security and deportation work. Around a third of CISA’s workforce has been terminated or offered deferred resignations since the start of this year.
The agency has faced scrutiny from the Trump administration for some time. Top officials have aimed to “refocus” its mission amid GOP accusations that the agency engaged in censorship of Americans’ free speech. Those claims stem from CISA’s previous collaboration with social media platforms to remove false information online concerning the COVID-19 pandemic, elections and other divisive subjects around 2020.
It’s not clear what specifically prompted the agency to issue the email. Last month, Cybersecurity Dive, a trade publication, reported that the CISA will begin a hiring spree in 2026 because its recent reductions have hampered some of the Trump administration’s national security goals, namely its preparation for potential conflict with China, a major cyber adversary.
