The five-week government shutdown just claimed its first major cybersecurity casualty. The Congressional Budget Office confirmed it was breached by what The Washington Post reports as a suspected foreign actor, highlighting growing concerns that reduced staffing and delayed security maintenance are creating dangerous vulnerabilities across federal systems.
The timing couldn't be worse. Just as the five-week government shutdown reaches crisis levels across multiple agencies, the Congressional Budget Office drops news that it's been hacked. CBO spokesperson Caitlin Emma confirmed to WIRED that the agency "implemented additional monitoring and new security controls" after the breach, but notably dodged questions about whether the shutdown impacted their cybersecurity operations.
The hack represents exactly what security experts have been warning about. "A lot of federal digital systems are still just running in the cloud throughout the shutdown, even if the office is empty," explains Safi Mojidi, a longtime cybersecurity researcher who previously worked for NASA and as a federal security contractor. "If everything was set up properly, then the cloud offers an important baseline of security, but it's hard to rest easy during a shutdown knowing that even in the best of times there are problems getting security right."
But here's where it gets really concerning - this isn't just about systems running on autopilot. Critical security maintenance tasks like vulnerability patching, threat monitoring, and device management require human oversight. When those humans are furloughed or stretched thin covering multiple roles, things start slipping through the cracks.
The Department of Homeland Security's Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, which coordinates digital defense across the federal government, was already dealing with staff reductions before the shutdown hit. Now CISA is continuing to cut staff even during the shutdown, according to court documents. When asked about the impact, CISA spokesperson Marci McCarthy offered only that "CISA continues to execute on its mission" while blaming Democrats for the shutdown.
The reality is more nuanced than either political talking point suggests. The federal government's decade-long migration to cloud infrastructure does provide crucial automated protections that keep systems running even when offices are empty. Amazon, Microsoft, and Google all provide enterprise-grade security baselines that are far more robust than what most agencies could maintain internally.
