Noem terminates 24 FEMA workers for failing to address cyber vulnerabilities [View all]

Source: NextGov

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem is terminating two dozen members in the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s IT department after the DHS agency said the employees failed basic security protocols that allowed hackers to access its networks.

Noem’s office said agency Chief Information Officer Charles Armstrong and Chief Information Security Officer Gregory Edwards were terminated, alongside 22 others. They could not be immediately reached for comment.

A routine cybersecurity review of FEMA’s systems uncovered the vulnerability, DHS said in a statement, which added that the vulnerability was addressed before any sensitive data could be pilfered from its systems.

The review “uncovered several severe lapses in security that allowed the threat actor to breach FEMA’s network and threaten the entire department and the nation as a whole,” DHS said.

Read more: https://www.nextgov.com/people/2025/08/noem-terminates-24-fema-workers-failing-address-cyber-vulnerabilities/407807/