(Luis Cornelio, Headline USA) Homeland Security Kristi Noem fired more than two dozen “inept” IT staffers at the Federal Emergency Management Agency after they reportedly neglected basic security protocols.
Noem announced the mass firing on Friday, saying FEMA Chief Information Officer Charles Armstrong, Chief Information Security Officer Gregory Edwards were among those fired. Twenty-two others were also immediately terminated.
“FEMA’s career IT leadership failed on every level. Their incompetence put the American people at risk,” Noem said.
She explained that a routine cybersecurity review found a “threat actor” had gained access to FEMA’s network. Further investigation revealed several “severe” lapses in security. Shockingly, FEMA’s IT staffers—described by Noem as “entrenched bureaucrats”—resisted efforts to fix the problems.
FEMA’s career IT leadership failed on every level. Their incompetence put the American people at risk.
When DHS stepped in to fix the problem, entrenched bureaucrats worked to prevent us from solving the problem and downplayed just how bad this breach was. These deep-state…— Secretary Kristi Noem (@Sec_Noem) August 29, 2025
“These deep-state individuals were more interested in covering up their failures than in protecting the Homeland and American citizens’ personal data, so I terminated them immediately,” Noem added. “The American people deserve results from their government.”
According to DHS, the failures included a lack of agency-wide multi-factor authentication and use of unauthorized “legacy protocol.”
FEMA also failed to fix known and critical vulnerabilities, in addition to operating with an inadequate visibility.
The breach was especially shocking given that FEMA spent nearly half a billion dollars on IT and cybersecurity measures in Fiscal Year 2025 alone.
“Despite burning hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars, FEMA’s IT leadership still neglected its basic duties and exposed the entire Department to cyberattacks,” DHS denounced.
