New York Cyber Chief Slams Trump Over Budget Cuts Impact

New York Cyber Chief Slams Trump Over Budget Cuts Impact

• New York’s chief cyber officer warns that federal cuts weaken the country’s defenses.
• He criticizes the Trump administration’s cuts to cybersecurity budgets and staff.
• State and local agencies rely partly on federal money for security work.
• New York is investing in its own workforce and asking Washington for grant funds.

What New York is warning about

States carry a big share of the work of securing their own networks, schools and utilities, and some of the money for it comes from Washington. New York is now openly worried about that money and support shrinking.

Colin Ahern, New York State’s chief cyber officer, told TechCrunch that he and Governor Kathy Hochul are concerned that the Trump administration’s cybersecurity cuts are putting the country at risk.

The cuts

Ahern pointed to the administration’s flagship budget law and recent rescissions. That law cut federal cybersecurity spending across agencies by more than $1.2 billion, including $135 million from the budget of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), and CISA has also lost staff.

“We work with the federal government day in and day out. We need and want the federal government to be effective,” Ahern told TechCrunch. “Like we’ve said publicly, we do think that what’s happening in Washington is putting those things at risk.”

Why states feel it

Ransomware and data breaches keep hitting state and local agencies across the country, and New York is no exception. Federal grants and CISA support help fund the defenses that counties, school districts and water utilities depend on.

What New York is doing

Ahern said the state is not standing still. Hochul signed a law requiring cybersecurity awareness training for government computer users and fast incident reporting by state offices, and the state is opening a New York City office staffed with technologists, including security staff.

Ahern said he hopes to recruit some of the federal workers who lost their jobs. “DOGE says you’re fired. New York says you’re hired,” he said.

Calls for funding

Hochul has written to Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem asking that Homeland Security Grant Program funds be made available immediately, calling them vital to protecting critical infrastructure such as transit hubs, power grids and water systems.

Other state officials and security specialists have also argued for steady, long-term federal funding for state and local cyber defense.

What to watch

Watch whether Homeland Security releases the grant money, how CISA’s reduced staff affects support for states, and whether other governors join New York’s criticism.

Federal cuts land on state and local budgets eventually. The question is how much.

For now, New York is hiring.

Frank Jones, CISSP

Frank Jones has loved computers from the age of 13. Frank got his hacking career started when he downloaded a war dialing program that he used to detect dial up modems in his hometown of Chicago. Frank Jones now works as a JAVA coder and cyber security researcher.