What Does the Government Shutdown Mean for Cybersecurity?
On Oct. 1, the US federal government shut down after Congress failed to pass funding for fiscal year 2026. Federal resources, including projects at the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, may be slowed but not entirely halted.
What does the shutdown mean for professionals in the US, particularly when it comes to cybersecurity?
Cybersecurity concerns for government contractors and other businesses to consider
Many federal employees are furloughed during the shutdown. Contractors who work for the government may miss a paycheck if the shutdown continues.
“Smaller vendors may need to cut their budgets, and that typically means cybersecurity investments decrease in the short term,” said Brandon Potter, chief technology officer at cybersecurity and compliance firm ProCircular, in an email to TechRepublic. “The larger issue is that these smaller vendors or third parties often hold elevated access in government environments, and are frequently targeted as a means of gaining backdoor access to these more protected entities.”
Essential services remain open, including the entire Internal Revenue Service. The IRS has authority to operate during a shutdown, but it can maintain operations for about five business days without furloughs, Politico noted.
Furloughed workers should be vigilant for phishing, Potter said.
“The opportunity for exploitation risks will spike related to phishing that targets credentials,” he said. “Especially those targeting furloughed workers due to the number of sporadic logins and websites they’ll be working through for official HR and benefits communications. Expect coordinated attacks against both work and personal email accounts of these workers.”
In addition, ransomware attacks may target critical infrastructure vendors, Potter said.
“The top priority is resilience, so focus on basics like MFA, privileged access audits, active monitoring, and automation so even if resources are thin, you can contain threats quickly,” said Ken Underhill, a cybersecurity professional at TechnologyAdvice.
Alex García-Tobar, CEO of email authentication firm Valimail, said that with the federal government inactive, companies should rely on private or standards-based cybersecurity approaches, protect core assets, be aware of state actors or cybercriminals using the shutdown as a lure in phishing emails, and diversify their defense approaches and vendors.
“From spoofed government email notifications to the lack of early warning signals, attackers will never waste a good crisis,” he said. “Recipients will be anxious to open emails or click on links that may have ‘urgent information on the shutdown’ or invoices purporting to be from furloughed agencies.”
Will government cybersecurity work continue?
At the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, around 900 of the 2,500 employees are exempt from furlough. The group still at work includes threat hunters working on mitigating recent vulnerabilities in Cisco products.
Other ways the shutdown may impact businesses
Business travelers may see longer wait times at airports, as air traffic controllers and most Transportation Security Administration employees will be working without pay. Passport renewals may face delays, depending on staffing.
Users in the European Economic Area will still receive free security updates from Microsoft for one year after support for Windows 10 ends.
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