Federal cybersecurity officials were directed by administration appointees to acquire a voting machine, hack into its system, and keep any discovered vulnerabilities entirely hidden from the manufacturer during the early months of President Trump's second term. According to details shared with ProPublica by former administration insiders, this covert mandate deliberately bypassed standard agency protocols, which normally require vulnerabilities to be disclosed to technology vendors.
One former official suggested the directive was intended to keep exploits hidden as potential leverage to contest future election outcomes, noting the instruction directly contradicts the foundational mission of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA). However, the agency ultimately failed to fulfill the request due to severe internal resource constraints. CISA has faced deep budget reductions and the departure of roughly 1,000 personnel since the start of the administration, driven in part by sweeping federal cuts under the Department of Government Efficiency.
Established in 2018 to safeguard critical election infrastructure from foreign and domestic cyber threats, CISA now operates with significantly diminished capacity ahead of upcoming midterm elections. State election officials have increasingly distanced themselves from the agency, expressing deep concern over lost institutional trust and ongoing staffing shortages that have strained information-sharing partnerships nationwide.
Comments