Kelly, Gallego Demand Answers on Trump Administration’s Weakening of U.S. Cyber Agency Following Arizona Election Cyberattack   

Today, Arizona Senators Mark Kelly and Ruben Gallego demanded answers from Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem following a recent cyberattack on Arizona’s statewide candidate portal and concerns over the weakening of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA).  

The recent cyberattack, which defaced candidate profiles with Iranian imagery linked to U.S. military actions, raised new alarms about foreign adversaries’ ability to interfere in American elections. While Arizona election officials moved swiftly to contain the breach, they reported feeling unable to rely on CISA for rapid, coordinated support.  

“Until recently, CISA served as a trusted federal partner to election officials, offering threat intelligence, technical assistance, and incident response. We have heard firsthand from Arizona officials that this trust has eroded,” the senators wrote in a letter to Secretary Noem. “Officials describe a dramatic reduction in support, staffing, and communication from CISA, as well as a lack of confidence in the agency’s ability to collaborate in good faith on election security.”  

The senators also raised concerns about CISA’s defunding of the Multi-State Information Sharing and Analysis Center (MS-ISAC)—a critical resource for cyber threat monitoring and mitigation. The decision now forces state and local election offices to pay for cybersecurity tools previously funded by the federal government.  

“Cybersecurity must remain a nonpartisan, whole-of-government priority—especially when it comes to securing our elections. The apparent politicization of CISA and withdrawal of essential resources comes at a time when threats to election infrastructure, disinformation campaigns, and foreign interference efforts are growing in both sophistication and scale,” the senators concluded. “Protecting our election infrastructure must be above politics.”  

The senators’ letter presses the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to explain its response to the Arizona breach, its plans to restore CISA’s election security functions, and its commitment to ensuring state and local officials have access to critical cybersecurity resources.  

Read the full letter here.  

See coverage here.