A top official at the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency on Thursday rejected concerns that personnel and program cuts at CISA have hindered its work.

Nick Andersen, who just began serving as executive assistant director of cybersecurity at CISA this month, said he’s seen the agency function at a high level from both the outside and inside.

“There’s been an awful lot of reporting recently about CISA and the potential for degraded operational capabilities, and I’m telling you, nothing can be further from the truth,” he said at the Billington Cybersecurity Summit. “It is just a fantastic opportunity to see the high-level output and throughput that this team has.

“There is not a single instance where I can think of that somebody reaches out — whether it’s in our remit or not, we are connecting them with the right level of resources, and we are helping them to make themselves right, whether it’s incidents that we see affecting a state/local partner, small- or medium-sized businesses or the largest critical infrastructure owner/operators,” he continued.

The Trump administration has cut or plans to cut more than 1,000 personnel at the agency, a third of its total full-time employees, and has sought nearly half a billion dollars in funding reductions.

CISA’s shuttering of an array of programs has drawn widespread criticism from many in industry as well as from state and local governments who have partnered with the agency, not to mention concerns from Capitol Hill.

But Andersen said CISA has full support from President Donald Trump, who clashed with agency leadership in his first term, and Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem.

“We have exceedingly strong relationships with” other government agencies and the private sector, Andersen touted. “The level of commitment within this team is second to none, and we’re just going to continue to hone and focus [on] that operational mission of what CISA should be delivering on. We’re going to continue to sort of separate out the fluff, but we are going to take every single dollar, every single resource, every single manpower hour to deliver an even sharper focus on those core capabilities in keeping with what President Trump identified as our administration priorities.”

Those priorities, Andersen said, include fortifying federal networks. “Raising the collective bar across the dot gov is a big one,” he said.

It also includes strengthening relationships with critical infrastructure owners and operators. “We want to be able to work very closely with our critical infrastructure partners on focused resilience efforts, be able to raise the bar in a sprint between now and 2027 as we prepare for the potential of China making good on its promise … to take Taiwan,” he said, so that “our critical infrastructure is not going to be held hostage.”

And it includes strengthening partnerships with other federal agencies as well as state and local governments, Andersen said.

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Nicholas Andersen is taking over a top leadership role at the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, CISA announced Tuesday.

He will become executive assistant director of cybersecurity at the agency in a role that’s seen swift turnover in the past year. It’s a position that has, in the past, led CISA efforts on protecting federal civilian agency networks and protecting critical infrastructure against cyber threats.

Andersen is a veteran of the first Trump administration, where from 2019 to 2021 he served in the Department of Energy’s Cybersecurity, Energy Security and Emergency Response division as both the principal deputy assistant secretary and performed the duties of assistant secretary.

Andersen most recently worked as president and chief operating officer at Invictus International Consulting, a firm that bills itself as “a full-spectrum cyber company that fuses data science and intelligence to deliver advanced technological and analytical solutions required for our national defense.”

He fills a role previously announced for Karen Evans early in Trump’s second term, before she departed shortly after for a nomination as undersecretary for management at the Department of Homeland Security and then shifting over to the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Chris Butera has been serving in the role as acting executive assistant director since, and will now assume the role of acting deputy executive assistant director.

Eric Goldstein was previously in Andersen’s role for nearly four years under President Joe Biden before leaving in the summer of 2024. Jeff Greene replaced him until Trump took office.

“I am honored to have the opportunity to join CISA and the trust placed in me by President Donald Trump and Secretary Kristi Noem,” Andersen said in a news release. “Having led organizations in both the public and private sectors, I deeply appreciate the vital role a robust cyber defense agency plays in securing our nation’s critical infrastructure. My career has been dedicated to defending America, and I look forward to continuing that mission at CISA.”

Acting CISA Director Madhu Gottumukkala said Andersen’s “broad experience across business, government, and technology uniquely positions him to strengthen our engagement with critical infrastructure partners, helping them better assess risk and elevate their security posture. I look forward to working with him as we advance our mission and safeguard the resilience of our nation during this pivotal time.”

Andersen’s first day was Tuesday.

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