According to TheRegister.com, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s cybersecurity program has been declared “not effective” by the Office of the Inspector General in a damning October 31 audit. The agency’s cybersecurity maturity plummeted from level-4 (“managed and measurable”) down to level-2 (“defined”) since the previous assessment. Auditors found 35 systems operating either with expired authorizations or without ever going through proper authorization processes, with 21 systems relying solely on risk acceptance memorandums instead of full security approvals. The CFPB also continues using outdated software that no longer receives security updates, despite warnings about 2024 end-of-life dates. These failures come amid massive resource cuts that saw contractor support drop from 66% to 25% of security staff between January and February, compounded by government staff departures.
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The Authorization Disaster
Here’s the thing about government cybersecurity – you can’t just run systems without proper authorization. But that’s exactly what the CFPB has been doing. They’ve got 35 systems operating without current ATOs (Authorization to Operate), which is basically the government’s version of a security green light. Even worse, 21 systems are running on RAMs (Risk Acceptance Memorandums) alone, which is like saying “we know there are risks but we’re using it anyway” without doing the actual security work.
Think about what this means. The CFPB handles personal information, confidential investigative data, and supervisory information – exactly the kind of stuff hackers would love to get their hands on. And they’re running systems without knowing if they’re actually secure. The agency claims many systems are “very low risk,” but auditors found most are actually moderate risk and do contain sensitive data. So which is it?
The Human Cost of Cuts
Now let’s talk about the staffing nightmare. Contractor support for security monitoring and testing dropped from 66% to 25% in just one month. That’s catastrophic for any security program. When you lose that many people who handle continuous monitoring and security controls testing, you’re basically flying blind. And government staff have been leaving too, creating a perfect storm of understaffing.
The CFPB says they’re trying to redeploy staff from other offices, but let’s be real – you can’t just pull someone from consumer complaints and expect them to handle cybersecurity risk assessments. These are specialized skills that take time to develop. Meanwhile, systems keep running without proper oversight, and outdated software keeps ticking along without security patches.
This Isn’t Just a CFPB Problem
Look, this is part of a broader pattern. The Trump administration planned to cut the CFPB’s workforce by about 90% – roughly 1,500 positions. Similar cuts have hit CISA and other agencies. We’re seeing a systematic dismantling of federal cybersecurity capabilities at exactly the time when we need them most.
Basically, when you cut resources this dramatically, security inevitably suffers. You can’t maintain proper authorization processes without people to do the work. You can’t keep systems updated without staff to manage the upgrades. The CFPB’s collapse from level-4 to level-2 maturity shows what happens when political decisions override security necessities.
Will This Actually Get Fixed?
The CFPB agreed with most of the audit findings and promised to implement the six recommendations. But they also pushed back, calling some conclusions “misleading” and defending their use of RAMs. That defensive posture worries me – if you’re not fully acknowledging the problem, how can you properly fix it?
The full OIG report makes for sobering reading. We’re talking about an agency that’s supposed to protect consumers’ financial data operating systems without proper security approvals. In an era of sophisticated nation-state attacks, this isn’t just bureaucratic sloppiness – it’s a genuine risk to people’s personal information. And with staffing levels where they are, I’m not convinced this gets fixed anytime soon.
