Two Senior Cisa Officials Reassigned After Earlier Attempted Ouster

CISA’s top information technology official and its senior-most human relations officer were recently told to accept another role at DHS or resign, according to three current officials and one former official with knowledge of the moves.

The reassignment orders were sent to Chief Information Officer Bob Costello and acting Chief Human Capital Officer Kevin Diana. Acting CISA Director Madhu Gottumukkala previously tried unsuccessfully to oust Costello, with whom he had clashed over agency contracting decisions, POLITICO reported last month.

Two of the four people said the recent order against Costello was tied to the same underlying dispute. A third said Diana was also connected to that disagreement but declined to specify how. All four were granted anonymity for fear of retribution.

CISA did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the moves.

Cybersecurity Dive first reported on Costello's reassignment. Diana's move has not yet been reported.

Under the orders, Costello and Diana have seven days to report to a new role elsewhere in DHS or resign. It is not clear what the two intend to do or why they are being moved.

Costello and Diana did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

CISA is facing a major workforce squeeze, after losing roughly one-third of its staff due to early resignations, layoffs and targeted reassignments since the start of the second Trump administration.

Costello is a well-respected career civil servant who has been CISA's CIO for more than four years. When Gottumukkala first tried to reassign him, other political appointees at the agency intervened to stop it.

Diana is a career civil servant who has been at CISA for nearly a decade, according to his LinkedIn. One current official said his departure would be hugely “detrimental” to the already short-staffed agency.

Gottumukkala testified earlier this year that roughly 70 CISA staffers received reassignment orders last year.

Those orders are supposed to allow federal officials to plug key workforce holes in a pinch, but some current and former CISA officials fear the tool is now being wielded for personal disputes, two of the four people said.