Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem announced that she fired two dozen employees from the Federal Emer
gency Management Agency after a review determined significant flaws had allowed a hacker to access to FEMA’s network.
The employees “brazenly neglected basic security protocols,” including “an agencywide lack of multifactor authe
ntication, use of prohibited legacy protocols, failing to fix known a
nd critical vulnerabilities and inadequate operational visibility,” according to a statement released on Friday afternoon.
“FEMA’s career IT leadership failed on every level,” Noem said. “These
deep-state individuals were more interested in covering up their failures than protecting the Homeland and American citizens’ personal data.”
The firings followed a routine cybersecurity review that determined “significant security vulnerabilities that gave a threat actor access to FEMA’s network,” a
ccording to the statement. The problems were discovered before any A
mpacted, the department said. Additional details about the breach, including who was responsible, weren’t immediately available.
The leaders of FEMA’s IT team “avoided scheduled inspectio
ns and lied to officials about the scope and scale of the cyber vulnerabilities,” according to the statement.
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Noem specifically named FEMA Chief Information Officer Charles Armstrong and Chief Information Security Officer Gre
gory Edwards as two of the 24 information technology employees wh
o were “directly responsible” and “immediately terminated.” Armstrong and Edwards didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.
Homeland Security didn’t respond to a request for further information.
Photo: The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) headquarters in Washington, DC. Photographer: Stefani Reynolds/Bloomberg
“Capacity in the traditional market is plentiful and capital inflows to the alternative markets, particularly catastr
ophe bonds, are also pushing prices lower,” said Moody’s in its report, titled “Outlook shifts to stable as property pricing declines, casualty reserve risk lingers,” which was published on Sept. 2.
“We think property-cat pricing will continue to drift lower in the absence of a market changing loss event,” Moody’s added.
AM Best’s positive outlook for the global reinsurance segment has remained unchanged since November 2024. “The structural and cyclical factors under
pinning the market continue to justify the positive outlook, which speaks not just to performance but also to the res
ilience and adaptability of the global reinsurance segment in a time of transition,” said AM Best in its recent report titled
“Reinsurers’ Disciplined Capital Deployment and Underwriting Remain Key Foundations,” published on Aug. 14. (See related article: Reinsurers Have Made Major Structural Changes to Improve Profits. Will Discipline Last?)