When the agency that crunches Washington’s numbers can’t even secure its own, it’s hard not to see a metaphor in the math.
The Congressional Budget Office confirmed this week that it’s battling an “ongoing” cybersecurity incident — one that, by all accounts, has stretched on for days and remains unresolved.
Politico first reported the breach, noting that CBO officials are still assessing the full scope of the intrusion and what data, if any, may have been compromised.
The nonpartisan agency, which provides cost estimates and fiscal analyses to Congress, said it has added new monitoring systems and security controls while a full investigation continues.
The CBO has not said whether sensitive information was stolen or who might be behind the attack, the Associated Press reported. Officials also declined to specify how long the agency’s systems have been affected.
Reuters added that Senate offices were warned by the chamber’s Sergeant at Arms that email communications with the CBO might have been exposed, potentially giving hackers a chance to spoof messages or launch phishing attempts.
That advisory urged congressional staff to treat any CBO-related email traffic with extra caution until the incident is fully contained.
While the agency insists its work for lawmakers continues uninterrupted, the breach’s duration has sparked questions about whether the CBO’s analytical models and data pipelines could have been tampered with.
Experts told the Associated Press that a breach described as “ongoing” suggests investigators are still chasing active threats within the network rather than cleaning up a finished intrusion.
The incident comes at a sensitive time for Congress, with fiscal debates, spending fights, and shutdown negotiations all relying on the CBO’s projections to guide votes and policy.
Reuters noted that the longer such breaches persist, the greater the risk that attackers can map internal systems, gather intelligence, or establish backdoors for later use.
The Washington Post reported that early assessments point to a possible foreign actor, though officials have not publicly attributed the breach to any specific nation or group.
In a statement, the CBO said it “continually monitors” for cyber threats and had taken “immediate action” to safeguard its systems once the incident was detected.
Still, the episode has renewed scrutiny of cybersecurity readiness across federal agencies — particularly those, like the CBO, that don’t handle classified data but remain critical to day-to-day government operations.
Lawmakers from both parties are calling for a briefing once the investigation concludes, emphasizing the need for stronger digital defenses and clearer reporting protocols.
For now, the agency that keeps watch over Washington’s balance sheets finds itself struggling to balance its own: between transparency and vulnerability, between public trust and private exposure.
In a town obsessed with leaks, this one hits a little too close to the ledger.
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