The Trump administration’s cyber cuts are sending ripples across the Atlantic, according to a new survey, which has found that almost half of security leaders in the US and UK have scaled back their investments due to the uncertainty.

SecOps platform Swimlane’s latest impact report, Federal Cyber Priorities Reshape Security Strategy, reveals that 46% of cybersecurity decision makers have reduced their investment plans thanks to Trump’s upheaval of cybersecurity funding in the US, which has already seen the shuttering of the Cyber Safety Review Board.

Polling 500 IT and security leaders across both the UK and US, Swimlane found that the US government’s cuts are also affecting security teams’ structure, with 63% of firms reporting that changes to the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) budget have impacted their staffing plans.

The majority of firms (85%) said that they have experienced budget and resource challenges over the last six months, with 52% suffering from increased workloads after the drop in additional support.

More worryingly, 41% of organisations said that threat detection and monitoring functions are among the most affected, potentially opening the door for attackers at an already vulnerable moment.

The study found that industry confidence is eroding fast, with 81% of firms believing that CISA budget cuts will hamper threat intelligence sharing between the public and private sectors, while 79% agreed that federal defunding has ramped up their firm’s exposure.

In the UK, these risks are driving a less-than-subtle shift in cyber strategy. 

More than three-quarters (79%) of UK security leaders said that US instability has made them cautious about relationships with American vendors, with 43% reassessing existing partnerships, and almost a third cancelling contracts outright.

That could spell good news for domestic firms, however, with Swimlane finding that 53% of UK IT teams are increasingly relying on homegrown security providers, as well as those based in the EU.  

However, the turmoil across the Pond has also led many UK-based companies to consider building their resilience on their own, too, rather than risk any fallout from Trump’s future cyber directives, a feeling shared by their American peers.

Almost all (91%) organisations said they were taking steps to maintain their operational security in the face of dwindling federal funding, with 54% developing new internal frameworks independent of government guidelines.

Recommended reading

• Trump Threatens New Tariffs on Apple and the EU
• What’s Actually in Trump’s New “Winning” AI Action Plan?
• US Targets Foreign Chips with 100% Tariff Threat

Added to that, with the Mitre programme having recently been saved from shutdown after a last-minute U-turn by the US government, it’s little wonder that 51% of firms are hunting out more partnerships with commercial threat intelligence providers to stay ahead of attackers.

“As many seasoned cybersecurity professionals will tell you, this industry runs in cycles of reaction, regulation, retrenchment and reinvestment,” said Cody Cornell, co-founder and chief strategy officer of Swimlane.

“Right now, we’re in a period of reorganisation and a changing regulatory environment. But in the face of shrinking federal support, most organisations aren’t standing still. They’re adapting, taking ownership of their resilience strategies and building internal frameworks to maintain readiness, no matter what’s happening in Washington. 

“This isn’t just about surviving the current climate. It’s about redefining what resilient security leadership looks like moving forward.”