The government shutdown could greatly affect information technology areas short- and long-term, especially in the area of recruiting and hiring cybersecurity specialists, according to experts from the Sunnyvale, Calif.-based Juniper Networks.

Nick Bilogorskiy, cybersecurity strategist at Juniper Networks, suggested furloughing cybersecurity analysts creates a vulnerability for government networks. "As we all know, the top problem in security today is the shortage of trained cybersecurity professionals, and the cybersecurity skills shortage was already getting worse in 2018 with millions of unfilled cybersecurity jobs."

Bilogorskiy added that now, with the shutdown taking place and some staff being furloughed, the problem has been exacerbated. "Attackers are likely to intensify their activity during the shutdown in an effort to exploit this. Longer term, it's likely that the government will lose valuable cybersecurity talent to the private sector."