An internal investigation has revealed two Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) employees were terminated after engaging in sexually explicit online interactions while on duty. The incidents, uncovered by FEMA’s Insider Threat Program (ITP), involved the use of government-issued devices for unauthorized activities.
One employee, employed in the IT Services Division and holding a top-secret clearance, was found to have exchanged explicit messages with an individual believed to be based in the Philippines. Over several days in August, the worker discussed personal details, including plans to visit Manila in November or December, while using Facebook Messenger on FEMA’s unclassified network. Monitoring tools also detected searches for hotels in Cavite, a city in the Calabarzon region of the Philippines.
In one exchange, the employee wrote, “I wish you were here sitting in my lap while I work,” and expressed desires to physically interact with the contact during work hours. The messages were part of a broader pattern of inappropriate communication, according to investigators.
A separate case involved an Environmental Protection Specialist in FEMA’s Environmental Historic Preservation office in Alabama. Records showed the employee accessed pornography on the agency’s unclassified network and engaged in explicit conversations with multiple users. During one exchange, they uploaded a pornographic image from a file labeled “work memes” to a user identified as “tooMessyForMe.”
Both employees were terminated following the findings, which highlighted breaches of protocol involving sensitive government systems. The ITP emphasized such behavior as unacceptable and a violation of duty.