It was reported this week that the US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency is in dire straits, following a year of cuts, layoffs and furloughs under the Trump administration. Now the agency has replaced its top acting leader, a CISA spokesperson tells TechCrunch.
The move to replace Madhu Gottumukkala as deputy director of CISA, an agency under the Department of Homeland Security that oversees cybersecurity and technical protections across the federal government, comes after a tumultuous year serving as the agency’s top boss.
Gottumukkala struggled to lead the agency during his tenure as deputy director and caused security headaches, including sending sensitive government documents to ChatGPT, according to reports. The staff at the agency were decreased by a third. Gottumukkala also allegedly failed a counterintelligence polygraph took to see classified documents and suspended several career officials in response, including the agency’s then-chief security officer.
Before being appointed to CISA as deputy director, Gottumukkala was chief technology officer in South Dakota under then-governor and current Homeland Security Secretary Christy Noem.
ABC News was the first to report the departure of Gottumukkala.
In a statement shared with TechCrunch on Friday, CISA spokesperson Marci McCarthy claimed Gottumukkala had done a “remarkable job.” McCarthy told TechCrunch that Nick Andersen will replace Gottumukkala as CISA’s new deputy director, and that Gottumukkala has moved to a new position as director of strategic implementation at the Department of Homeland Security, which houses CISA.
Prior to his appointment as deputy director to lead CISA, Andersen is served as the agency’s top official overseeing the cybersecurity department.
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The agency has yet to have a permanent director confirmed by the Senate since Trump returned to office.
McCarthy said the Trump administration has chosen Sean Plankey to be the agency’s permanent director, which requires majority approval in the US Senate.
The White House reappointed Plankey to head CISA in Januaryafter Sen. Ron Wyden last year blocked Plankey’s nomination until the agency agreed to release an unclassified report that allegedly described cyber flaws at phone and telecom giants. Wyden requested the release of the report following hundreds of hacks targeting US and international phone and internet providers by the Chinese-backed hacking group known as Salt Typhoon. The Senate has not yet scheduled Plankey’s nomination hearing.
Nextgov reported on Thursday that CISA lost another top official, Bob Costello, the agency’s chief information officer charged with overseeing the agency’s IT systems and data policies. The news agency reported that Gottumukkala tried to transfer Costello but was blocked by unnamed political appointees.
CISA spokesperson McCarthy did not comment on Costello’s departure when asked by TechCrunch, but did not dispute the report.
