CISA replaces acting director after a bumbling year on the job

This week it was reported that U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency is in dire shape, after 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 the acting director of CISA, an agency under the Department of Homeland Security that oversees cybersecurity and technical protection 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 acting director and caused security headaches, including the uploading of sensitive government documents to ChatGPT, according to reports. Staffing at the agency was slashed by one-third. Gottumukkala also reportedly failed a counterintelligence polygraph he took in order to view classified documents, and suspended several career officials in response, including the agency’s then-chief security officer.

Before being nominated to CISA as deputy director, Gottumukkala was chief technology officer of South Dakota under then-governor and current Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem.

ABC News was first to report Gottumukkala’s departure.

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 acting director, and that Gottumukkala has been moved to a new position as director of strategic implementation in the Department of Homeland Security, which houses CISA.

Prior to his appointment as acting director to lead CISA, Andersen served as the agency’s top official overseeing its cybersecurity division.

The agency still hasn’t had a permanent Senate-confirmed director since Trump returned to office.

McCarthy said the Trump administration has chosen Sean Plankey to be the agency’s permanent director, which requires a majority vote of approval in the U.S. Senate. 

The White House re-nominated Plankey to head CISA in January, after Sen. Ron Wyden last year blocked Plankey’s nomination until the agency agreed to release an unclassified report allegedly describing cybersecurity flaws at phone and telecommunication giants. Wyden demanded the report’s release in the wake of hundreds of hacks targeting U.S. and international phone and internet providers by the China-backed hacking group known as Salt Typhoon. The Senate has yet to schedule Plankey’s nomination hearing.

Nextgov reported Thursday that CISA lost another top senior official, Bob Costello, the agency’s chief information officer tasked with overseeing the agency’s IT systems and data policies. The news outlet reported Gottumukkala tried to transfer Costello but was blocked by unnamed political appointees.

CISA’s spokesperson McCarthy did not address Costello’s departure when asked by TechCrunch, but did not dispute the report.