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Madhu Gottumukkala reassigned from CISA to DHS director
The leadership shift follows a security incident, contract disputes, and oversight scrutiny.
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Anushka Pathak - Tue, 03, Mar 2026
- 14:40 EST
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Madhu Gottumukkala / Wikimedia commons
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has reassigned Madhu Gottumukkala from his role as acting director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) to DHS director of strategic implementation, Politico reported.
The move followed a tenure marked by internal disputes, contract cancellations, personnel actions, and a security-related incident. Nick Anderson, CISA’s executive assistant director for cybersecurity and a former official in the first Trump administration, has been named acting director.
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Gottumukkala was appointed acting director by DHS Secretary Kristi Noem in May 2025. According to Politico, his leadership faced criticism for decisions that affected morale, disrupted operations, and shifted attention from CISA’s core mission of defending U.S. critical infrastructure and federal networks against nation-state cyber threats, particularly from Russia, China, and Iran.
In early Aug. 2025, he uploaded contracting documents marked “for official use only” to a publicly accessible version of ChatGPT, a platform restricted for most DHS personnel. The action triggered automated alerts and led to a formal damage assessment, though earlier reports indicated he had received special approval from CISA’s Office of the Chief Information Officer.
He also terminated a US $30 million contract that supported government-wide scanning for vulnerable internet-exposed devices, reportedly without advance notice or replacement capabilities. In July 2025, he failed a counterintelligence polygraph examination, after which several employees were placed on administrative leave; six reportedly remain on paid leave.
Other personnel actions included suspending an employee for two months after an obscene gesture toward his unoccupied Tesla Cybertruck was captured on camera and reassigning his chief of staff following a dispute over authority.
He also directed two senior career officials to accept new roles or resign amid disagreements over contracting decisions.
Despite reductions of nearly 1,000 CISA positions during the Trump administration, Gottumukkala reportedly sent a Nov. 2025 memo to DHS leadership advocating for increased hiring to counter ongoing threats from Russian and Chinese state-sponsored hackers.
The reassignment comes amid heightened congressional scrutiny, including a request from Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley for records related to the ChatGPT matter, and days before Secretary Noem is scheduled to testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee.
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