Trump’s acting cyber chief fed sensitive US government documents to public ChatGPT

Dr. Madhu Gottumukkala, the acting head and senior political official at the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), uploaded sensitive government documents marked "for official use only" into a public version of ChatGPT last summer, triggering internal security alarms at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

Although the documents were not classified, their exposure raised concerns because CISA oversees federal cyber defense. Officials reported that Gottumukkala had specifically requested and received special approval to use ChatGPT after joining CISA in May, even as DHS blocked the tool for most employees. Data uploaded to the public version of ChatGPT can be accessed by OpenAI and used to train future responses.

Senior DHS leaders launched an internal review following the August alerts. CISA later disputed parts of the reporting, stating Gottumukkala was granted permission under DHS controls and that his use was short-term and limited, ending in mid-July 2025 (a likely typo for 2024). The incident adds to recent turmoil at CISA, including Gottumukkala's failure of a requested counterintelligence polygraph and an unsuccessful attempt to remove the agency's CIO.

(Source：Interesting Engineering)