US security chief uploaded sensitive data to ChatGPT, report

Trump appointee sets alarm bells ringing

Acting US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency director, Madhu Gottumukkala uploaded documents marked “for official use only” to ChatGPT.

That’s according to a report by Politico, which says Gottumukkala’s actions in August triggered multiple security alerts at CISA and the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

Gottumukkala was appointed to the position of deputy director of CISA in April 2025 by secretary of homeland security Kristi Noem. He became acting director a month later following the resignations of several of the agency’s senior staff.

Last week it was reported that he tried to oust CISA’s CIO, Robert Costello.

His uploading of sensitive information to the public version of the AI chatbot is not Gottumukkala’s first brush with controversy. In July 2025 he applied for access to a restricted programme, which required a polygraph test. Gottumukkala failed the test and subsequently suspended the staff who had organised it.

CISA’s director of public affairs Marci McCarthy said Gottumukkala “was granted permission to use ChatGPT with DHS controls in place,” and that “this use was short-term and limited”. She disputed the reported timeline, saying the uploads occurred in July rather than August, as reported.

Sources told Politico that the files that Gottumukkala uploaded to ChatGPT were related to contracts and were sensitive, meaning not for public release, rather than classified.

Any information uploaded to ChatGPT can be used by OpenAI to train its models and can thus find its way into the public domain. A recent study found that ChatGPT rival Claude 3.7 Sonnet could regurgitate more than 95.8% of the book Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone when issued with a particular prompt.

Commenting on Gottumukkala’s actions, Max Vetter, VP of cyber at Immersive, said: “As AI tools become embedded in daily work, employees at all levels need a clear understanding of how these AI systems operate and what data must never be shared with public platforms.”