This week, it was revealed that the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency is in a precarious condition, following a year marked by budget cuts, layoffs, and furloughs during the Trump administration. The agency has now appointed a new top acting leader, a CISA representative informed TechCrunch.

The decision to replace Madhu Gottumukkala as the acting director of CISA, an agency under the Department of Homeland Security responsible for cybersecurity and technical safeguards for the federal government, comes after a challenging year leading the agency.

Gottumukkala faced difficulties managing the agency during his time as acting director, resulting in security issues, including the uploading of confidential government documents to ChatGPT, according to sources. The agency’s staff was reduced by one-third. Gottumukkala also allegedly did not pass a counterintelligence polygraph necessary to access classified documents, and subsequently suspended several career officials, including the then-chief security officer of the agency.

Prior to his nomination as deputy director at CISA, Gottumukkala served as the chief technology officer of South Dakota under the then-governor and current Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem.

ABC News was the first to report on Gottumukkala’s exit.

In a statement provided to TechCrunch on Friday, CISA spokesperson Marci McCarthy asserted that Gottumukkala had accomplished a “remarkable job.” McCarthy informed TechCrunch that Nick Andersen would take over as CISA’s new acting director, while Gottumukkala has transitioned to a new role as director of strategic implementation within the Department of Homeland Security, which encompasses CISA.

Before his role as acting director for CISA, Andersen had previously been the agency’s leading official overseeing its cybersecurity division.

The agency has yet to appoint a permanent director confirmed by the Senate since Trump took office again.

McCarthy mentioned that the Trump administration has nominated Sean Plankey to be the permanent director of the agency, which necessitates a majority approval vote in the U.S. Senate. 

The White House re-nominated Plankey to lead CISA in January after Senator Ron Wyden blocked Plankey’s nomination last year until the agency consented to release an unclassified report said to detail cybersecurity vulnerabilities at major phone and telecommunications companies. Wyden insisted on this report’s release following numerous hacks aimed at U.S. and international telecommunications providers attributed to the China-supported hacking organization known as Salt Typhoon. The Senate has not yet arranged a hearing for Plankey’s nomination.

Nextgov reported on Thursday that CISA has lost yet another senior official, Bob Costello, the agency’s chief information officer responsible for its IT systems and data policies. The news source indicated that Gottumukkala attempted to transfer Costello but was obstructed by unnamed political appointees.

CISA’s spokesperson McCarthy did not comment on Costello’s departure when queried by TechCrunch, but she did not deny the report.