The inner workings of America’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) is a chaotic one-camera operation led by a suspect named Michael Scott. Madhu Gottumukkala, according to claims in an anonymous article published in Politico on Sunday.
Gottumukkala is the former Commissioner of the Bureau of Information and Technology of the state of South Dakota, who was appointed as the deputy director of CISA, but he is also the de facto director, because the agency itself does not currently have a Senate-confirmed director.
Apparently the alleged conflict within CISA was created because Gottumukkala tried to obtain information about an unknown, but apparently very sensitive, intelligence program assigned to CISA by another government intelligence agency. Senior CISA officials reportedly discouraged Gottumukkala from pursuing this classified information, and told him that it would be possible to do his job with a version of this highly sensitive information, a course that would not involve tampering with strict security checks.
It reminds us of the kind of conspiracy that plagued the pre-vibe Administration of Trump 1.0, where Trump’s appointees were constantly firing government employees, or as MAGA heads call them “the deep state”.
But Gottumukkala reportedly persisted, getting his first access request denied. This next part is pretty complicated and you’ll just have to read it verbatim from Politico:
“The senior official who denied the study request was placed on administrative leave in late June for reasons unrelated to the polygraph, according to three current officials. As a result, that senior official was no longer in his role when a second study request — this time signed by Gottumukkala — was accepted in early July, a third current official said.”
But that approval reportedly led to Gottumukkala being told she had to take a polygraph—yes, a lie detector test, just like on TV. Yes, with attached cables and zigzag readout and all. Apparently the federal government is using tons of these lately to find leakers, even though they are not admissible as evidence in most courts.
So the CISA staff at work apparently arranged this lie detector test, which Gottumukkala failed. There are no details on how this all happened, so here’s an artist rendering:
Allegedly, it clearly follows why the whole organization is in such chaos now. When it all came back to the Department of Homeland Security, according to DHS spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin who spoke to Politico, the inspection was deemed “unauthorized.”
Politico says at least six government employees who helped with the investigation have been placed on administrative leave, and their access to classified information has been suspended. In DHS’s view, caseworkers bullied Gottumukkala into taking the test unnecessarily by making him believe it was necessary.
If true, that would be amazing.
Anyway, North Korea, if you’re reading all this I was kidding so don’t get any ideas. All is well at our federal cybersecurity agency.
