In a surprising and troubling incident, sensitive government documents — including floor plans of the White House — were mistakenly shared with over 11,000 federal workers.
Accidental Exposure of Critical Information
These documents, which included building layouts and details about security features, were stored in a Google Drive folder that was accidentally made accessible to every employee at the General Services Administration (GSA).
The GSA is a federal agency that helps manage government buildings and supports other agencies with tools and services. The mistake happened when someone changed the settings on the Google Drive folder, making it visible and editable to all GSA staff. These files were not meant to be widely available, and some of them contained information that should have been kept private for safety reasons.
Among the documents was a proposed design for a blast door at the White House Visitor Center, banking information for a vendor that worked during the Trump administration, and building details for a courthouse. These types of details can be dangerous if they fall into the wrong hands, even if they are not officially labeled as classified.
Years of Mistakes Across Administrations
The records show that this wasn’t a one-time mistake. The improper sharing of these files started in early 2021 and went on for several years, crossing both the Biden and Trump administrations.
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One of the earliest incidents was in March 2021, when a GSA employee accidentally shared blueprints of the East Wing of the White House. This area includes the visitors’ entrance and offices for the First Lady. Later that same year, in December, the same employee shared a similar document about the West Wing. The West Wing is where the President’s office, the Situation Room, and other critical rooms are located.
Both times, the documents were made editable and viewable by anyone in the agency. That means any of the 11,200+ employees could have changed or downloaded the documents. These files remained open for years before someone noticed.
Security experts explained that floor plans of public parts of the White House might not be classified. But if the documents included hidden security features or secret rooms, they should have been protected under special rules. While the files were not marked “classified,” nine of the 15 were labeled “CUI,” which stands for Controlled Unclassified Information. This means they are not secret but still sensitive and meant to be protected.
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Over time, other documents were added to the shared folder. Some were technical reports and drawings, and at least two were marked CUI. One even contained private banking information. This means that people who had no reason to see this data had full access to it.
Discovery and Response
The sharing of these documents was finally discovered during a routine check of how GSA uses Google Drive. The GSA’s Office of Inspector General, which checks for mistakes and problems inside the agency, found out about the issue last week.
They immediately reported it to the agency’s IT security team. This team is responsible for stopping data leaks and protecting sensitive files. By Thursday, they had identified who owned the files and fixed the problem. The documents were no longer accessible to everyone at the agency.
Interestingly, the IT team tried to reach the person who shared the files to ask about the mistake but received no response. This raised more concerns about how such errors happen and whether people are paying close enough attention to digital safety.
A longtime GSA employee explained that the agency uses special software to scan files and find sharing problems. They also have required yearly training for all workers to teach them how to protect sensitive information. Still, even with these tools and rules, mistakes continue to happen.
