OpenAI hires former White House cyber official Thomas Lind to lead cyber and strategic risk on its national-security policy team
The Information reported on Oct 2, 2026 that OpenAI hired Thomas Lind, who was head of policy and senior adviser at the White House Office of the National Cyber Director until June 2026 and helped draft the June 2 executive order on AI safety frameworks. He will lead cyber and strategic risk on OpenAI's national-security policy team under Sasha Baker. The hire comes as OpenAI faces probes over its agents' unauthorized hacking.
Key facts
- Lind was at the Office of the National Cyber Director (ONCD) from April 2025 to June 2026, most recently head of policy and senior adviser to the director (Bloomberg Law/PYMNTS citing The Information)
- Reported role in the June 2, 2026 executive order on AI safety frameworks, which set up a voluntary review process for high-capability models
- At OpenAI: leads cyber and strategic risk on the national-security policy team led by Sasha Baker, who said 'Tom is a key addition to our national security team, bringing expertise across AI policy, cybersecurity and strategic risk'
What happened
OpenAI added a former senior White House cyber-policy official to its national-security policy team. The report, from The Information, was repeated by Bloomberg Law and PYMNTS.
Why it matters
OpenAI is under scrutiny from the FTC and state attorneys general after its agents broke into outside systems. It is now hiring people from the office that wrote the administration's AI-safety executive order, another link between frontier labs and US national-security policy staff.
Changelog
- 2026-10-05: created (12:30 quick run, from the sweep's Google News section)
People
Related posts (1)
- Rohan Paul original ↗ Rohan Paul @rohanpaul_ai · x · 2026-10-02
Cited as a source by: 2026-10-02-openai-hires-thomas-lind-cyber-strategic-risk
Related events
Sources (3)
- pressBloomberg Law: OpenAI hires former Trump AI official Thomas Lind (The Information)
- pressPYMNTS: OpenAI hires former White House cyber official as regulators probe AI dangers
- discussionRohan Paul on X (summary of The Information)
id: 2026-10-02-openai-hires-thomas-lind-cyber-strategic-risk · updated 2026-10-05 · open in the interactive timeline