“Officials said the anonymous communications network, which included more than 100,000 SIM cards and 300 servers, could interfere with emergency response services and could be used to conduct encrypted communication.” www.nytimes.com/2025/09/23/u...

“A cyberattack targeting check-in and boarding systems has disrupted air traffic and caused delays at several of Europe’s major airports, officials said Saturday.” —> apnews.com/article/euro...

"At stake is something much more fundamental: whether America will continue to have an intelligence community free to 'speak truth to power,' or whether political pressure will blind us to the very real threats our nation faces," Warner said in prepared remarks for this speech: x.com/MarkWarner/s...

New: Top CISA official said the agency is prepared to accept any extension Congress authorizes for a fundamental cybersecurity threat intelligence-sharing law, which is set to expire Sept. 30 unless renewed.⬇️

Here is the New York Times from September 11, 2001, already old news by the time I picked it up from my doorstep. I’ve never been able to open it up or throw it out.

interesting— new sanctions on cyber scam centers in Myannmar www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

Great scoop from @martinmatishak.bsky.social: The Trump administration has abandoned any intention of breaking up the joint leadership of U.S. Cyber Command and the National Security Agency, bowing to the reality of the enormous complexity of the task.

Exclusive: Researchers believe a suspected Chinese intelligence operation has tried to recruit former U.S. federal employees and public policy experts through fake websites and job postings⬇️

This is why the delivery drivers who used to hang out on 14th Street are gone. This is why DC citizen groups are telling people to stop ordering deliveries. Trump’s Takeover of DC: Traffic Stops Turn Into Immigration Arrests for Delivery Riders and Workers www.bellingcat.com/news/2025/09...

New: FEMA has made several security changes following a recent intrusion that led DHS Secretary Noem to fire 24 of its IT officials late last month. Various internet and application security holes may have led to the breach.⬇️

The House Homeland Security Committee on Wednesday approved a measure that would renew a cornerstone cybersecurity law designed to optimize the exchange of cyber threat information between the private sector and U.S. government. www.nextgov.com/cybersecurit...

The House Homeland bill to renew the 2015 Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act has been dubbed the Widespread Information Management for the Welfare of Infrastructure and Government Act, or WIMWIG: www.govinfo.gov/app/details/...

FCC investigation could derail its own IoT security certification program www.cybersecuritydive.com/news/fcc-cyb...

The Secret Service has 73% fewer counter snipers on staff than it operationally requires, according to a new internal report, which found the shortfalls are leaving the nation’s most senior leaders vulnerable to assassination. buff.ly/VpUJz38

House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Andrew Garbarino responds to the FEMA firings:

NEW: Noem terminates 24 FEMA IT staffers after a review found security lapses that let hackers get inside. An internal email I obtained ordered all agency employees to change their passwords “due to recent cybersecurity incidents and threats.” www.nextgov.com/people/2025/...

Scoop: CISA’s legislative affairs chief is departing after 3 months on the job. The move is voluntary. She “remains dedicated to the critical infrastructure mission and supports the president’s agenda and the administration,” a U.S. official told me. www.nextgov.com/people/2025/...

"Eight men have been accused of hacking into over 7,500 gig workers’ accounts at Instacart and Target-owned Shipt to defraud the companies of as much as $30 million" www.forbes.com/sites/thomas...

CYBERWARCON is coming!!! Registration and CFP are now open for this year's #CYBERWARCON! This year's keynote speaker will be @dmitri.silverado.org!! We are back in Arlington, VA this year on November 19th. www.cyberwarcon.com

🇳🇱🇨🇳💻🕵️ New: The Netherlands announced on Thursday that it had been targeted by a Chinese cyber-espionage campaign tracked as Salt Typhoon and RedMike that has been compromising critical infrastructure globally.

70 years ago, on this date, Emmett Till was kidnapped and brutally murdered by white men. His family, including his cousin who was with him at the time, is repeating the train ride he took from Chicago to Mississippi in 1955 to mark the anniversary

The children who survived the shooting at Annunciation Catholic School in Minneapolis on Wednesday are now part of a group that numbers nearly 400,000: America’s children who have been exposed to gun violence at school.

One of the CIA’s senior-most Russia experts was due to take up a prestigious assignment in Europe approved by CIA Director John Ratcliffe. Instead, her security clearance was summarily revoked.

Update: The package maintainer got back to me. “Nobody has ever asked me to manipulate fast-glob, introduce hidden changes to the project, or collect and share system data. I believe that open source is built on trust and diversity,” he wrote.

Google previews cyber ‘disruption unit’ as U.S. government, industry weigh going heavier on offense, via @timstarks.bsky.social @ CyberScoop: cyberscoop.com/google-cyber...

More evidence that open-source software dependencies are a serious problem: An employee of Russia's Yandex search engine is singlehandedly responsible for maintaining a package that's included in a U.S. military database of vetted software components. www.nextgov.com/cybersecurit...

A Russia-based Yandex employee is the sole maintainer of a widely used open-source tool embedded in at least 30 pre-built software packages in the Department of Defense.

Exclusive: A Russia-based Yandex employee is the sole maintainer of a widely used open-source tool embedded in at least 30 pre-built software packages in DOD. ⬇️

apnews.com/article/heat... who has distorted voter data appointed to Homeland Security election integrity role

NEW: Trump appointee Thomas Shedd is on a "leave of absence" from Tesla while working for the govt. He was until recently overseeing all tech and data at the Labor Dept and still works at the General Services Administration. "It's a mess," one ethics expert told me. 👇

NEW: The Social Security Administration's chief data officer has blown the whistle, saying Trump's DOGE team uploaded a database containing the hundreds of millions of Social Security records of most Americans to an AWS cloud server, allegedly without proper access controls or monitoring in place.

From the complaint: (…) “the government may be responsible for reissuing every American a new Social Security number at great cost.”

I'm back after much needed time off. As always, you can reach me at [email protected] or Signal @ djd.99

Had a blast at Black Hat and DEF CON. Taking some much needed time off and will be back in a couple of weeks.

Scoop: The State Department is abruptly terminating its big cyber-defense contract with Peraton, the main cyber contractor for State's Bureau of Diplomatic Security. State plans to re-award the contract to GDIT, per two people familiar with the matter.

At DEF CON —> In pitch to hacker community, Trump’s NSC cyber lead says AI key to future of cyberdefense www.nextgov.com/cybersecurit...

At DEF CON in Las Vegas - DARPA unveils winners of AI challenge to boost critical infrastructure cybersecurity: www.nextgov.com/cybersecurit...

LAS VEGAS — Two Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency officials committed to supporting the MITRE-backed Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures Program, just months after it faced a near complete lapse in funding. www.nextgov.com/cybersecurit...

Las Vegas -- Some 80% of the defense industrial base are actually small firms, according to the NSA’s head of DIB security, who has helped over 200 providers identify thousands of vulnerabilities in their systems: www.nextgov.com/cybersecurit...

Here is the emergency directive

Very, very bad: A hack of the federal judiciary's case filing system may have "compromised the identities of confidential informants involved in criminal cases at multiple federal district courts." www.politico.com/news/2025/08...

A person familiar with the matter confirms that CISA will be publishing an emergency directive to agencies tomorrow that requires them to patch this vulnerability.

NEW: The Microsoft Exchange vulnerability disclosed tonight coincided with a talk delivered at Black Hat, where a security researcher demoed the exploitation. Federal systems are exposed and an emergency directive is planned tomorrow, I’m told: www.nextgov.com/cybersecurit...

CISA & Microsoft just announced another serious Microsoft Exchange vulnerability. www.cisa.gov/news-events/... techcommunity.microsoft.com/blog/exchang... Attackers with admin access to on-prem server could escalate privileges & compromise cloud service. MSFT says no exploitation observed yet.

LAS VEGAS — Federal CISO Mike Duffy sent a clear message to the cyber community on Wednesday: When you find solutions to cyber problems, tell the rest of the ecosystem about them so they can be quickly scaled. www.nextgov.com/cybersecurit...

Black Hat highlight: seeing my dad!

New SecurityScorecard research shows Iran’s expansive cyber offensive during ‘12-Day War’ with Israel: www.nextgov.com/cybersecurit...

NEW: A hacker tricked a Cisco representative with a voice phishing attack and got access to Cisco[.]com customers' information, including names, organization names, addresses, email addresses, and phone numbers. Cisco is not saying how many people were affected. techcrunch.com/2025/08/05/h...

NEW: CISA acting director Madhu Gottumukkala is no longer coming to Black Hat due to a personal matter. Executive Assistant Director for Cybersecurity Chris Butera and CIO Bob Costello will be there instead. Full statement from CISA below:

Rare insight into how the North Korean IT worker scam works, from a North Korean IT worker directly. This is wonderful reporting from Beth Godwin and Julie Yoonnyung Lee at BBC (h/t @zackwhittaker.com for the link)