Mullin also pledged that CISA would hire “about 600 people” to help it rebuild — a year after around a third of its employees were either laid off or departed. More for Pros here: subscriber.politicopro.com/article/2026...

👀: DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin testified to the House Appropriations panel today that President Trump has “already met” with an unnamed nominee to serve as CISA director. Mullin said he plans to work with “him” to build CISA back up.

NEW in MC: Russian authorities used software from Israeli company Cellebrite to steal data from the phone of Andrei Pivovarov - leader of a Russian opposition group - while in custody. The catch? Russia wasn’t supposed to have access to these products. subscriber.politicopro.com/newsletter/2...

ICYMI: CISA has strengthened the security of internal networks after the discovery last month that login credentials and other sensitive info was left exposed on a GitHub repository. More in today’s Morning Cybersecurity: subscriber.politicopro.com/newsletter/2...

I'm at @istorg.bsky.social's #CriticalEffectDC event today. Looking forward to some good sessions on OT cybersecurity — and, of course, talking to Paul Roberts, @snlyngaas.bsky.social, @kimzetter.bsky.social, and @maggiemiller.bsky.social during our panel about covering this era of cyber threats.

New: DHS employees were told today that the new White House app — which lists Trump administration speeches, livestreams and other actions — will soon be automatically installed on their government mobile devices. More with @jsaks.bsky.social for Pros: subscriber.politicopro.com/article/2026...

House Homeland Security Committee Chair Andrew Garbarino just said at the Homeland Security and Defense Forum that he’s heard “there’s a nominee on the president’s desk” to lead CISA. Comes a week after DHS Secretary Mullin testified to Garbarino’s panel that a director nom would soon be announced.

🚀 Don’t miss this #CriticalEffectDC session! Journalists Paul Roberts, @snlyngaas.bsky.social, @kimzetter.bsky.social, @ericjgeller.com & @maggiemiller.bsky.social join our annual press panel to share their perspectives on the narratives surrounding digital typhoons. ➡️ Register now: bit.ly/49n0jyo

Anthropic released “Mythos-class” Fable 5 for general use today, and separately rolled out Mythos 5 for a select group of agencies and cyber firms. Anthropic said Mythos 5 has “the strongest cybersecurity capabilities of any model in the world.” More w/ Dana Nickel: www.politico.com/news/2026/06...

In today’s Morning Cyber: New Zealand’s cyber agency is among the international gov agencies recently given access to Anthropic’s Mythos AI model, and Australia is also testing out the tool. Both countries are members of the Five Eyes intel sharing alliance.

A draft of a major bipartisan AI bill, set to be unveiled later today, includes a clause that would renew the CISA 2015 law - crucial for private sector companies sharing threat data with Feds - through 2035. Read more from my colleagues here: www.politico.com/news/2026/06...

Several secretaries of state tell Bloomberg that intelligence agencies are no longer briefing them on election security threats, with one also saying that CISA has stopped conducting some security tests for states. www.bloomberg.com/news/newslet...

Anthropic expands Mythos access to 150 new orgs, up from the original 50 www.anthropic.com/news/expandi...

Details: Establishes process for frontier companies to voluntarily submit AI models for federal testing 30 days before release; establishes federal AI cyber clearinghouse to track vulnerabilities discovered by AI models; and tasks CISA, NCD, OMB with finding federal AI funds.

New: Democrats on the House Homeland Security Committee are pressing DHS Secretary Mullin for details on CISA’s election security efforts - paused last year - with the midterms fast approaching: subscriber.politicopro.com/article/2026...

Russian hackers are shifting their tactics from destructive cyberattacks to quieter espionage schemes aimed at Ukrainian defense efforts, as the war drags into a fifth year. More at the top of today’s NatSec Daily: www.politico.com/newsletters/...

ICYMI over the long weekend: Researchers with early access to Anthropic’s Mythos and OpenAI’s GPT-5.5 say these models’ hacking abilities are “more” than expected — and warned that defenders are running out of time to secure networks. With my colleague Aaron Mak: www.politico.com/news/2026/05...

Latest on DNI Tulsi Gabbard’s resignation with @jsaks.bsky.social and Daniella Cheslow: www.politico.com/news/2026/05...

The latest on the Trump administration’s efforts to name a new nominee to lead CISA. Reporting with @jsaks.bsky.social in today’s Morning Cybersecurity newsletter: subscriber.politicopro.com/newsletter/2...

New: Tom Parker, a security services lead at IBM, has emerged as a potential contender to lead CISA after the most recent nominee withdrew himself from consideration for the role, five people familiar tell me: www.nextgov.com/people/2026/...

For Pros: Adam Cassady, President Trump’s pick to serve as the nation’s next cyber ambassador, was approved by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Thursday by a vote of 17-5. subscriber.politicopro.com/article/2026...

Greg Hogan—associated with DOGE—is now in charge of the government’s identity proofing system, Login .gov, which has over 150 million users. www.nextgov.com/digital-gove...

With my colleague Dana Nickel: Iranian hackers are going after US energy and water facilities through exploiting a vulnerability in industrial control equipment, a coalition of federal agencies warned today: subscriber.politicopro.com/article/2026...

ICYMI: The White House’s proposed FY27 budget would slash CISA’s budget by $700 million — and it also adjusts funds for the Office of the National Cyber Director ($3 million less) and the Energy Dept’s cyber office (+$10million). More here for Pros: subscriber.politicopro.com/article/2026...

Days after strikes on Iran began, President Trump nominated a new U.S. cyber ambassador — and many in Washington missed the news. In today’s Morning Cybersecurity, I looked at Adam Cassady, and why his background at the NTIA could help him in the role. subscriber.politicopro.com/newsletter/2...

The FBI in a statement just confirmed it is “aware of malicious actors targeting Director Patel’s personal email information,” and stressed that “the information in question is historical in nature and involves no government information.”

With my colleague Jack Detsch: China will not attack Taiwan in 2027, and the U.S. homeland is at risk of missile attacks from countries including Iran and Pakistan, two of the takeaways from the ODNI’s new threats assessment: www.politico.com/news/2026/03...

"End-to-end encrypted messaging on Instagram will no longer be supported after May 8, 2026." 🫥 help.instagram.com/491565145294...

The White House just released a new National Cyber Strategy, at the end of a very slow news week: www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/u...

The Israeli IDF today claimed to have bombed the cyber and electronic warfare headquarters of the Iranian IRGC in Tehran. Experts are skeptical that this will do much to dampen the threat Iranian hackers pose to the U.S., Israel, and Gulf nations: www.politico.com/news/2026/03...

From today’s Morning Cyber: The White House’s Homeland Security Council held a call with leaders from critical infrastructure groups yesterday to ask them to report info on Iranian cyber threats, while also stressing that no major attacks had occurred: subscriber.politicopro.com/newsletter/2...

NSO Group has spent at least $7.6 million to lobby in Washington D.C., according @vaspanagiotopoulos.com. And it's gonna continue to pressure the U.S. government to get removed from the blocklist it was put on in 2021, in an attempt to get into the U.S. market.

ICYMI this morning: Gen. Dan Caine, chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said that US Cyber Command and Space Command disrupted coms in Iran as part of the initial strike. Caine said this limited the Iranian government’s efforts to respond to the strikes. x.com/magmill95/st...

ICYMI over the weekend: A deep dive into the connections Jeffrey Epstein had with the hacking community

Epstein/hackers overlap, again www.reddit.com/r/Defcon/com...

The Winter Olympics opening ceremony takes place today, with the world’s eyes on the athletes. Behind the scenes, cyber experts from Italy, the US and other nations are watching closely to ensure hacking efforts don’t spoil the show. My new piece: www.politico.com/news/2026/02...

"A cloak-and-dagger mystery reminiscent of a John le Carré novel is swirling around the complaint, which is said to be locked in a safe. Disclosure of its contents could cause 'grave damage to national security,' one official said." www.wsj.com/politics/nat...

Tidbit in today’s Morning Cyber newsletter (for Pros): The Pentagon is in the early stages of working on a new agency-focused cybersecurity strategy, separate from the anticipated national cyber strategy still to come from the White House: subscriber.politicopro.com/newsletter/2...

Five months after the Trump administration ousted Lt. Gen. Jeffrey Kruse from the role of director at the Defense Intelligence Agency, Defense Secretary Hegseth today appointed Lt. Gen. James Allen to the role.

ICYMI: This morning, House and Senate lawmakers unveiled a DHS funding proposal that includes extensions of CISA 2015 and the State and Local Cyber Grant Program through Sept. 30. Read more for Pros here: subscriber.politicopro.com/article/2026...

South Dakota SCIF plan puzzles DHS, CISA officials

New: DOGE staff cuts gutted the Pentagon's IT office so hard it didn't have enough personnel to buy software it needed to operate theintercept.com/2026/01/19/d...

Scoop: Top Trump cyber officials are in discussions to cancel their attendance at the RSAC Conference in March after a top Biden-era cyber leader was named as CEO of the conference ⬇️

UL, company overseeing FCC's Cyber Trust Mark IoT labeling program, has withdrawn amid an FCC probe into UL's China ties: www.cybersecuritydive.com/news/fcc-cyb... Could be a big setback for the program, a Biden admin priority. I previewed this in Sept: www.cybersecuritydive.com/news/fcc-cyb...

Trump suggests US used cyberattacks to turn off lights in Venezuela during strikes

NEW: Trump said the U.S. will temporarily "run" Venezuela until a leadership transition takes place after the U.S. military captured Maduro.

During the press conference, President Trump said the “lights of Caracas were largely turned off due to a certain expertise that we have” during the strikes on Venezuela. Gen. Caine later noted that Cyber Command was among the US agencies involved in the strikes.

Took a deep dive into the main cyber angle of the Venezuela conflict in today’s National Security Daily: www.politico.com/newsletters/...

NEW: The Pentagon inspector general says Hegseth’s Signal use endangered U.S. troops and missions and the department still lacks a secure messaging platform.

A neutral arbiter agrees: @politico.com violated our contract and its own journalistic standards when it deployed AI. Our readers deserve news, not slop! wbng.org/2025/12/01/p...