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...

NEW: DHS is pushing ahead in building a searchable national citizenship system it wants to use to go through voter rolls. Over 46 million voters have been run through the checks already. www.nextgov.com/digital-gove...

With the House coming back into session, the House Budget Committee has scheduled a hearing for next week — on oversight of the recently hacked Congressional Budget Office. Expect the intrusion to a top subject of conversation: budget.house.gov/hearing/over...

CISA's stakeholder engagement division hasn't sent updates about the F5 intrusion in the last week, an industry source tells me. and following RIF notices this month, the division is expected to host a town hall Thursday to discuss those cuts. new from me: www.axios.com/2025/10/21/f...

I know this stuff isn't surprising anymore but I really can't stress enough how much everybody involved with CISA and cyber tried to keep the field nonpolitical and nonpartisan before this administration.

"We’re a little bit more on our own": State and local cybersecurity officials band together as the Trump administration turns its back on them. Nice story by @maggiemiller.bsky.social: subscriber.politicopro.com/article/2025...

EXCLUSIVE: Trump is expected to nominate Lt. Gen. William Hartman, the acting leader of both the NSA and U.S. Cyber Command, to formally lead both agencies.

BREAKING: Social Security Administration chief data officer and whistle-blower Charles Borges has resigned after bombshell report that SSA put highly-sensitive data at risk. He sent out an email to colleagues moments ago. Here is the text of his email shared with me:

Scoop for Pros: Laurie Buckhout, acting assistant secretary of Defense for cyber policy, is stepping down from the role next week ahead of moving to another position in the Trump administration: subscriber.politicopro.com/article/2025...

First in Politico: @wyden.senate.gov is calling on the Supreme Court to commission an independent review to examine both the recent massive breach of federal court systems, and into a similar breach dating back to 2020. More here for Pros: subscriber.politicopro.com/article/2025...

With @jsaks.bsky.social: Joe Francescon, former DOD and NSC official under the first Trump administration, has been picked as the next deputy director of the NSA: www.politico.com/news/2025/08...

New for Pros: Networks of at least seven federal agencies were breached stemming from the Microsoft SharePoint vulnerability disclosed last month, according to two individuals familiar with the matter. Microsoft has blamed Chinese hackers for the breach. subscriber.politicopro.com/article/2025...

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.

With @jsaks.bsky.social: While the federal judiciary is adopting new security measures, sources told us relevant committees on the Hill were briefed on the breach last month. One source briefed said the new incident is tied to a data breach of the federal courts dating back to 2020.

A new group of former government officials is designing a hypothetical U.S. Cyber Force, @martinmatishak.bsky.social reports, even as a congressionally chartered study continues to evaluate whether one should exist. therecord.media/panel-to-cre...

NEW: Trump's One Big Beautiful bill earmarked $1,000,000,000 (yep, a billion) over 4 years for "offensive cyber operations" for the Department of Defense. It's unclear exactly what that means, but could include zero-days, spyware, implants, infrastructure, etc. techcrunch.com/2025/07/14/t...

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