On Rational Security, @sranderson.bsky.social, Kevin Frazier, @eugenia.bsky.social, and @petereharrell.bsky.social dive deep into the week’s national security news, including the spat bewteen the Trump administration and Colombia, a freeze of U.S. foreign assistance programs, and more.

Trump White House told the three Democratic-selected members of the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board to resign by tomorrow or be fired. Ousting them would paralyze the independent, bipartisan watchdog agency. www.nytimes.com/2025/01/22/u...

On Jan. 20, Donald Trump became the 47th president of the United States. In his first hours in office, President Trump announced a flurry of executive orders, which range from pardoning Jan. 6 defendants to declaring a national emergency at the border. Find summaries of national security EOs here:

Team @lawfare.bsky.social is tracking Trump's executive orders, with brief summaries of what they actually do (and don't do) here: www.lawfaremedia.org/article/docu...

On Lawfare Daily, @eugenia.bsky.social spoke to Kevin Frazier about recent disruptions to undersea cables, ongoing investigations, the challenges that weather, cooperation, and jurisdiction can present, and the plans in place to protect the cables from accidents and sabotage.

NEW: Biden this AM issued a cyber executive order teeing up work on software security, cloud, AI, fed network protection, digital identity, and more. It's partly a response to lessons learned from major hacks. My @wired.com story: www.wired.com/story/biden-... Read on for details... 🧵

Better idea: pass a comprehensive data privacy bill that applies across the board... and maybe *DON'T* mimic Chinese authoritarianism by creating a "Great Firewall" of apps that aren't allowed to operate here. You can actually fix things AND not abuse the 1st Amendment in one shot!

Meta has told employees that they're laying off 5 percent of staff on Feb. 10, sources tell me & @mikeisaac.bsky.social @sheeraf.bsky.social. Layoffs are coming after employees have pushed back on new content moderation rules.

The more I think about Mark Zuckerberg’s excuses for complying with Biden administration pressure to remove content, the angrier I get. (It was the media’s fault! Or maybe it was the woke Californians way down the reporting chain. Or was it “feminine energy”?) 1/

NEW: Some big breaking(ish) news in the ransomware world. Britain will propose on Tuesday a major overhaul of how the country responds to ransomware attacks, including by banning public sector bodies from making extortion payments and requiring all victims to report incidents to the government.

Meta is deleting links to Pixelfed, a decentralized, open source Instagram competitor that has had skyrocketing signups in recent days: www.404media.co/meta-is-bloc...

My favorite part of Zuckerberg's Joe Rogan interview is when he suggests there is not enough masculine energy at his company, where two out of every three employees is a man.

“Because the Democrats tend to be inept and incompetent in explaining reality to people, Rep. Jerry Nadler released the report on New Year’s Eve where it basically got zero attention.” JFC. I follow this issue obsessively and I didn’t even see this until now. www.techdirt.com/2025/01/10/c...

this whole thing smacks of gender

Well there you have it. In his Rogan Interview Zuck argues that the “billions of EU fines” against US companies “basically amount to tariffs”, and “you’d expect the USG to defend its companies” abroad moving forward. www.youtube.com/watch?v=7k1e...

Meta is making big changes to hiring practices, sources told me and @mikeisaac.bsky.social - no more teams devoted to Diversity, Equity and Inclusion - no diversity preference for working with outside minority owned supplier businesses - no goals for hiring women and minorities

New this morning: Meta has deleted public-facing nonbinary and trans Messenger themes that it originally launched for Pride month in 2021 and 2022 www.404media.co/meta-deletes...

On Lawfare Daily, @eugenia.bsky.social sat down with Winnona DeSombre Bernsen and Nina Alli to talk about their recent report on seven cybersecurity villages, the value they can bring to security research, and how policymakers can benefit from engaging with them.

not sure if u read it but www.theatlantic.com/technology/a...

It’s funny Zuck says “I started building social media to give people a voice” when in fact, he started building social media to publicly rate the hotness of undergrads.

Meta's policy changes should be denounced, not only because they are a disgraceful display of obedience to Trump but primarily because of how they will harm LGBT+, PoC, and other populations. But I hope some reflection is given on how defending and pushing for censorship paved the way for this.

I wrote angry today. danieldrezner.substack.com/p/farewell-t...

New: Meta says it is deleting those AI accounts. 404 Media confirmed that many of them being deleted at the moment www.404media.co/metas-ai-pro...

2024 was a long year—and we covered it all. Lawfare contributors looked back on the major events that occurred this year in the diverse range of the security landscape, from the Israel-Gaza War to AI to the Trump trials. It’s The Year That Was: 2024. www.lawfaremedia.org/resources/la...

On Lawfare Daily, @eugenia.bsky.social spoke to Susan Landau and @arozenshtein.bsky.social about the recent FBI/CISA recommendation that Americans use encrypted messaging apps following the compromise of telecom companies by Salt Typhoon and what it means for the “Going Dark” debate.

Hey there Rational Security listeners, we we are doing our traditional end-of-year episode where we discuss YOUR topics and object lessons! Send them to us at [email protected] or (202) 743-5831! Just get them in by COB on 12/18! #RationalSecurity @lawfare.bsky.social

New @amnesty.org tech report shows confiscated Serbian phones unlocked with #cellebrite technology and implanted with #spyware www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2... @joemenn.bsky.social reports

Lawfare’s end-of-year auction is live! Support our non-profit newsroom by bidding on photos and sketches created by the Lawfare trial coverage team. There’s even a piece of legal history up for grabs—an entry ticket to Trump’s criminal trial in New York. ⬇️ ⬇️ givebutter.com/c/trumptrial...

Does the new version of KOSA they're trying to cram at the last minute to the funding bill solve KOSA's first amendment problems? Ha ha no. Tell your Congressional Rep. you're not falling for this shit and neither should they. www.eff.org/deeplinks/20...

The protests in Georgia are about more than just accession to the EU- they are about the future of democracy in the country. Check out my podcast with a Georgian history professor to understand the stakes:

I asked eight cybersecurity and technology experts for their favorite tech-related novels and compiled them in this holiday reading list, adding 2 of my recent favorites. I would love to hear your recommendations as well!

"While everyone seems somewhat unhappy with the final result, a longer-term view of what the convention will allow hints at a victory for authoritarian tendencies." Karine Bannelier and @eugenia.bsky.social on the draft UN cybercrime treaty.

EXCLUSIVE: An analysis of 3.6 billion coordinates reveals the detailed movements of US military and intelligence workers, moving from nuclear bases to brothels, a WIRED analysis with Bayerischer Rundfunk and netzpolitik.org reveals.

CrowdStrike has identified a new China hacking group that's been targeting telecom networks since at least 2020. The group has primarily targeted networks in SE Asia and Africa — but it also have the ability to use their access to breach other networks. www.axios.com/2024/11/19/c...

👀 new propublica report details how Microsoft's $150M pledge in 2021 for free cyber assistance actually ended up deepening the federal agencies' reliance on the tech giant. provides a rare, concrete example of the "monoculture" problem DC talks so much about. www.propublica.org/article/micr...

I created a starter pack so that folks can find and follow Lawfare’s contributors. Our contributors include leading academics, practitioners, and journalists writing on issues related to national security, rule of law, cybersecurity, and more. If I missed anyone, lmk!👇 go.bsky.app/SAPgDYG

It's the "Steven Spielberg Does Not Need a Free Drink" Edition! On Rational Security, @sranderson.bsky.social sat down with @annabower.bsky.social, @eugenia.bsky.social, and @rparloff.bsky.social to discuss the week’s big national security news, including a UN convention on cybercrime:

On today's Lawfare Daily, @eugenia.bsky.social spoke to Jonathan Horowitz about how international humanitarian law can affect the private digital sector, the risks that tech companies can face when they provide services to a party in an armed conflict & what they should do to minimize those risks.

In the past few weeks, election rumors and disinformation have proliferated online. @qjurecic.bsky.social and @eugenia.bsky.social look at government efforts to combat foreign influence and the difficulties in responding to homegrown rumors.

On today's Lawfare Podcast, @eugenia.bsky.social talked to Ana Iparraguirre about Argentina's new president, Javier Milei, a self-described anarcho-capitalist libertarian, if and how he can deliver on his campaign promises to turn the economy around, and what this means for the Argentinian people.

Chinmayi Sharma, @eugenia.bsky.social, and @arozenshtein.bsky.social look at what the firing and rehiring of OpenAI’s Sam Altman says about current AI governance and what lessons would-be regulators can learn from it.

There is less than one week left to apply to be Lawfare’s *paid* spring intern. Find details on the job and instructions on how to apply here:

On today's Lawfare Podcast, Eugenia Lostri sat down with Ambassador Nathalie Jaarsma to discuss the tensions plaguing UN cyber negotiations, how diplomacy can help ensure accountability for malicious state behavior, and how to think about progress in the field.

Microsoft has attributed unauthorized access to the U.S. State Department's email services to a China-based threat actor. On today's Lawfare Podcast, Eugenia Lostri was joined by Asaf Lubin to discuss the significance of this cyber espionage campaign.

On today's Lawfare Podcast, Eugenia Lostri discussed the latest changes in the ransomware ecosystem and the impact the Russian invasion of Ukraine had on ransomware activity with Charl van der Walt. https://www.lawfaremedia.org/article/the-lawfare-podcast-charl-van-der-walt-on-cyber-extortion