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...
A key issue tucked away in the budget summary: CISA’s stakeholder engagement efforts — including work with international partners — would be eliminated under the proposal. It’s something CISA has been quietly preparing for.
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.”
And for Pros: The assessment found that China remains the main threat to the U.S. in cyberspace, though that nation’s hacking operations were not mentioned in either the White House National Cyber Strategy or National Security Strategy: subscriber.politicopro.com/article/2026...
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...
Full story on the strategy, with @jsaks.bsky.social and Dana Nickel, out now: www.politico.com/news/2026/03...
One notable point in the strategy - which as expected is highly focused on cyber offensive measures - is an acknowledgement of U.S. cyber capabilities being used in strikes in Venezuela and Iran
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
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.
The proposal also includes $2.6 billion for CISA’s FY26 budget, lower than the $2.9 billion it previously received, and requirements for CISA to fund the Election Infrastructure ISAC and to hire staffers to “critical positions” on vulnerability management, threat hunting and other security programs
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...
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...
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.
