Trump Signs Memorandum Revoking Security Clearance of Former CISA Director Chris Krebs President Donald Trump today signed a Presidential Memorandum today revoking any active security clearance currently held by Chris Krebs, the former director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, who famously rumbled publicly with Trump over the latter's false allegations of election fraud during and after the 2020
Did Trump Admin Order U.S. Cyber Command and CISA to Stand Down on Russia? (Story updated) Two blockbuster stories published on Friday that appear to confirm what many Americans suspected would occur under the Trump administration – that the new regime is going to be softer on Russia than previous administrations, particularly with regard to the threat that Russia poses in cyber space. Since publication, however, one
DOGE Court Documents Shed New Light on DOGE Access and Activity at Treasury Department New court documents shed light on what a 25-year-old DOGE worker named Marko Elez did inside Treasury Department payment systems, including what Treasury staff did to limit his access. The documents indicate that the situation is more nuanced than previously reported.
U.S. Government Disclosed 39 Zero-Day Vulnerabilities in 2023, Per First-Ever Report What the government didn't reveal is how many zero days it discovered in 2023 that it kept to exploit rather than disclose. Whatever that number, it likely will increase under the Trump administration, which has vowed to ramp up government hacking operations. In a first-of-its-kind report, the US
Anatomy of a Nuclear Scare How fake radiation readings in New York and New Jersey, coupled with a mysterious drone swarm, fueled a nuclear scare and became a harbinger for things to come The ongoing mystery around a New Jersey drone swarm ignited a number of theories last month about who owned the drones and
Voting Machine Company Involved in Bribing Scandal Has Long History of Controversy Last week the U.S. Justice Department charged three current and former executives of a U.S.-founded voting machine company with paying bribes to win lucrative election contracts in the Philippines. Roger Piñate, a Venezuelan citizen and president and co-founder of Smartmatic, a voting machine vendor founded in Boca
Kaspersky Lab Closing U.S. Division; Laying Off Workers Russian cybersecurity firm, Kaspersky Lab, has told workers in its U.S.-based division that they are being laid off this week and that it is closing its U.S. business, according to several sources. The sudden move comes after the U.S. Commerce Department announced last month that it
New Government Ban on Kaspersky Would Prevent Company from Updating Malware Signatures in U.S. The U.S. government has expanded its ban on Kaspersky software in a new move aimed at getting consumers and critical infrastructure to stop using the Russian company’s software products, citing national security concerns. The ban, using new powers granted to the U.S. Commerce Department, would prohibit the
Apple Chip Flaw Lets Hackers Steal Encryption Keys A group of researchers has found a serious security vulnerability in Apple’s M-series of chips that would allow attackers to steal secret keys from Mac and iPad devices. The problem affects Apple M1, M2 and M3 chips — which have been used in Apple desktops, notebooks and tablets since late
Zero Day Moves to Ghost Hi Everyone, This is an update and announcement to let you know that I've moved Zero Day from Substack to Ghost. The migration took a couple of months to complete, and I still have some design tweaks I need to do to the new site and some kinks
Nevada AG Asks Court to Ban Meta from Providing End-to-End Encryption to Minors Nevada's attorney general filed a motion this week to prevent Meta from providing end-to-end encryption to users under eighteen who reside in his state. The request is intended to combat predators who target minors for sexual exploitation and other criminal purposes, the AG states, and to allow law
Newsletter European Standards Body Votes to Release Secret Algorithms After hit with criticism earlier this year for keeping its encryption algorithms secret, the European standards body behind the TETRA algorithms has decided to open them to the public for scrutiny.
Newsletter Sophisticated StripedFly Spy Platform Masqueraded for Years as Crypto Miner Malware discovered in 2017 was long classified as a crypto miner. But researchers at Kaspersky Lab say it's actually part of a sophisticated spy platform that has infected more than a million victims.
Newsletter How North Korean Workers Tricked U.S. Companies into Hiring Them and Secretly Funneled Their Earnings into Weapons Programs Thousands of IT workers allegedly working on behalf of North Korea managed to trick U.S. companies into hiring them as remote developers — then used the money to help finance North Korean weapons.
Newsletter Standards Body Considers Uncloaking Secret Encryption Algorithms The European standards body that created secret encryption algorithms for use in TETRA radio communications is weighing whether to make new algorithms public, following backlash over its secrecy.
Newsletter Did a Journalist Violate Hacking Law to Leak Fox News Clips? The Government Thinks He Did. But attorneys for Timothy Burke say a raid on his home and office exhibit government over-reach and misuse of the federal hacking law, and raises First Amendment issues.
Newsletter Radiation Spikes at Chernobyl: A Mystery Few Seem Interested in Solving Ever since radiation sensors at the Chernobyl nuclear plant spiked dramatically following the Russian invasion, there have been questions about what caused the spikes. Now the mystery deepens.
Newsletter Interview with the ETSI Standards Organization That Created TETRA "Backdoor" Brian Murgatroyd spoke with me about why his standards group weakened an encryption algorithm used to secure critical radio communications of police, military, critical infrastructure and others.
Newsletter SEC Targets SolarWinds' CISO for Rare Legal Action Over Russian Hack In a highly rare move, the SEC sent notice to SolarWinds' CISO, and other specific employees, indicating they may face legal action over Russia's hack of their company.
Newsletter Updates and Timeline for 3CX and X_Trader Hacks Mandiant revealed this week that the hack of 3CX was actually a double supply-chain hack that first involved hacking and compromising another company's software. Here's a timeline of the events.
Newsletter Software Maker 3CX Was Compromised in First-of-its-Kind Threaded Supply-Chain Hack - Updated Hackers first compromised a different software maker and embedded malware in one of its programs. 3CX got compromised when a worker downloaded that program. It's not known why worker downloaded it.
Newsletter Leaked Pentagon Document Claims Russian Hacktivists Breached Canadian Gas Pipeline Company The document, part of a cache of leaks recently circulated on the internet, suggests the hackers had the ability to cause an explosion and sought instruction from the FSB.
Newsletter Hello and an Update I’ve been meaning to send an email to all of you for a while to fill you in on what I’ve been working on and to assure you that I haven’t abandoned Zero Day. I’ve been working on a number of projects that have been taking
