David DiMolfetta
@ddimolfetta.bsky.social
Nextgov/FCW cybersecurity + intelligence reporter. Tips: ddimolfetta@govexec.com Signal: @ djd.99 X/Twitter: @ddimolfetta
White House will soon unveil a program designed to help protect water providers from cyberattacks, which comes as multiple states face hacking attempts on their water systems that some officials suspect may be tied to Iran. Confirming Politico: www.nextgov.com/cybersecurit...
White House to soon launch water provider cyber protection program
The plans come as several states face water system intrusions from what some official suspect could be linked to Iran.
nextgov.com
Exclusive: Five House Democrats are asking GAO to examine how staffing cuts at CISA have affected the government’s ability to defend federal networks and critical infrastructure, per letter first seen by us. www.nextgov.com/people/2026/...
House Democrats ask GAO to review CISA workforce cuts
Lawmakers want Congress’ watchdog to assess what capabilities were lost after the cyber agency shed roughly one-third of its staff.
nextgov.com
NEW -> Trump’s new plan to enlist private companies to disrupt cybercriminals abroad may face a fundamental problem when it comes to Russia: distinguishing criminal hackers and state-backed operatives, former officials + experts tell me. www.nextgov.com/cybersecurit...
The Russian hurdle in Trump’s new offensive cyber program
The White House wants private companies to help take down cybercriminals overseas. But in Russia, the line between criminal hackers and the government is difficult to draw.
nextgov.com
NEW —> Federal systems increasingly likely to face accidental AI breach after Hugging Face, experts say “If the same chain of events began again … there is little reason to assume a federal agency would be spared.” www.nextgov.com/cybersecurit...
Federal systems increasingly likely to face accidental AI breach after Hugging Face, experts say
Former officials and security experts say aged systems, contractors and agency AI adoption could open similar paths into government networks.
nextgov.com
NEW from DEF CON -> Mojave Research execs said plans to expand their federal election security work abruptly ended after learning Trump adviser Kurt Olsen pushed back when their Puerto Rico findings failed to substantiate election manipulation claims: www.nextgov.com/cybersecurit...
Voting machine researchers say federal work abruptly ended after Trump ally pushed back on their findings
Mojave Research executives said at DEF CON that the government had been preparing to expand the company’s election security work, and linked Trump adviser Kurt Olsen to pressure they faced after findi...
nextgov.com
President Donald Trump “has raised transnational criminal organizations with President Xi,” Assistant Secretary of State Michael DeSombre told senators therecord.media/trump-xi-sou...
State Department says Trump raised cyber scam compound issue with Xi
President Donald Trump has talked with Chinese President Xi Jinping about Southeast Asian scam compounds, a State Department official told senators at a hearing on the transnational issue.
therecord.media
NEW: Amid state water hacks, CISA is still finding water system controls exposed to the internet with no password or only default credentials, acting director Nick Andersen told me on sidelines of Black Hat conference today. www.nextgov.com/cybersecurit...
CISA still finds water system controls exposed online amid multistate hacks
The agency is working with the FBI to help victims but is not attributing the cyber intrusions to any group, acting director Nick Andersen told Nextgov/FCW.
nextgov.com
LAS VEGAS — The rise of autonomous AI systems capable of finding and exploiting software flaws is putting serious pressure on governments to treat cyberattacks as inevitable events rather than rare emergencies, Western officials said Wednesday. www.nextgov.com/cybersecurit...
AI advances are pushing governments to treat cyberattacks as routine, Western officials say
The remarks underscore a grim outlook for cyberdefenders showing that AI systems are able to exploit vulnerabilities faster than governments can patch them.
nextgov.com
NEW: Over the last few months, Meta has run dozens of paid ads that included AI-generated CSAM. The ads, some of which were linking out to “nudify” apps, targeted men in the US, UK, and a dozen European countries. Some were running in the last few days
Meta Ran Ads That Contained AI-Generated Child Sexual Abuse Imagery
More than 50 offending image and video ads were published across Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, or Threads, according to Meta’s ad library data. Some ran as recently as this week.
wired.com
Former NSA cyber director Rob Joyce says OpenAI-Hugging Face incident may be the "most consequential" hack since the Morris Worm from the 1980s. Latest dispatch from Black Hat in Vegas --> www.nextgov.com/cybersecurit...
Hugging Face AI breach is ‘most consequential hack’ since Morris Worm, former NSA cyber chief says
AI may let hackers exploit newly disclosed software flaws so quickly that organizations should weigh whether to immediately patch internet-connected devices, even at the risk of causing outages, Rob J...
nextgov.com
LAS VEGAS — The Trump admin wants US-built open-source AI to become a top technology of choice around the world, National Cyber Director Sean Cairncross said Tuesday at the Black Hat cyber conference. www.nextgov.com/artificial-i...
Top cyber official wants US open-source AI adopted worldwide
National Cyber Director Sean Cairncross’s remarks come as the White House has excluded open-weight models from voluntary security testing and as new hacking incidents underscored risks posed by autono...
nextgov.com
EXCLUSIVE: Years after regulators moved to push Chinese telecom carriers out of the US market, they never fully left. A bipartisan House investigation first seen by Nextgov/FCW found three major providers retained various ties in the US: www.nextgov.com/cybersecurit...
Chinese telecom firms kept footholds in US networks despite federal crackdowns, House probe finds
China Mobile, China Telecom and China Unicom retained equipment, data center space and network ties after FCC restrictions, including a China Mobile-linked network that appeared in routes to Salt Typh...
nextgov.com
Excited to moderate this discussion at Black Hat about the evolution of the CVE program with officials from CISA and the EU's cyber agency. For those in Vegas this week, I hope to see you there! blackhat.com/us-26/featur...
Internal documents show ICE's DNA collection has skyrocketed in the second Trump administration. Now, the genetic information of hundreds of thousands of people never convicted of a crime–including children–are held in an FBI criminal database forever.
ICE Collected Nearly 1 Million People’s DNA Last Year—Including Young Children
Internal documents show ICE's DNA collection has skyrocketed in the second Trump administration. Now hundreds of thousands of people never convicted of a crime are in an FBI criminal database forever.
wired.com
Jay Clayton has been sworn in as Trump’s second permanent spy chief, per readout from ODNI.
First in Nextgov/FCW -> Federal employees and contractors whose sensitive data was stolen in the massive OPM breach a decade ago would receive identity protection for the rest of their lives under new bicameral legislation being introduced today: www.nextgov.com/cybersecurit...
Lawmakers propose giving 2015 OPM breach victims identity protection for life
The federal government’s coverage for 22.1 million people hoovered up in the China-linked breaches is scheduled to end Sept. 30.
nextgov.com
Breaking via my colleague @seanthenewsboy.bsky.social - FedRAMP’s director has been put on leave after recently posting on personal social media that veterans’ preference in federal hiring is preventing his team from bringing on qualified tech-focused employees www.govexec.com/technology/2...
GSA official put on leave for social media post saying veterans’ preference in federal hiring is hampering tech recruiting
A government workforce expert told Government Executive that many hiring rules, including veterans’ preference, have become “procedural hurdles rather than achieving the intended outcome” because they...
govexec.com
Cool scoop from @martinmatishak.bsky.social on CyberCom's plans to build out some presence in Silicon Valley! therecord.media/cyber-comman...
Cyber Command plans Silicon Valley office to drive innovation
The outpost will have its own director, though no one has yet been named for the post, and support the command’s nascent Cyber Warfare Innovation Center (CIWC).
therecord.media
New: Federal CIO Greg Barbaccia will return to Palantir after leaving government at end of August. Two people familiar confirmed the move after head of GSA briefly mentioned it on stage at an event this week. w/ @crobles808.bsky.social + @notamazonalexa.bsky.social www.nextgov.com/people/2026/...
Greg Barbaccia to return to Palantir after leaving government
The federal CIO’s departure comes after a turbulent period for the federal technology workforce where thousands of technologists left the government.
nextgov.com
“If utilities are exposing programmable logic controllers to the public internet, and if the U.S. was a serious country, we’d shut down their operator and sell the utility operations to a competent entity.” www.nextgov.com/cybersecurit...
CISA urges water utilities to take exposed systems down after Minnesota hacks
A memo distributed to water industry members and obtained by Nextgov/FCW makes mention of Iran but does not directly present evidence attributing the latest Minnesota incident to the country.
nextgov.com
North Korea-linked hackers has been tied to four open-source software compromises dating back to March 2025, Amazon researchers said Wednesday, significantly expanding the known scope of DPRK’s efforts to access trusted code environments www.nextgov.com/cybersecurit...
Amazon uncovers broad North Korean hacking campaign against open-source software
New findings connect the same Pyongyang-backed group to four compromises dating to 2025, revealing a larger operation than previously known.
nextgov.com
Senate confirms Clayton as Trump’s next intelligence director www.nextgov.com/people/2026/...
Senate confirms Clayton as Trump’s next intelligence director
The former SEC chairman will replace acting intelligence chief Bill Pulte, whose brief tenure oversaw repeated personnel cuts to the nation’s top spy office.
nextgov.com
NEW: After Hugging Face breach, FedRAMP chief tells slow-to-patch vendors to stay out of government www.nextgov.com/cybersecurit...
After Hugging Face breach, FedRAMP chief tells slow-to-patch vendors to stay out of government
Pete Waterman cited an incident in which OpenAI models escaped a test environment and broke into AI company Hugging Face as evidence that providers must prepare for attacks moving at AI speed.
nextgov.com
Lawmakers get taste of AI-enabled cyberattacks in China-Taiwan war game www.nextgov.com/cybersecurit...
Lawmakers get taste of AI-enabled cyberattacks in China-Taiwan war game
Representatives weighed responses to simulated Chinese cyberattacks on U.S. infrastructure during a tabletop exercise centered on a Taiwan crisis.
nextgov.com
US AI labs are emerging target for foreign spies, former officials warn Congress -> www.nextgov.com/artificial-i...
US AI labs are emerging target for foreign spies, experts warn Congress
Former officials told the House Intelligence Committee that U.S. agencies have not kept pace with China’s push to obtain advanced American AI technology.
nextgov.com
House Intel Ranking Member Himes tells me providers are still complying with FISA Section 702 requests despite statutory lapse in June: “I’m not sure I’m up to the minute, but last I heard last week was they are continuing to comply with requests, which is good.”
NEW: The US Secret Service is examining an apparent Iranian video that claims to have mapped President Trump's motorcade routes in Florida and New York and identifies potential opportunities to target him. Agency is "aware of it and we're looking into it." www.nextgov.com/cybersecurit...
Secret Service is examining apparent Iranian video outlining Trump motorcade routes, assassination opportunities
The agency said it is looking into the Persian-language video, which uses polished, apparently AI-generated graphics to depict supposed motorcade routes in Florida and New York.
nextgov.com
