National Cyber Director Sean Cairncross pans AI regulation during Black Hat keynote: "A regulatory regime would not only strangle growth, development, and innovation...but it would be obsolete 48 hours after it [went] through whatever process it had gone through." cyberscoop.com/trump-ai-exe...

National cyber director lays out White House plans to secure AI without writing new rules

The Trump administration defends its updated AI executive order, favoring flexible industry oversight and a global push for U.S. open-source models over rigid regulations.

cyberscoop.com

Pretty serious stuff here, especially about attempted OSS package poisoning, but note that these models were not configured as they would be in the real world. www.aisi.gov.uk/blog/inciden...

Now's a great time to read this story if you haven't already!

Eric Geller@ericjgeller.com · 2d ago

A small army of volunteer security experts has spent the past few years helping rural water utilities with cybersecurity. How has it gone? What have they learned? And what's next? Read my (timely!) new story about DEF CON Franklin: www.cybersecuritydive.com/news/water-c...

As of this morning, 12 states have experienced Iran-linked cyberattacks on their water utilities, according to ABC News. abcnews.com/US/12-states...

At least 12 states face cyberattacks on their water systems, sources say

Possible cyber intrusions targeting water and wastewater utilities have now been reported in at least a dozen states, multiple sources told ABC News.

abcnews.com

Cisco has an interesting new report that uses recovered AI model prompt logs to show how hackers are using AI in their attacks. blog.talosintelligence.com/keep-going-b...

Small rural water utilities are some of our country's most vulnerable critical infrastructure. My latest story is about a group that dispatches volunteers to help these utilities secure their networks — and plan for digital disaster.

Eric Geller@ericjgeller.com · 2d ago

A small army of volunteer security experts has spent the past few years helping rural water utilities with cybersecurity. How has it gone? What have they learned? And what's next? Read my (timely!) new story about DEF CON Franklin: www.cybersecuritydive.com/news/water-c...

And they're doing it in partnership with the National Rural Water Association, which has been looking into the idea of a more formal cyber circuit rider program (like the non-cyber one it already runs with USDA). content.nrwa.org/home/news/15...

Cadence “Luwak Labor Liaison” Andrysiak@supportourpoops.bsky.social · 2d ago

Holy shit this is circuit riding but for cybersecurity, mad props to DEF CON Franklin

"The month before his arrest, Yaroch allegedly asked ChatGPT: 'If you had a bucket of money (around $1 million) and you wanted to leave the USA and become a resident or citizen of an EU country, what would you do?'" www.cnn.com/2026/08/03/p...

The Trump administration has met EO 14409's deadline for establishing a voluntary AI safety testing framework, per Axios.

White House finalizes AI framework behind closed doors

The White House said it met its deadline to establish a voluntary framework for evaluating advanced AI models — but it won't say what the framework contains.

axios.com

Resharing my story for those who haven't read it yet!

Eric Geller@ericjgeller.com · 2d ago

A small army of volunteer security experts has spent the past few years helping rural water utilities with cybersecurity. How has it gone? What have they learned? And what's next? Read my (timely!) new story about DEF CON Franklin: www.cybersecuritydive.com/news/water-c...

One thing that didn't make it into my story about volunteer cyber aid for water utilities: Some volunteers want to help b/c they grew up in rural areas and understand how overwhelmed utilities are. Franklin, one told me, "was my chance to make a difference." www.cybersecuritydive.com/news/water-c...

How volunteer cyber experts are helping protect rural water systems

A first-in-the-nation program is seeing promising results as it charts a path for supporting the U.S.’s most vulnerable infrastructure.

cybersecuritydive.com

A small army of volunteer security experts has spent the past few years helping rural water utilities with cybersecurity. How has it gone? What have they learned? And what's next? Read my (timely!) new story about DEF CON Franklin: www.cybersecuritydive.com/news/water-c...

How volunteer cyber experts are helping protect rural water systems

A first-in-the-nation program is seeing promising results as it charts a path for supporting the U.S.’s most vulnerable infrastructure.

cybersecuritydive.com

"'Had [the Interior Department] been forthcoming with the information clearly in its possession, the government would not have sought a grand jury indictment,' the filing said." www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news...

Trump administration drops Reflecting Pool case, blaming damage on ‘botched’ installation

The Justice Department said “it is difficult to attribute the widespread damage to the Reflecting Pool to vandalism, let alone to establish that fact beyond a reasonable doubt.”

nbcnews.com

@timstarks.bsky.social has a good story about the reaction to these comments: cyberscoop.com/trump-blames...

Trump blames Minnesota for cyberattacks on water sector, drawing pushback from cyber world

Trump blamed Minnesota for recent water cyberattacks, rejecting U.S. intelligence attributing the strikes to Iran. Experts and Gov. Tim Walz pushed back.

cyberscoop.com

Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com · 5d ago

Q: Can you rule out that Iran is behind the water attacks? TRUMP: I don't think so. I think that Minnesota is behind it. You know who is behind it? Minnesota. Because they're grossly incompetent. I don't think there was an Iranian cyberattack. I think Minnesota ought to get its act together.

The Trump administration has told Congress that it's reassigning CISA staff to serve as election security liaisons to states during the midterm season, but CISA is so depleted that its services are limited — and anyway, many states have given up on waiting for fed help. www.cnn.com/2026/07/31/p...

Anthropic reveals its own rogue-model incidents: Due to human error in configuring a test environment, three Claude models hacked outside organizations during CTF exercises. Two proceeded despite realizing they were on the internet. www.anthropic.com/news/investi...

"'Maybe if we understand this, we can do something differently,' she said. 'Maybe we can keep other families from being in the same position.'" www.nytimes.com/2026/07/30/u...

Rescue Boat Crews Show Signs of Brain Injuries, but Coast Guard Isn’t Looking

Untreated and undiagnosed, the crews that save lives in the roughest seas face the relentless pounding of waves.

nytimes.com

After cyberattacks on Minnesota water systems, CISA says critical infrastructure operators should disconnect internet-exposed PLCs and other OT assets "as soon as possible." www.cisa.gov/news-events/...

"A US government map of Africa mislabeled every country during a state department presentation at a global conference in Brazil this week, causing a stir among attenders who took screenshots and posted them online."

US government map of Africa mislabels every country at global conference

State department ‘takes full responsibility’ for erroneous, widely shared chart displayed at Aids conference in Brazil

theguardian.com

U.S. officials say Iran is likely responsible for the recent cyberattacks on Minnesota water systems. www.nytimes.com/2026/07/30/u...

U.S. Sees Iran as Likely Behind Cyberattack on Minnesota Water Systems

Investigators cautioned that the assessment was preliminary. There were no indications that any water supply had been rendered unsafe to drink.

nytimes.com

"We’re really crushing people who are desperately trying to pay their bills." www.nytimes.com/2026/07/30/b...

www.nytimes.com/2026/07/28/t...

CISA has published guidance to agencies on choosing, reviewing, maintaining, and developing open-source software: www.cisa.gov/sites/defaul...

Is Trump the first president to reference Jawa sandcrawlers? newrepublic.com/post/213703/...

AI and pressure from colleagues are converting a few House GOP CISA skeptics into supporters. Will we see a groundswell of mind-changing? That's TBD. Don Bacon's departure certainly won't help.

Republicans shunned the nation’s cyber agency. They’re now trying to save it.

Concerns about powerful artificial intelligence with hacking capabilities and the security of the upcoming midterm elections have shifted the opinions of some influential Trump allies.

politico.com

"Mr. Miller, however, angrily disputed the notion that his seat was in jeopardy in a series of text messages in which he threatened to block a reporter’s number for seeking comment about the matter." www.nytimes.com/2026/07/28/u...

"There is a long tradition on Capitol Hill of politely ignoring the obvious decline of aging or otherwise incapacitated lawmakers..." www.nytimes.com/2026/07/28/u...

What’s Going on With Mitch McConnell? Kentucky’s Governor Has Questions.

Gov. Andy Beshear called on Senator McConnell, who has been hospitalized since June, to prove his capacity to serve, or resign.

nytimes.com

Anthropic says Mythos figured out how to weaken a post-quantum cryptography algorithm being considered for standardization and break a weakened version of the widely used AES standard. www.anthropic.com/research/dis...

"Of 1,061 vulnerabilities attributed to AI-assisted discovery, only 14, or 1.3%, have been confirmed as exploited in the wild..." www.vulncheck.com/blog/state-o...

VulnCheck State of Exploitation 1H-2026 | Blog | VulnCheck

Key Trends and Findings from Known Exploited Vulnerabilities, AI discovered vulnerabilities, and AI targeted technologies from the first half of 2026

vulncheck.com

"As much as the tech bros want to automate everything, you still have to meet people where they're at. People just want to pay their goddam bills. Why are we making it so hard?" www.motherjones.com/politics/202...

The IRS is imploding.

The CEO says the agency is proving it's possible to have “less people and better results.”

motherjones.com