Joseph Menn
@joemenn.bsky.social
Washington Post alum covering hacking, disinformation and what’s left of privacy. Author of books on the Cult of the Dead Cow, organized criminal hacking, and Napster. Pulitzer co-finalist 2024. Signal joemenn.01
NEW: A wistful Judge Mehta closed the book on the last lingering Jan. 6 case — the seditious conspiracy conviction of Oath Keepers leader Stewart Rhodes, a man Mehta has called an ongoing threat to society/democracy but whose case was spiked by DOJ. www.politico.com/news/2026/08...
You would think that all of these people pushing for social media bans for kids would be interested in whether or not these bans actually work...but no, I guarantee we will keep on seeing age-gating bills. theconversation.com/more-than-80...
More than 80% of kids still using social media despite ban, new eSafety report finds
The report provides more evidence Australia’s world-leading social media ban isn’t going to plan.
theconversation.com
Bombshell new report out from my investigators this morning spanning our four year investigation into Jeffrey Epstein’s financial records. This report shows exactly how Wall Street protected Epstein and enabled his sex trafficking for decades. Mega thread following with some key points:
Deutsche Bank, JPMorgan, BofA Enabled Epstein, Wyden Report Says
Democrat Ron Wyden cited nonpublic documents held by the US Treasury in a report that says banks delayed reporting suspicious financial transactions and calls for tougher anti-money-laundering rules, ...
bloomberg.com
My new investigation into a mass shooter’s harrowing history with ChatGPT reveals numerous red flags—and some very disturbing ChatGPT replies—from long before his attack on Florida State University www.motherjones.com/media/2026/0... 1x 🧵
Inside a mass shooter’s harrowing history with ChatGPT
A year of chats reveals glaring red flags—and disturbing ChatGPT replies—from long before a rampage at Florida State University.
motherjones.com
The first rule of surveillance club is do not talk about surveillance club.
Jason Koebler@jasonkoebler.bsky.social · yesterdayis this good:
“In recent months, ICE has deployed a round-the-clock digital dragnet to scour the public internet—from Facebook to Instagram to X—for speech that could endanger the agency’s mission.” Speech. www.wsj.com/politics/pol...
How ICE Is Weaponizing Social Media Against its Critics
Agency says its surveillance program searches for threats to agents, but critics see free-speech infringements.
wsj.com
My latest story has some intrigue. FCC finally released Chairman Brendan Carr’s financial report for 2025 late Friday. The report states Paramount gave him tickets to the gala worth $12,390. But he and his wife sat in skybox seats that sold for $125,000 a piece. www.propublica.org/article/fcc-...
FCC Commissioners Face Ethics Complaints for Taking Luxury Gifts From Paramount
Citing a ProPublica report on Paramount providing luxury Kennedy Center gala tickets to FCC officials, the complaints note that commissioners accepted the gifts while the FCC was reviewing or about to...
propublica.org
Capital One says it closed Trump Organization's accounts after anti-money laundering probe reut.rs/4halBnD
Capital One says it closed Trump Organization's accounts after anti-money laundering probe
The disclosure marks the first time a bank has formally tied money laundering concerns to Trump's family business.
reut.rs
The easiest possible layup for a President at war with another country would be to explain that they are attacking us. Trump won't do that because he views Minnesota as a bigger enemy than Iran.
Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com · 5d agoTrump: "We heard in Minnesota there was a cyberattack and they blame it on Iran. I don't think so. I blame it on Minnesota because they're grossly incompetent. Iran's got bigger problems than worrying about Minnesota."
A secret terrorist expulsion court. Can’t see how that could be abused. www.nytimes.com/2026/07/30/u...
DOJ Seeks to Use Court to Deport Mother of Convicted ISIS Supporter
The case is an early test of a court that has never been used before, where much of the evidence is presented in secret and defendants cannot challenge how it was collected.
nytimes.com
I will be skipping Vegas for the first time in more than 15 years. I am enjoying my freelance assignments, but they don't pick up the hotel bill. So rest, hydrate, and let me know what I missed.
The Kushner family would like a taste of #FIFA, please and thank you.
FIFA plan for privatizing World Cup meets fury from UEFA | CNN
FIFA President Gianni Infantino’s plan to privatize World Cup using investors with ties to US President Donald Trump attacked by European soccer body UEFA.
cnn.com
Russia's FSB says it has added Telegram founder Pavel Durov to an international wanted list over charges of "facilitating terrorism" tied to channels and bots on his platform used to coordinate attacks in Russia, Interfax reports. www.interfax.ru/russia/1106228
ФСБ сообщила об обвинении Павла Дурова в содействии террористической деятельности
ФСБ заявила, что создателю Telegram Павлу Дурову предъявлено обвинение в содействии террористической деятельности, поскольку администрация мессенджера не
interfax.ru
BTW, this strikes me as an easy case for strict liability. It’s like a wild animal or ultrahazardous activity. You train and evaluate a frontier agentic model at your own risk, and if it escapes you are liable for all harm that it causes to others.
Simon Willison@simonwillison.net · last wk.Hugging Face just published a highly detailed technical account of OpenAI's accidental cyberattack on their systems - it's wild how sophisticated this was: huggingface.co/blog/agent-i... Wrote up some of my own notes here: simonwillison.net/2026/Jul/28/...
There are a couple of odd things about the time Musk branded me a “contemptible liar” and some sites wrote stories about it. The first is that what provoked it was a single paragraph low down in a story about something else. The second is that Bloomberg later published the exact thing I described.
BabySwiss@284-220.bsky.social · last wk.I remember reading when this scary person called you a "contemptible liar" ...(personally) i am shy +would not like having this person even say my name, or to ever know my name... because he behaves v mean + doesn't appear connected to his heart. I think you are brave. slaynews.com/elon-musk-sl...
The tech firm is Modal. Their executives emphasized that it was one of their clients, not them, that was hacked. www.reuters.com/business/ope...
OpenAI's rogue agent compromised an account at a second tech firm, sources say
The rogue agent that escaped from OpenAI and went on a days-long hacking spree at the AI firm Hugging Face also compromised a customer at a second tech company — New York-based Modal Labs — accor...
reuters.com
Breaking on @reuters.com: OpenAIs's rogue agent compromised an account at a second tech firm, sources say Story TK
Friendly #DEFCON34 reminder: Meta-style glasses with recording capabilities are prohibited at DEF CON. There is no exception for recording glasses with prescription lenses. Be sure to pack non-violating eyewear if you need them. Please see our Photo policies for more. defcon.org/html/links/d...
Exclusive from me — Daniel Moraff, one of the political operatives behind Graham Platner's rise and fall, has been accused of sexual assault. Full story here:
Exclusive: Political operative behind Graham Platner's rise accused of sexual assault
A spokesperson for Daniel Moraff said: “Any suggestion that he committed a criminal offence is false and without foundation."
thehandbasket.co
Known exploited vulnerabilities have not surged as much as the number of new bugs. But the operative word there might be KNOWN.
Patrick Howell O’Neill@patrickhowelloneill.com · last wk.New: AI is driving new records in software vulnerabilities but prophecies of a so-called "bugpocalypse" haven't come to pass www.bloomberg.com/news/article...
A Google user left a one-star review of the New Bedford Whaling Museum coining the phrase. Last fall, the museum began selling shirts and hoodies with the review on the back and a whale skeleton on the front. What the museum lacks in in live aquaculture, it makes up for in skeletons.
New Bedford Whaling Museum goes viral for ‘worst aquarium ever’ merch
A Google user left a one-star review of the New Bedford Whaling Museum coining the phrase. Last fall, the museum began selling shirts and hoodies with the review on the back and a whale skeleton on the front. Now, the design is capturing national attention.
trib.al
Releasing: Post mortem analysis of the Hugging Face incident was written over the weekend by hundreds of CISOs (and reviewed by Hugging Face). Link: cloudsecurityalliance.org/artifacts/hu... (+free download) From CSA, SANSInstitute, Knostic, [un]prompted, RSAC, FIRST
Hugging Face Incident Initial Post Mortem I CSA
AI Security Alliance's initial post-mortem on the Hugging Face incident, the first documented autonomous AI attack, with CISO guidance on detecting, responding to, and governing agentic AI risk.
cloudsecurityalliance.org
The richest man in the world, and the man who gave the most to Trump, is calling a journalist a traitor while posting that traitors should be killed.
trump.is
Sunder Katwala (sundersays)@sundersays.bsky.social · last wk.Elon Musk, owner of X, has called the editor of the Economist "a traitor to the West, plain and simple" after her recent interview with him. He now argues that "anyone who opposes remigration is a traitor" Musk has been socialising violence since Aug25: "fight or die, that's what it comes down to"
I saw an article the other day defending review bombing, and I thought we'd reached peak contrarianism, but I guess I was wrong.
Bloomberg News@bloomberg.com · 2w agoWe admire great works of art, architecture and engineering. Why not debt?
The Washington Post until recently covered disinformation well. This story cites single-issue, pro-Israel criticism of Vance by Ben Shapiro, a former editor of The Forward and a Post columnist, plus some pro-Israel bots. Which is not remotely news.
Knives are out for Vance in the GOP. His allies say it’s a coordinated ‘op.’
The vice president has faced a barrage of attacks recently that are unusual for their intensity and how early in the political calendar they are taking place.
washingtonpost.com
As foretold. www.wired.com/story/for-ta...
For Taylor Swift, Madison Square Garden’s Controversial Cameras Briefly Went Dark
MSG’s sprawling surveillance system can monitor guests down to the second. Its owners made an exception for the pop star’s rehearsal dinner.
wired.com
David Greene@davidgreene.bsky.social · last mo.She may be the one person who could make MSG turn off its panopticon facial recognition surveillance.
Re: The NYT subpoenas DOJ withdrew, Judge Subramanian is still not letting DOJ off the hook for asking for a nondisclosure order while subpoenaing phone records AFTER they subpoenaed the journalists.
