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DOJ disbands foreign influence task force, limits scope of FARA prosecutions 

One of the first acts taken by Pam Bondi after being sworn in as attorney general was to disband an FBI task force  that countered the influence of adversarial foreign governments on American politics. In a memo issued Wednesday, Bondi wrote that the Department of Justice would be shifting resources in its National Security Division,…

Cybersecurity, government experts are aghast at security failures in DOGE takeover

As the world’s richest man and his team from the Department of Government Efficiency continue their quest to dismantle federal agencies, cybersecurity experts, good government experts and Democrats are increasingly expressing outrage and alarm, in some cases likening the actions to an ongoing data breach. Elon Musk and employees from DOGE — which is, legally,…

Meta says it may stop development of AI systems it deems too risky

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has pledged to make artificial general intelligence (AGI) — which is roughly defined as AI that can accomplish any task a human can — openly available one day. But in a new policy document, Meta suggests that there are certain scenarios in which it may not release a highly capable AI…

DeepSeek: The countries and agencies that have banned the AI company’s tech

DeepSeek, the Chinese AI company, is raising the ire of regulators around the world. DeepSeek’s viral AI models and chatbot apps have been banned by a growing number of countries and government bodies, which have expressed concerns over DeepSeek’s ethics, privacy, and security practices. Corporations have banned DeepSeek, too — by the hundreds. The biggest…

Bill requiring federal contractors to have vulnerability disclosure policies gets House redo

Bipartisan legislation to close a loophole in federal cybersecurity standards by requiring vulnerability disclosure policies for government contractors is getting another shot at passage  in this Congress. The Federal Contractor Cybersecurity Vulnerability Reduction Act, a bicameral, bipartisan bill that stalled out last year in the Senate, was reintroduced Friday in the House by Reps. Nancy…

FBI nominee Kash Patel gets questions on cybercrime investigations, Silk Road founder, surveillance powers

A senator on Thursday questioned whether the president’s pick to lead the FBI might harm cybercrime investigations with his plans for the bureau. At a nomination hearing of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., asked Kash Patel about comments he made in September. “I’d shut down the FBI Hoover building on day one and…

Tulsi Gabbard tussles with senators over Snowden, surveillance 

Tulsi Gabbard, President Donald Trump’s nominee for director of national intelligence, told the Senate Intelligence Committee on Thursday that she would leave her own political views “at the door” and deliver “intelligence that is collected, analyzed and reported without bias, prejudice or political influence.” But she also accused the Biden administration and other national security…

House bill aims to better protect financial institutions from ransomware attacks

A bipartisan pair of House lawmakers are seeking to improve private-public coordination for financial institutions amid a surge of ransomware attacks on the sector. The Public and Private Sector Ransomware Response Coordination Act, introduced this week by Reps. Zach Nunn, R-Iowa, and Josh Gottheimer, D-N.J., would direct the Treasury secretary to deliver a report on…

Anthropic’s CEO says DeepSeek shows that U.S. export rules are working as intended

In an essay on Wednesday, Dario Amodei, the CEO of Anthropic, weighed in on the debate over whether Chinese AI company DeepSeek’s success implies that U.S. export controls on AI chips aren’t working. Amodei, who recently made the case for stronger export controls in an op-ed co-written with former U.S. deputy national security advisor Matt…

Trump pauses on grants, aid leaves federal cyber programs in state of confusion

A series of Trump administration maneuvers to freeze federal aid has thrown cybersecurity grant programs into doubt for recipients ranging from state governments to small businesses to foreign allies. An Office of Management and Budget memo sent Monday and that went into effect Tuesday directs federal agencies to “temporarily pause all activities related to obligations…

National security risks in routers, modems targeted in bipartisan Senate bill

The national security risks posed by routers, modems and similar devices produced by U.S. adversaries would be the subject of a new federal study under a bipartisan Senate bill introduced Monday. The Removing Our Unsecure Technologies to Ensure Reliability and Security (ROUTERS) Act from Sens. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., and Ben Ray Luján, D-N.M., is aimed…

AI companies upped their federal lobbying spend in 2024 amid regulatory uncertainty

Companies spent significantly more lobbying AI issues at the U.S. federal level last year compared to 2023 amid regulatory uncertainty. According to data compiled by OpenSecrets, 648 companies spent on AI lobbying in 2024 versus 458 in 2023, representing a 141% year-over-year increase. Companies like Microsoft supported legislation such as the CREATE AI Act, which…

Removal of Cyber Safety Review Board members sparks alarm from cyber pros, key lawmaker

The top Democrat on the House Homeland Security Committee and a number of cyber professionals on Wednesday lamented the Trump administration’s decision to purge a cyber incident investigation board of its membership. But the move had some supporters, including the chairman of that same committee. Acting Department of Homeland Security Secretary Benjamine Huffman issued a…

President Trump repeals Biden’s AI executive order

During his first day in office, President Donald Trump revoked a 2023 executive order signed by former President Joe Biden that sought to reduce the potential risks AI poses to consumers, workers, and national security. Biden’s executive order directed the Commerce Department’s National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) to author guidance that helps companies…

A CISA secure-by-design guru makes the case for the future of the initiative

One of the chief architects of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency campaign to get software developers to design their products with security in mind said he believes it could be one of the best tools the Trump administration has to counter China. Jack Cable, who is departing his role as senior technical adviser Thursday,…

Bipartisan cloud study recommends speeding federal adoption, or remain vulnerable on cyber

Slow adoption of cloud technologies poses a cybersecurity hazard for federal agencies, which will require an overhaul of contracting, regulatory and budgeting procedures to fix, a bipartisan think tank report that will be released Thursday concludes. Led by veterans of both the first Trump administration and Biden administration as well as lawmakers from both parties,…

OpenAI quietly revises policy doc to remove reference to ‘politically unbiased’ AI

OpenAI has quietly removed language endorsing “politically unbiased” AI from one of its recently published policy documents. In the original draft of its “economic blueprint” for the AI industry in the U.S., OpenAI said that AI models “should aim to be politically unbiased by default.” A new draft, made available Monday, deletes that phrasing. When…

Second Biden cyber executive order directs agency action on fed security, AI, space

A draft cybersecurity executive order would tackle cyber defenses in locations ranging from outer space to the U.S. federal bureaucracy to its contractors, and address security risks embedded in subjects like cybercrime, artificial intelligence and quantum computers. The draft, a copy of which CyberScoop obtained, constitutes one big last stab at cybersecurity in the Biden…

OpenAI presents its preferred version of AI regulation in a new ‘blueprint’

OpenAI on Monday published what it’s calling an “economic blueprint” for AI: a living document that lays out policies the company thinks it can build on with the U.S. government and its allies. The blueprint, which includes a forward from Chris Lehane, OpenAI’s VP of global affairs, asserts that the U.S. must act to attract…

Flock Safety quietly hired a sitting California mayor. Now he’s suing Flock

Last year, police surveillance startup Flock Safety hired the mayor of a California city with over 200,000 residents to promote its products. But the mayor, Ulises Cabrera of Moreno Valley, now claims Flock wrongfully terminated him, partly because he refused to use his position as mayor to benefit Flock, according to a lawsuit Cabrera filed…

National Cyber Director Harry Coker looks back (and ahead) on the Cyber Director office

Days after the four-year anniversary of the creation of the Office of the National Cyber Director and days before its current chief is set to depart, that man, Harry Coker Jr., looked both backward and forward at the office in a speech Tuesday and a separate interview with CyberScoop. Coker touched on software liability, regulations,…

Exit interview: FCC’s Jessica Rosenworcel discusses her legacy on cybersecurity, AI and regulation

On Jan. 20, Jessica Rosenworcel will leave the Federal Communications Commission, capping off a 12-year tenure that saw her rise from commissioner to chairwoman in 2021. Under her leadership, the agency has taken an aggressive approach to regulating cybersecurity, data privacy and emergent artificial intelligence use in the communications sector. Over the past four years,…

After UN adoption, controversial cybercrime treaty’s next steps could prove vital

A divisive United Nations cybercrime treaty — one that critics say is a huge danger to human rights and that the United States cautiously agreed to advance — is now in the hands of member nations. The U.N. General Assembly adopted the treaty without a vote last week, leaving ratification to individual states. If the…

Playbook advises federal grant managers how to build cybersecurity into their programs

Two U.S. cyber agencies released guidance Tuesday on how federal grant managers should incorporate cybersecurity in their programs for critical infrastructure projects, as well as how potential recipients can take it into account. The Office of the National Cyber Director and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency publication — the “Playbook for Strengthening Cybersecurity in…

Senators, witnesses: $3B for ‘rip and replace’ a good start to preventing Salt Typhoon-style breaches

The $3 billion that Congress folded into the annual defense policy bill to remove Chinese-made telecommunications technology from U.S. networks would be a huge start to defending against breaches like the Salt Typhoon espionage campaign, senators and hearing witnesses said Wednesday. Federal Communications Commission Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel recently told Hill leaders that the $1.9 billion…

Why Americans must be prepared for cybersecurity’s worst

The interconnected world we live in has brought incredible opportunities for growth in America. It’s made life better in ways we don’t think about — from the phone in your pocket to the groceries at your local store, networks touch and affect almost all aspects of our daily lives. But there is an old adage…

Why Americans must be prepared for cybersecurity’s worst

The interconnected world we live in has brought incredible opportunities for growth in America. It’s made life better in ways we don’t think about — from the phone in your pocket to the groceries at your local store, networks touch and affect almost all aspects of our daily lives. But there is an old adage…

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