Tim Starks

FBI targeted with ‘suspicious’ activity on its networks The FBI found evidence that its networks had been targeted in a suspected cybersecurity incident, the bureau confirmed on Thursday, without sharing any further details.

The FBI found evidence that its networks had been targeted in a suspected cybersecurity incident, the bureau confirmed on Thursday, without sharing any further details. via @timstarks.bsky.social cyberscoop.com/fbi-targeted...

HHS updates a free risk tool to help hospitals size up their cybersecurity exposure HHS has updated its free RISC 2.0 toolkit with a new cybersecurity module, asking hospitals to assess digital threats alongside hurricanes.

HHS has updated its free RISC 2.0 toolkit with a new cybersecurity module, asking hospitals to assess digital threats alongside hurricanes, power failures and other hazards. via @timstarks.bsky.social cyberscoop.com/hhs-aspr-cyb...

IRS chief says agency is engaged in a ‘thorough’ cybersecurity review Democratic lawmakers pressed Frank Bisignano on the IRS-ICE data-sharing agreement. The CEO said the tax agency is prioritizing risk management and touted its AI work.

Democratic lawmakers pressed Frank Bisignano on the IRS-ICE data-sharing agreement. The CEO said the tax agency is prioritizing risk management and touted its AI work. via @mattbracken.bsky.social fedscoop.com/irs-ceo-fran...

Israel says it knocked out Iran’s cyber warfare headquarters But it’s unclear if the strike has fully taken out Iran’s ability to launch cyberattacks as the Middle East war expands.

The Israeli IDF today claimed to have bombed the cyber and electronic warfare headquarters of the Iranian IRGC in Tehran. Experts are skeptical that this will do much to dampen the threat Iranian hackers pose to the U.S., Israel, and Gulf nations: www.politico.com/news/2026/03...

Trump’s CISA nominee said he left Coast Guard to address GOP hold Sean Plankey confirmed the intent to Nextgov/FCW and said he’s “prepared to lead the nation’s cyber defense agency to protect the federal civilian networks and our nation’s critical infrastructure fro...

EXCLUSIVE: CISA director nominee Sean Plankey told stakeholders he left Coast Guard to show Sen. Rick Scott he’s no longer involved in shipbuilding contract work and to stave off another hold on his confirmation. Plankey confirmed this to Nextgov/FCW:
www.nextgov.com/people/2026/...

OK, so, different info out there about what's going on with Plankey and the Coast Guard right now. My reporting leans toward the version of events that is him leaving to focus on CISA, but I've also heard parts of the CBS version.

NASA chatbots, Treasury coding, OPM drafting: How agencies have deployed Claude Federal agencies are working to halt their use of Anthropic tools amid a battle between the Claude maker and President Trump over how those services should be used.

NASA chatbots, Treasury coding, OPM drafting: Federal agencies are working to halt their use of Anthropic tools amid a battle between the company and President Trump over how those services should be used fedscoop.com/nasa-chatbot...

Brett Leatherman talked about AI use in one way here as well cyberscoop.com/brett-leathe...

Will NSO’s US Lobbying Pay Off Under Trump? Now, with Friedman, a seasoned Trump insider, at its helm, NSO might finally achieve its long-awaited US comeback, writes Vas Panagiotopoulos.

NSO Group’s 🇺🇸lobbying efforts provide a stark case study of how #spyware firms deploy vast resources to influence government & democratic decision-making in pursuit of their commercial interests.

➡️ Here’s my analysis for @techpolicypress.bsky.social.

www.techpolicy.press/will-nsos-us...

Cybercom didn’t tell troops to disable location services or uninstall apps, military officials say, after viral message spread amid Iran operation Multiple defense officials said Sunday that a viral message purporting to be from U.S. Cyber Command wasn’t sent by the command, with one calling it "false."

Cybercom didn’t tell troops to disable location services or uninstall apps, military officials say, after viral message spread amid Iran operation @defensescoop.bsky.social @dflawrence.bsky.social defensescoop.com/2026/03/01/c...

Commercial data centers emerge as targets in modern warfare after drones hit 3 AWS facilities This incident likely marks the first publicly confirmed instance of a hyperscale data center run by a U.S. company to be hit in combat.

AWS is grappling with widespread service disruptions this week after drone strikes severely damaged three of the cloud provider’s data centers in the Middle East during a surge of intense military actions in the region. defensescoop.com/2026/03/03/c...

Possible U.S.-developed exploits linked to first known ‘mass’ iOS attack Researchers uncover "Coruna," a sophisticated iOS exploit kit likely leaked from a U.S. government framework. Linked to mass-scale iPhone attacks and Russian espionage, this discovery marks a potentia...

Researchers traced the kit moving from a spyware vendor’s customer to Russian hackers to Chinese cybercriminals. via @timstarks.bsky.social cyberscoop.com/coruna-ios-e...

CISA CIO Robert Costello exits agency The chief information officer at the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency announced his departure Tuesday, ending his nearly five-year run at CISA.

His nearly five-year tenure had recently been marked by turmoil. via @timstarks.bsky.social cyberscoop.com/cisa-cio-rob...

Kash Patel’s latest firings ousted agents with expertise in Iran The FBI director gutted a specialized, global espionage unit of counterintelligence agents, just days before Operation Epic Fury.

When FBI Director Kash Patel fired a dozen FBI agents and staff last week for their role in the classified documents investigation of Donald Trump, he targeted an elite counter espionage unit that investigates threats from foreign adversaries and specializes in Iran www.ms.now/news/kash-pa...

The FBI’s cyber chief is using Winter SHIELD to accelerate China prep, threat intelligence sharing Brett Leatherman is running the bureau's most public cyber campaign yet, pushing basic security hygiene while quietly preparing industry for stepped-up Chinese threats.

Brett Leatherman is running the bureau's most public cyber campaign yet, pushing basic security hygiene while quietly preparing industry for stepped-up Chinese threats. via @timstarks.bsky.social cyberscoop.com/brett-leathe...

The FBI’s cyber chief is using Winter SHIELD to accelerate China prep, threat intelligence sharing Brett Leatherman is running the bureau's most public cyber campaign yet, pushing basic security hygiene while quietly preparing industry for stepped-up Chinese threats.

I talked to FBI cyber boss Brett Leatherman about Winter SHIELD, his priorities for the bureau and concerns about FBI cyber work. cyberscoop.com/brett-leathe...

Inside the plan to kill Ali Khamenei Israel spent years hacking Tehran’s traffic cameras and monitoring bodyguards ahead of the assassination of Iran’s supreme leader

"Nearly all the traffic cameras in Tehran had been hacked for years, their images encrypted and transmitted to servers in Tel Aviv and southern Israel, according to two people familiar with the matter." www.ft.com/content/bf99...

Iranian Hacking Groups Go Dark During US, Israeli Military Strikes Iran’s feared hacking groups have failed to play a meaningful role as the US and Israel wage a new war, a silence cybersecurity analysts say underscores how far the Islamic Republic’s online attack an...

A lot of chatter about cyberwar, Iranian retaliation, disruption going around but, for the second war against Tehran in less than a year, Iranian hackers have gone "almost completely dark" -- this time even more starkly than in the 2025 war www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

The operational impact of worforce reductions at CISA YouTube video by CyberScoop

In this episode of Safe Mode, @gregotto.bsky.social dives in with @timstarks.bsky.social to unpack what’s happened inside CISA—and what it could mean for the country’s ability to withstand the next major cyber crisis.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZUDX... | cyberscoop.com/cisa-personn...

Hacktivists claim to have hacked Homeland Security to release ICE contract data | TechCrunch A hacking group called Department of Peace said they hacked a specific office within Homeland Security to protest ICE’s mass deportation campaign, and the companies aiding it.

NEW: A group of hacktivists calling themselves "Department of Peace" claims to have hacked an office wihin the Department of Homeland Security.

The hacktivists leaked data on more than 6,000 contracts between DHS/ICE and private companies to the transparency website Distributed Denial of Secrets.

This is a really good story from @jsaks.bsky.social about the fall of former acting CISA Director Madhu Gottumukkala, who was removed on Thursday. I'd heard about some of these incidents but not all of them. www.politico.com/news/2026/02...

Israel Hacked Popular Iranian Prayer App to Urge Defections, Resistance Israel hacked a popular Iranian prayer app to send notifications to potentially millions of phones Saturday morning urging the country’s military personnel to defect from the regime and join a fight t...

Sources say Israel hacked the popular Iranian prayer app BadeSaba to urge defections, resistance

www.wsj.com/livecoverage...

Susie Wiles is wearing an Apple Watch during a highly classified meeting on Iran.

Unreal.

House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Garbarino on Iran cyber risks: “As these threats grow, CISA needs long-term funding … and a Senate-confirmed director. Any further delays will continue to put our security at risk in and out of cyberspace.”

Israel performs largest cyberattack in history against Iran | The Jerusalem Post Critical infrastructure, official news sites, and security communications systems reportedly stopped functioning, leaving the leadership in a communications blackout at home and abroad.

After all the bad reporting on the power outage in Caracas, I'm reluctant to post this, but here it is.

Israel plunges Iran into darkness with largest cyberattack in history during attack against Iran

www.jpost.com/israel-news/...

UPDATE - Statement per DOD: “The command did not issue messages to US service members to turn off location services on their electronic devices and did not issue messages that applications had been compromised.”

British organizations urged to be alert to threat of Iranian cyberattacks In an advisory, the U.K.'s National Cyber Security Centre warned British organizations to review and strengthen their cyber defenses amid the evolving situation in Iran and throughout the Middle East.

In an advisory alert, Britain's National Cyber Security Centre says there was “likely no current significant change in the direct cyber threat from Iran to the UK, however due to the fast-evolving nature of the conflict, this assessment may be subject to change.”

Orgs are urged to be alert.

Iran all but vanishes from the global internet amid US-Israel strikes Official monitoring shows connectivity collapsing to near-zero Iran's internet has plunged into a near-total blackout, with traffic down to around 1 percent of normal levels and connectivity described as "close to zero" as authorities curb access amid widening regional conflict.…

Iran all but vanishes from the global internet amid US-Israel strikes

America can, must, and should blow up the Moon

Senate moves one step closer to passing health care cyber reforms A legislative package that would overhaul cybersecurity practices at the Department of Health and Human Services sailed through committee.

A legislative package that would overhaul cybersecurity practices at the Department of Health and Human Services sailed through committee. via @derekbjohnson.bsky.social cyberscoop.com/senate-passe...