Encrypted workplace communications services have seen a spike in user interest in the weeks since the now-infamous "Signalgate" started, executives at these companies tell Axios.
Why it matters: No one wants to be the next Mike Waltz or Pete Hegseth by sharing classified materials with someone they shouldn't. Some of these platforms have extra layers of security to limit who can receive and save messages.
Encrypted workplace communications services have seen a spike in user interest in the weeks since the now-infamous "Signalgate" started, executives at these companies tell Axios.
Why it matters: No one wants to be the next Mike Waltz or Pete Hegseth by sharing classified materials with someone they shouldn't. Some of these platforms have extra layers of security to limit who can receive and save messages.
Driving the news: Defense Secretary Hegseth texted details about the March 15 military strike in Yemen in a second Signal chat, according to a New York Times report on Sunday.
That chat, which Hegseth created and accessed using his personal device, included his wife, brother and personal lawyer.
At least 60 mobile operators in 35 countries appear to transport sensitive customer phone data through China-based telecommunications networks, according to a report from iVerify.
Why it matters: Relying on these networks makes customers and travelers more vulnerable to Chinese surveillance, iVerify warns.
Zoom in: Several of these operators are based in U.S.-allied countries, including Japan, Saudi Arabia, South Korea, Taiwan and New Zealand.
Each of these operators relies on infrastructure from a range of China-based telcos, including China Mobile International, China Telecom Global, China Unicom Global, CITIC Telecom International and PCCW Global Hong Kong.
Allegedly stolen datasets from government websites have started to appear more frequently on hacker forums in recent weeks, an executive at a top ransomware negotiation firm told Axios.
Why it matters: The datasets appear to include access to sensitive government systems and details about classified operations.
If the information is legitimate, cybercriminals could use it to inform future attacks or share it with adversarial governments.
Threat level: Hackers are claiming to have gotten high-level access to the Pentagon's Defense Logistics Agency, broken into defense contractors' systems, and compromised a Pentagon employee's account, according to Kurtis Minder, co-founder and CEO of GroupSense.
✂️ Amid broad agency cost-cutting efforts, two CISA leaders overseeing the agency's Secure by Design initiative said they're leaving their roles. (The Record) The agency is also ending its contracts with Google's VirusTotal and Censys. (Nextgov)
💪🏻 Chris Krebs, the CISA director during Trump's first term, is leaving his role at SentinelOne to focus full time on fighting a Justice Department probe into his work. (Axios)
💰 The newly formed CVE Foundation is looking for alternative funding models after CISA nearly ended an essential contract with research lab Mitre last week. (The Register)
🐈⬛ Talk about an insider threat we can get behind.
Sophie the cat — who appears to be a member of the Blue Collar Cats program in D.C., which hunts rats in the city — was found wandering around the White House lawn Friday.
😻 She joined the press corps for a bit until her owner was called to come pick her up from her day trip. More pics from the AP here.
AuthMind, a Bethesda, Maryland-based identity protection startup, tells Axios that it's raised $19.3 million in seed funding led by Cheyenne Ventures.
Why it matters: This highlights a rising cybersecurity threat whereby hackers — both human and machine — mimic verified users to access networks and devices. Logging in vs. breaking in.
A new International Monetary Fund study of the AI-climate-energy nexus finds reason for worry, but hardly panic.
Why it matters: Gaming out artificial intelligence's energy needs and the emissions in tow is a big challenge for policymakers, tech companies and power providers.
Anthropic expects AI-powered virtual employees to begin roaming corporate networks in the next year, the company's top security leader told Axios in an interview this week.
Why it matters: Managing those AI identities will require companies to reassess their cybersecurity strategies or risk exposing their networks to major security breaches.
Bluesky is adding blue checks to "authentic and notable accounts" in a system that's reminiscent of one that Twitter had before Elon Musk ended it on the platform that's now called X.
The big picture: "Bluesky will proactively verify" such accounts and "display a blue check next to their names" because "trust is everything," per a Monday blog post by the decentralized microblogging platform.
Sensitive documents were uploaded during the Biden Administration to a Google Drive folder that was "improperly" shared with thousands of federal workers, one share occurring only three weeks ago, the Washington Post first reported Sunday.
Why it matters: The GSA Office of Inspector General recently learned during an ongoing audit about the uploading of what was mostly unclassified but confidential information that was accessible to all GSA staff, a source familiar told Axios.
