| WEDNESDAY, FEB. 25, 2026 | Across party lines and industry, the verdict is the same: CISA is in trouble. An ex-L3 Harris exec was sentenced for selling zero-days to a Russian broker. And vulnerabilities are cropping up faster than ever, but only a small number of them have been exploited. This is CyberScoop for Wednesday, February 25. |
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(Graphic by Shanima Parker / Scoop News Group) |
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CISA's issues, one year inFormer CISA officials and industry partners say the agency has been severely weakened in the first year of Trump’s second term, losing roughly a third of its workforce, shutting down divisions, and struggling to deliver on core missions like industry coordination and federal network defense. Sources attribute the decline to the administration deprioritizing CISA amid lingering 2020-election tensions, Congress’s failure to confirm nominee Sean Plankey, and leadership challenges under acting director Madhu Gottumukkala, which they say has eroded trust and pushed organizations to seek help elsewhere. Critics warn the cuts are reducing national cyber capacity—especially for election security, secure-by-design efforts, and state and local support—even as some observers argue CISA can rebound if confirmed leadership arrives and staffing is rebuilt. Tim Starks has more. |
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Elastic Public Sector Summit | Mar 19, 2026
Join top government at program executives and IT leaders to learn firsthand how advances in data management, generative and agentic AI, search, and analytics are driving innovation in federal cybersecurity, citizen and student experiences, public safety, defense operations, and more. Register today!
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Former exec sentenced over illicit zero-day dealsPeter Williams, a former executive at L3Harris’s Trenchant unit, was sentenced to more than seven years in prison after pleading guilty to stealing trade secrets and selling at least eight zero-day exploits or components to a Russian broker for cryptocurrency. Prosecutors said the exploits were intended for restricted use by the U.S. government and allies, and that the buyer—called “Company 3” in court—appeared to be Operation Zero, a Russian exploit marketplace later sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury. The Justice Department estimated the theft caused $35 million in losses, said Williams personally made about $1.3 million and spent it on luxury items, and scheduled a further restitution hearing for May. Greg Otto has more. |
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Workday Federal Forum | Apr 28, 2026
This forum explores how transforming while modernizing can empower agencies to restore strategic capabilities to HR. Learn how to build an adaptable, resilient, and mission-ready workforce. Discover AI's role in accelerating skills-based hiring, streamlining decision-making, and enabling HR teams to prioritize strategic, human-centered work. Register today!
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Lots of bugs, not a lot of exploitsVulnCheck reported that while more than 40,000 new vulnerabilities were published in 2025, only about 1% were actually exploited in the wild, pushing defenders to prioritize known exploited flaws over CVSS scores and hype. The firm found attackers disproportionately targeted network edge devices and a set of “repeat offender” vendors, aided by automated exploit development and older device codebases that are easy to analyze and reverse. Among the most abused issues were four widely exploited SharePoint zero-days that initially hit 400+ organizations and a max-severity React Server Components bug, which VulnCheck says highlights a broader need to make technology fundamentally more resilient. Matt Kapko has more. |
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OpenAI flags China-linked ChatGPT misuseOpenAI reported that a suspected Chinese law-enforcement account used ChatGPT to review and edit internal “cyber special operations” reports, inadvertently exposing details of a large-scale, sustained campaign to harass and silence Chinese critics worldwide using fake accounts, bogus complaints, forged documents, and intimidation tactics. The same actor also tried to use ChatGPT to plan propaganda against Japan’s Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi and, in a related cluster, generated outreach emails to U.S. officials and analysts while seeking public information about U.S. people, forums, and federal locations and requesting guidance on tools like face-swapping software. OpenAI said it found no evidence ChatGPT was used to conduct automated cyberattacks directly, but that actors are increasingly using AI as an amplifier for scams and influence operations and often combine multiple AI models in their workflows. Derek B. Johnson has more. |
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