Hacked Prayer App Sends 'Surrender' Messages to Iranians Amid Israeli and US Strikes
As Israeli airstrikes targeted Tehran, Iranians using the popular prayer app Salaam received push notifications promising "help is on the way" and amnesty for surrender. The psychological operation exploited trusted spiritual infrastructure to deliver wartime propaganda directly to mobile devices. The breach represents a new attack vector targeting religious and wellness applications during active hostilities.
WIRED • Mar 2
SURVEILLANCE CYBERWAR MEMETIC
AWS Middle East disrupted after 'objects struck datacenter' amid Iran war
Amazon Web Services' mec1-az2 availability zone in the United Arab Emirates went offline after the facility was struck by unknown objects. The incident occurred during ongoing military operations between Israel and Iran, severing connectivity and forcing reliance on backup systems. Full service restoration was expected to take several hours.
The Register • Mar 2
CORPORATE CYBERWAR INFRASTRUCTURE
Hackers hit Iranian apps, websites after US-Israeli strikes
Cyber-enabled operations accompanied joint U.S.-Israeli strikes on Iran early Saturday. State-linked Iranian hacking groups conducted data-wiping attacks on Israeli targets, while unidentified actors defaced the BadeSaba religious calendar app—downloaded by over 5 million users—with messages urging Iranian armed forces to disarm. CrowdStrike observed Iranian-aligned threat actors conducting reconnaissance and DDoS attacks alongside physical military operations.
Reuters • Mar 1
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Strikes on Iran will test US cyber strategy abroad, and defenses at home
The federal government's cyber defense agency faces heightened threat levels while operating with significant staffing shortages, cybersecurity experts warn. Iranian-linked groups have historically targeted U.S. financial institutions, infrastructure providers, and industrial control systems through DDoS campaigns, ransomware, and hack-and-leak operations. Former officials anticipate retaliatory operations targeting exposed operational technology and internet-facing PLC hardware.
Defense One • Mar 1
REGULATION CYBERWAR INFRASTRUCTURE
OpenAI's Sam Altman announces Pentagon deal with 'technical safeguards'
OpenAI has reached an agreement with the US Department of War to deploy its AI models within the Pentagon's classified network. CEO Sam Altman stated the deal includes prohibitions on domestic mass surveillance and maintains human responsibility for autonomous weapon systems. The agreement follows the collapse of negotiations between the Pentagon and rival AI company Anthropic, which refused to remove safeguards against surveillance and autonomous weapons use.
TechCrunch • Mar 1
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US confirms first combat use of LUCAS one-way attack drone in Iran strikes
U.S. Central Command confirmed the first combat deployment of the Low-cost Unmanned Combat Attack System (LUCAS) drone during Operation Epic Fury against Iran on February 28, 2026. The autonomous kamikaze drones, reverse-engineered from Iranian Shahed-136 designs, targeted Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps command facilities, air defense systems, and military infrastructure. The deployment follows Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's July directive to accelerate acquisition of affordable autonomous systems and establish drone squadrons capable of saturating adversaries with inexpensive, expendable platforms.
Defense News • Mar 1
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China Asked ChatGPT for Help Crafting Online Harassment Campaigns
OpenAI's threat intelligence report reveals Chinese government operatives used ChatGPT to refine 'cyber special operations' targeting political dissidents abroad. The operation, linked to the 'Spamouflage' network, generated fake evidence for takedown requests and created impersonation accounts targeting US-based critics.
PCMag • Mar 1
SURVEILLANCE CYBERWAR SOCIAL
AI just leveled up and there are no guardrails anymore
New York State Assemblyman Alex Bores authored the first major AI safety law in the US and is now running for Congress, becoming a target for deregulation advocates. The article examines how AI development is accelerating faster than governance frameworks can adapt, with the Anthropic-Pentagon conflict highlighting the tension between safety constraints and government pressure.
CNBC • Mar 1
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Opinion: Red lines and Red flags
The Pentagon is demanding unrestricted military use of Anthropic's Claude AI, threatening contract termination and supply-chain penalties if the company maintains current usage restrictions. More than 200 engineers at major AI firms signed petitions opposing unrestricted military use amid fears that national security demands could override ethical AI development norms. The dispute centers on whether AI providers can simultaneously safeguard human values while meeting military operational requirements.
The Next Web • Feb 28
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Trump directs US agencies to toss Anthropic's AI as Pentagon calls startup a supply risk
The Trump administration ordered federal agencies to immediately cease using Anthropic technology after the AI company refused Pentagon demands to remove guardrails on its Claude model for autonomous weapons and mass domestic surveillance. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth designated Anthropic a supply-chain risk to national security—a label typically reserved for firms from adversarial nations like China—blocking any military contractor from working with the company. The $200 million defense contract represented a small portion of Anthropic's $14 billion revenue, but the blacklisting threatens its planned public offering and broader business relationships. Anthropic stated it would challenge the designation in court.
Reuters • Feb 28
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CISA replaces acting director after a bumbling year on the job
Madhu Gottumukkala is being replaced as acting director of CISA after a year marked by staff cuts, layoffs, reassignments, and alleged security lapses. The shakeup at the nation's primary cybersecurity agency comes amid rising congressional scrutiny and concerns about the organization's capacity to defend critical infrastructure. Nick Andersen will take over as acting director while Gottumukkala moves to a strategic implementation role at DHS.
TechCrunch • Feb 28
REGULATION CYBERWAR TECH
Acting head of the nation's cyber agency reassigned amid rising congressional scrutiny
Madhu Gottumukkala, the acting director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), has been reassigned to a new DHS role as director of strategic implementation. The move comes amid expected congressional questioning about his leadership decisions and connections to South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem, now DHS Secretary. CISA faces growing oversight as Republican lawmakers scrutinize its disinformation research partnerships and seek to refocus the agency toward core infrastructure protection mandates.
POLITICO • Feb 27
SURVEILLANCE REGULATION CYBERWAR
How AI is supercharging Russia's online disinformation campaigns
Security experts warn that Kremlin-aligned actors are deploying AI-generated synthetic videos at scale to shape public opinion across Europe and the US, while Western governments lack adequate tools and laws to respond. A King's College London professor's identity was hijacked via AI voice-over deepfake for a Russia-linked operation dubbed "matryoshka," which embeds false claims in layers of ambient re-posts from compromised accounts.
BBC • Feb 27
GEOPOLITICS CYBERWAR SOCIAL
Rocket Lab scrubs planned Feb. 25 launch of hypersonic scramjet vehicle for the US military
Rocket Lab scrubbed the planned February 25 launch of its HASTE suborbital rocket carrying DART AE, a scramjet-powered hypersonic test vehicle developed for the Defense Innovation Unit. The mission, dubbed "That's Not a Knife," would have been DIU's second hypersonic demonstration using Rocket Lab's HASTE platform after the November 2025 "Prometheus Run" launch. The vehicle tests technologies enabling sustained flight at Mach 5+ for missile defense and strike applications.
Space.com • Feb 26
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Critical Cisco SD-WAN bug exploited in zero-day attacks since 2023
Cisco disclosed CVE-2026-20127, a maximum-severity authentication bypass vulnerability in Catalyst SD-WAN Controller and Manager products that has been actively exploited since 2023. The flaw allows unauthenticated remote attackers to gain administrative privileges and establish persistent access as rogue peers within SD-WAN fabric networks. CISA issued Emergency Directive 26-03 and added the vulnerability to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog, ordering federal civilian agencies to patch within 24-48 hours.
BleepingComputer • Feb 26
CORPORATE CYBERWAR TECH
Inside the story of the US defense contractor who leaked hacking tools to Russia
Doogie Williams, former general manager of Trenchant — an L3Harris division developing offensive hacking and surveillance tools for U.S. intelligence — pleaded guilty to stealing and selling classified zero-day exploits to a Russian firm. Prosecutors said Williams, a 39-year-old Australian citizen with security clearance, abused full network access to download tools onto portable drives over an extended period. The case exposes critical vulnerabilities in contractor vetting for offensive cyber capabilities and raises questions about which foreign actors ultimately obtained these tools.
TechCrunch • Feb 26
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Breaking encryption with a quantum computer just got 10 times easier
Researchers have developed a more efficient quantum computing approach using qLDPC codes that reduces qubit requirements for breaking RSA encryption by an order of magnitude. The new method enables qubits to interact beyond nearest neighbors, increasing information density and reducing the estimated qubit count from millions to approximately 100,000.
New Scientist • Feb 25
CYBERWAR INFRASTRUCTURE CYBERSECURITY
CrowdStrike says attackers are moving through networks in under 30 minutes
CrowdStrike's 2026 Global Threat Report found the average time from intrusion to lateral network movement plummeted to 29 minutes in 2025, a 65% increase in attack speed. State-sponsored threat actors increased cloud intrusion activity by 266% while AI-enabled adversary activity surged 89%. Chinese threat groups achieved immediate system access in two-thirds of vulnerability exploitations, with 40% targeting edge devices. North Korea's Lazarus Group orchestrated the largest cryptocurrency theft in history stealing $1.46 billion from Bybit.
CyberScoop • Feb 24
CYBERCRIME CYBERWAR AI
600+ FortiGate Devices Hacked by AI-Armed Amateur
A Russian-speaking threat actor used commercial generative AI tools to compromise more than 600 Fortinet FortiGate firewalls across 55 countries in five weeks. Researchers from Amazon Web Services found the attacker was not state-sponsored but used LLMs to automate attack scripting, credential extraction, and lateral movement. The campaign exploited exposed management ports and weak credentials, with AI enabling the low-skilled actor to achieve outcomes previously requiring substantial technical expertise.
Dark Reading • Feb 24
CYBERCRIME CYBERWAR AI
SDA taps AST SpaceMobile to demo commercial satellite links to military radios
The Space Development Agency awarded AST SpaceMobile USA a $30 million contract under the Hybrid Acquisition for proliferated Low-earth Orbit program's Europa Track 2 initiative. The company will use its BlueBird satellite constellation—currently six satellites in orbit with a seventh launching soon—to demonstrate direct tactical communications with existing military radios. Unlike traditional proprietary military satellite systems, AST's "bent-pipe" architecture uses commercial infrastructure to provide high-bandwidth data transport from low Earth orbit for defense applications.
Breaking Defense • Feb 24
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The Big One: The cyberattack scenarios that keep officials up at night
Seven former national security officials and industry leaders detailed their gravest cybersecurity concerns. Paul Nakasone, former NSA and Cyber Command head, warned that nation-state actors who have breached food and water infrastructure could accidentally trigger catastrophic outages if they lose control of AI agents. Former CISA director Jen Easterly noted AI is scaling existing weaknesses in insecure software and over-trusted automation.
Axios • Feb 24
CYBERCRIME CYBERWAR AI
Top NATO allies believe cyberattacks on hospitals are an act of war. They're still struggling to fight back.
A major poll across the US and four NATO member states reveals that majorities in each country view cyberattacks on critical infrastructure, particularly hospitals and energy grids, as acts of war. Despite this consensus, the allied nations remain divided on appropriate responses, with less than half believing that hacking political leaders' private communications constitutes an act of war. State-linked attacks have escalated dramatically - the 2024 Change Healthcare breach exposed 190 million US medical records, while a Russian cyberattack on UK NHS systems contributed to a patient's death. Iranian government-backed hackers also targeted Boston Children's Hospital in 2022.
Politico • Feb 22
REGULATION CYBERCRIME CYBERWAR
Ukrainian gets 5 years for helping North Koreans infiltrate US firms
A Ukrainian national was sentenced to five years in prison for providing stolen American identities to North Korean IT workers, enabling them to secure remote jobs at over 300 U.S. companies. The scheme generated millions of dollars that were funneled back to North Korea's nuclear weapons program, bypassing international sanctions. The operation involved sophisticated identity theft and remote work infiltration targeting tech companies, defense contractors, and financial institutions.
BleepingComputer • Feb 21
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China Punishes 'Excessively Pessimistic' Social Media Users
Chinese authorities deploy algorithmic surveillance to detect and punish citizens expressing pessimism or despair online, weaponizing AI-powered sentiment analysis for thought control and social engineering
The New York Times • Oct 7
GEOPOLITICS SURVEILLANCE CYBERWAR
US ends international push to combat fake news from hostile states
Washington terminates agreements with European countries to fight disinformation from Russia, China and Iran, abandoning coordinated efforts against state-sponsored fake news campaigns.
Financial Times • Sep 8
GEOPOLITICS CYBERWAR MEMETIC
Elections watchdog admits 'painful lessons learned' after Chinese hack
UK's Electoral Commission reveals it took three years and £250,000 to recover from Chinese cyber attack that accessed 40 million voters' private details, exposing massive security failures.
BBC • Sep 8
GEOPOLITICS PRIVACY CYBERWAR