Senior political appointees at DHS during President Trump’s second term requested that the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency clandestinely acquire a voting machine, attempt to hack it, and deliver findings to the White House. Career CISA staff reacted with alarm, saying the plan inverted the agency’s mission to defend systems and included instructions not to notify the vendor about any flaws - raising fears the information could be used to invalidate election results. The request was never executed; staff pushed back that it was impractical in part because agents with the needed capabilities had recently been laid off under a Department of Government Efficiency initiative, and the appointees eventually ceased pursuing it.
The episode underscores a broader dismantling of federal election-security capacity: CISA has lost roughly a third of its workforce amid more than 1,000 departures and faces proposed budget cuts that could force hundreds more layoffs. State election officials report that CISA was largely absent during critical 2025-2026 preparations, forcing states to buy their own sensors and draft contingency plans with vendors while losing access to federal intelligence and coordinated services. Years of trust built through confidential information-sharing and penetration testing have been eroded by record declassifications and politically driven rhetoric, prompting congressional calls for investigations even as the White House defends its handling of election security.
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The Byzantine Generals Problem explores the challenges of achieving consensus among distributed parties when communication can be unreliable or deceptive. It highlights that even with honest participants, uncertainty persists due to potential message loss or lies, complicating coordinated actions. (gravitypersists.github.io)
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A coordinated attack infected over 300 Tor exit nodes with malware to intercept SSH connections and steal data. The Tor Project's team responded quickly, shutting down and flagging the compromised relays to prevent further damage. (kaba.cx)
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Mozilla revoked eight eMudhra intermediate certificates after their private keys were compromised, enabling attackers to issue fraudulent HTTPS certificates. The organization has updated its trusted certificate lists and advised trust store operators to take protective measures. (groups.google.com)
Apple's iPadOS 27 update has removed a key feature that allows users to control what appears on external displays while multitasking, disrupting teaching and presentation workflows. The change causes sensitive notes and poll results to become visible to audiences, creating privacy and usability issues. (teddysvoronos.com)
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