Cyber Briefing – June 12, 2026

DIRECTOR’S NOTE: Read here

GOOGLE SUES CHINESE CYBERCRIMINALS OVER AI SCAMS: Google sued a Chinese cybercrime network on Friday, accusing it of using the company’s artificial intelligence to blast online financial scams to hundreds of thousands of Americans, The New York Times reports. The internet giant also said it was coordinating for the first time with the Federal Bureau of Investigation and wireless providers such as AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon to shut down the network, known as Outsider Enterprise. The Chinese group used Gemini, Google’s A.I. system, to create hundreds of fake websites mimicking companies like Google and YouTube and government operations like the Postal Service and New York’s E-ZPass service for highway tolls, the lawsuit said. Google warned that A.I. had supercharged the problem of online scams and said it was trying to get ahead of what it believed could be a surge of online fraud using Gemini and other A.I. tools..

SENATE PUSHES DoD TO CREATE UNMANNED COMMAND: The Senate Armed Services Committee’s defense policy bill for fiscal 2027 gives the green light for the Defense Department to establish a separate combatant command dedicated to autonomous systems, DefenseScoop reports. SASC’s $1.14 trillion National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) “encourages the department to adopt the future of warfare by permitting the establishment of the Robotic and Autonomous Systems Combatant Command,” according to a summary of the draft legislation published Thursday. If the language is approved by lawmakers, the new command would be led by a four-star general and focus on streamlining acquisition and delivery of unmanned systems to warfighters, according to a senior majority committee staffer who spoke to reporters Thursday on background.

• A proposal to the Senate’s annual defense policy bill that would have established a U.S. Cyber Force as the country’s latest military branch was narrowly defeated this week, according to multiple congressional sources, The Record reports. An amendment by Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) to the chamber’s fiscal 2027 national defense authorization bill that would have created the digital-focused service was defeated 14-13 when the Senate Armed Services Committee took up the nearly $1.2 trillion legislation behind closed doors this week. 

• The first national security crisis of the Trump administration began before it had even taken office. In November 2024, repeated sightings of unknown aerial vehicles paralyzed New Jersey and other areas of the East Coast. The anxious speculation and government investigations that followed revealed that most sightings were drones, many flown by hobbyists. This scare in the air brought to the homeland the brutal lesson that had been learned from conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East about how drones are transforming security. Cheap unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) leave Americans and our critical infrastructure vulnerable to surveillance, malicious acts, and even attack from a distance while operators remain relatively safe, Vice Admiral Peter Gautier (ret.) writes at the Atlantic Council. The U.S. should focus on better drone tracking, expanded law enforcement training, greater funding for counter-UAS systems, and improved interagency coordination.

CISA ACCESS TO MYTHOS ‘IMMINENT’: Recent discussions among top federal officials have floated designating the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency as the nexus to coordinate vulnerability scans across federal agencies with Antropic’s high-powered AI model Mythos. Three sources with knowledge of the discussions, one a White House official, told Nextgov/FCW that the idea is for CISA to scan federal agencies’ digital networks for public-facing vulnerabilities and other security flaws using Mythos. The discussions have occurred over the past few weeks, with the White House official telling Nextgov/FCW that, while CISA doesn’t yet use Mythos, agency access to the model is “imminent.”

• Cybersecurity officials in California and Texas confirmed Thursday that they are among states participating in a new Anthropic cyber defense initiative designed to help state, local, tribal and territorial governments (SLTTs) use AI to identify system vulnerabilities before attackers can exploit them, Government Technology reports. After months of working with and convening public-sector cybersecurity leaders, Anthropic has pledged up to $15 million in credits to help SLTTs use its Claude Security, Claude Code and the latest Opus 4.8 model to identify vulnerabilities and help remediate them, Danielle Cohen, Anthropic policy communications lead, state and local, said. The inaugural cohort launched Thursday and additional groups are expected to begin work over the summer.

NAVIGATING DUALITY IN SPACE: Space systems increasingly provide civilian services, such as communications, navigation, and environmental monitoring, while also supporting military and intelligence functions. This inherent duality, in which the same satellite can serve peaceful and militaristic roles, could make satellite activities difficult for governments, militaries, and commercial operators to interpret. As a result, observers could misread potentially benign behaviors as threatening. Misinterpretations pose risks to international security and the peaceful use of outer space because nations could take preemptive or defensive measures that escalate to conflict. Despite these stakes, no international norms or governance framework specifically addresses these risks associated with dual-use space systems. The process of developing a behavior- and effect-based framework should include inputs from governments, industry, and academic and research communities and prioritize progress over complete consensus, according to a new RAND report. 

WORLD CUP ATTACK AUTOMATION KICKS OFF: The 2026 FIFA World Cup is a once-in-a-generation opportunity, and threat actors have already begun capitalizing on it. The 2026 FIFA World Cup, which kicked off Thursday, has already broken records for the most host nations, the most matches and the highest amount of prize money to date for winning teams. Arctic Wolf’s observations reveal that malicious infrastructure was already in place and fully operational months before kickoff, that it is overwhelmingly mobile-first, and that it has expanded its scope beyond defrauding fans, to directly targeting the people and organizations running the event. Since January 2026, researchers observed more than 10,000 World Cup themed domains pop up, at a rate of roughly 2,000 new domains per month. Not all are malicious, but with generative AI now producing the sites, the content and even the apps, attack automation has reached a new level.

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A new executive order on artificial intelligence and cybersecurity sends a clear signal: Advanced AI now sits at the center of how the United States thinks about cyber defense, national security, critical infrastructure resilience and strategic competition. In this episode of Cyber Focus, Frank Cilluffo sits down with Daniel Kroese, vice president of global policy at Palo Alto Networks and a senior fellow at the McCrary Institute, to unpack what the order means in practice. Kroese argues that the most important signal is the administration’s effort to bring government, industry and critical infrastructure operators together quickly — not simply to study AI risk, but to operationalize AI-enabled defense while preserving the innovation advantage that gives the United States its head start.

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Artificial intelligence

Anthropic disputes Fable 5 AI jailbreak

Anthropic has disputed allegations of a prompt-based jailbreak affecting its recently launched Claude Fable 5 AI model, underscoring the robustness of the advanced classifier system and extensive red-teaming efforts that underpinned the model’s deployment. Claude Fable 5 became generally available on Tuesday, when Anthropic introduced it as a powerful Mythos-class AI model with safeguards that restrict its use in high-risk domains such as cybersecurity, where Mythos has proved particularly potent. In sensitive areas such as cybersecurity, where it could be abused to develop exploits, and biology, where it could be leveraged to develop bioweapons and chemical weapons, the model automatically falls back to the less capable Claude Opus 4.8. (SECURITYWEEK.COM)

Cybercrime

Ransomware gangs cut off from EUR 336 million ‘AudiA6’ crypto laundering pipeline

An international law enforcement operation has dismantled one of the cryptocurrency laundering services most trusted by ransomware gangs and cybercriminal networks, cutting off a key financial pipeline used to wash hundreds of millions in illicit profits. The service, known as ‘AudiA6’, is suspected of laundering more than EUR 336 million between 2022 and 2025. Investigators believe the platform became a central hub for ransomware actors and cybercriminals seeking to cash out stolen digital assets while hiding the money trail from authorities. (EUROPOL.EUROPA.EU)

Disinformation

Maine breach portal abused to publish fake data breach disclosures

In an unusual misinformation campaign, fraudulent data breach disclosures were submitted to Maine’s official breach portal and publicly posted before their legitimacy could be verified, prompting companies to deny the claims. A notice allegedly filed by multiplayer social virtual reality platform VRChat is the most recent entry in the state Attorney General’s breach disclosure database. However, a company representative told BleepingComputer that the breach notification is fake and has been filed using the name of a fictitious employee. (BLEEPINGCOMPUTER.COM)

Energy

WECC and NERC release joint Wyoming disturbance report

On November 13, 2025, a cascading outage of dozens of transmission lines led to the loss of more than 1 GW of load and 4.5 GW of generation within seconds, leaving roughly 250,000 customers in four states without power for hours. To understand the underlying causes and contributing factors, WECC and NERC worked with the entities involved to conduct a comprehensive analysis of the incident. This report outlines the observations of that analysis, providing details of the disturbance, contributing factors, and actions to be considered to prevent a similar event. WECC and NERC evaluate bulk power system disturbances that may affect reliability, with the objective of disseminating lessons learned to the industry. This report is intended to inform industry leaders, operators, and regulatory bodies as they work to ensure the reliability of the bulk power system. (NERC.COM)

Japanese energy firm loses drive with data of 10.9 million clients

Kyushu Electric Power Co., Inc. has disclosed a physical security incident that affects private data of more than 10 million customers. In an official announcement, the company explains that the IT staff regularly performs backups to manage server storage. Due to capacity constraints, on April 27 an external storage device was used for the task. The drive was then stored in a server room cabinet protected by multiple physical security layers. On May 26, when IT staff went to retrieve it, they found the cabinet had been left unlocked and the driver was missing. (BLEEPINGCOMPUTER.COM)

Social media

Novo reports data breach, tells clinical trial patients to ‘remain vigilant’

As cybersecurity threats have proliferated across industries in recent years, biopharma companies have emerged as prominent targets, with intellectual property, patient data and other sensitive information at stake. Now, Novo Nordisk is the latest drug giant to report a data breach. In a Thursday incident notice, Novo said it recently identified a security breach affecting certain internal IT systems, adding that “a limited amount of information related to patients participating in some of our clinical trials” had been exposed. As part of its investigation, the company found that certain data were “copied externally without authorisation,” according to the notice. (FIERCEPHARMA.COM)

Supply chain

OceanLotus hits Vietnam investors with SPECTRALVIPER in FireAnt attack

The Vietnam-aligned threat actor known as OceanLotus has been attributed to two distinct campaigns that targeted domestic entities and stock investors with a backdoor known as SPECTRALVIPER. The campaigns involve a prolonged cyber espionage operation aimed at a Vietnamese infrastructure and transport construction corporation between mid-2024 and February 2026, as well as a supply chain attack leveraging FireAnt Metakit, a popular software platform used by stock investors in Vietnam. The second activity cluster took place from October 2025 to March 2026. (THEHACKERNEWS.COM)

Water

Once beset by power outages, Puerto Ricans also hit with severe water shortages

Thousands of Puerto Ricans are struggling with water shortages so severe that the governor of the U.S. territory has activated the National Guard and emergency responders are fielding calls every day. Officials have not publicly pinpointed the cause, with shortages largely affecting some areas in the island’s most populated cities, including the capital San Juan. The island’s utilities company extracts water from rivers, reservoirs and underground aquifers that have in the past provided sufficient supply for the island’s 3.2 million people. Residents are being forced to buy potable water, spend money at laundromats and haul heavy buckets up several flights of stairs to wash dishes, flush toilets and take showers. (APNEWS.COM)

WATCH: White House National Cyber Director Sean Cairncross, CISA Acting Director Nick Andersen and more top leaders at the recent McCrary Cyber Summit

Malware

OnyxC2 stealer offers cybercriminals enterprise-grade theft for $250 a month

The OnyxC2 stealer surfaced on a cybercrime network earlier this year and is available through Malware-as-a-Service (MaaS) for hire starting at $250 per month. The rental price for OnyxC2 is at the higher end of stealer costs. This is primarily justified by its stealth and reach. The developers offer several options: ’normal’ at $250 per month, and ‘premium’ (which includes HNVC) at $500 per month); and are sufficiently confident to offer refunds if the build gets detected. A third option is described as ‘private’: “Source code + installation guide and we can install it for you if you don’t have knowledge. Only 6k$.” This last option doesn’t specify a monthly price. The implication is that it is an outright purchase, but this is also not specified. (SECURITYWEEK.COM)

Hackers use UAE-India diplomatic lure to deliver SHEETCREEP RAT via Google Sheets

An active espionage campaign tracked as SHEETCREEP that leverages a UAE‑India diplomatic-themed ISO lure to deliver a compact C# remote access trojan (RAT) and uses Google Sheets as its command-and-control (C2) channel. The ISO, named UAE-India_Strategic_Partnership_Week.iso, contains a deceptively iconized LNK file that launches a C# dropper. The dropper extracts a decoy PDF to temp, writes the RAT payload to %LOCALAPPDATA%\Microsoft\Vault\vaultsvc.exe, sets Hidden and System attributes, and establishes persistence via a programmatically created scheduled task named WindowsVaultSyncService. (GBHACKERS.COM)

Phishing

Phishing attack volume down 20%, but risk still rising

Phishing attacks are down across most industries, yet researchers argue the phishing threat is higher today than ever, as the fewer attacks that are perpetrated are becoming more dangerous. In its 2026 annual phishing report, Zscaler researchers framed the trend not as a drop but as a “rebalancing” — threat actors moving from wide spray-and-pray campaigns to more focused attacks with higher conversion rates. Zscaler did track a huge 58% rise in phishing activity in the year following the release of ChatGPT, either thanks to or irrespective of said chatbot. Ever since then, however, the trendline has only gone in the other direction. (DARKREADING.COM)

Trends

Extortion-only attacks increase, with data theft dominating ransomware claims

Insurance experts have urged organizations to reduce their exposure to extortion-only attacks and better manage the consequences when they occur, after revealing a surge in this category of threats. Insurer Resilience said in a new report that 65% of extortion-related claims it handled in the second half of 2025 did not involve data encryption. That’s up from 49% in the first half of the year. By the end of 2025, only 13% of attacks relied on encryption alone, while data theft – on its own or combined with encryption – accounted for 87% of ransomware claims, it noted. (INFOSECURITY-MAGAZINE.COM)

Vulnerabilities

New GreatXML exploit bypasses Windows BitLocker via recovery partition XML files

Security researcher Chaotic Eclipse (aka Nightmare-Eclipse and MSNightmare) has released a new Windows BitLocker bypass dubbed GreatXML, a day after they published an exploit for Microsoft Defender. “This was an accidental discovery, it took a total of 4 hours to find this,” the researcher said in a post on Blogger. “If you ever attempted to use Windows Defender Offline Scan, you’re automatically vulnerable to a BitLocker bypass. I’m unsure if you can still trigger the bug without ever using the offline scan feature, because you can definitely.” (THEHACKERNEWS.COM)

China

To stop Chinese dual-use battery dominance, the United States and South Korea need to team up

OPINION: China’s dominance in batteries enables key military capabilities, including drones, robotics, naval mining, placing US and allied forces at a disadvantage. China could establish a global monopoly in dual-use batteries, including in the South Korean market, despite Seoul being the world’s second-most capable actor in the battery market. The United States and South Korea must cooperate comprehensively across the whole dual-use battery supply chain and avoid unnecessary trade barriers on allies and friendly partners. (ATLANTICCOUNCIL.ORG)

Iran

Iran and proxies have carried out or threatened 14 attacks since war’s start: Bulletin

Since the February start of the war with Iran, the country and its proxies have “inspired lone wolf actors in several instances that resulted in attacks against critical infrastructure and US citizens,” according to a state homeland security intelligence bulletin reviewed by ABC News. The bulletin, citing information from the Department of Homeland Security, cited 14 threats and actual attacks undertaken by Iranian proxy groups, cyber actors and lone wolves since Feb. 28, 2026, including a deadly shooting in Austin, Texas; a cyberattack against a medical technology company that wiped out more than 200,000 systems, servers, and mobile devices and extracted 50 terabytes of critical data; the vehicle ramming attack at Temple Israel in Michigan and the attack on the White House correspondents’ dinner. (ABCNEWS.COM)

Iran hackers claim breach of California systems in retaliation for hit on water facilities

Iran hackers claimed that they breached California water systems today in retaliation for alleged U.S. strikes that damaged civilian water infrastructure in southern Iran. Iran state broadcaster IRIB said Wednesday that U.S. missiles damaged water facilities that serve residents in Sirik county in Hormozgan province, located on the coast of the Strait of Hormuz. A New York Times analysis said evidence suggests that drinking water storage structures were hit, though it was not known if the strike was intentional. In a statement posted on their Telegram channel, the Handala hacking group claimed “retribution has reached the heart of America” as “California’s water facilities have been hacked by Handala’s cyber team.” (THREATBEAT.COM)

What it would take to seize Iran’s Kharg Island according to top former military leaders

With President Donald Trump proclaiming his desire to take Iran’s Kharg Island — whether he actually means it or not – we reached out to some former military commanders to get a sense of what it would take to seize and hold it and how telegraphing such a move could impact operations. The island is Iran’s main center of oil exportation, and a U.S. seizure would have tremendous military and economic impacts. An attempt to take it by force and hold it would be an extremely risky operation, by all accounts. (TWZ.COM)

Artificial intelligence

As some AI firms go public, China is being shut out

When SpaceX starts trading this week, one group will be noticeably absent from the frenzy: investors from China and Hong Kong. They are also likely to miss out on the upcoming initial public offering for OpenAI. SpaceX, Elon Musk’s rocket maker and artificial intelligence company, has excluded investors in China and Hong Kong from participating in its I.P.O., according to five people with knowledge of the decision, who asked not to be identified because they were not authorized to speak publicly. OpenAI, another leading AI company, is likely to impose the same restriction when it goes public this year, said three people with knowledge of the discussion. (NYTIMES.COM)

GSA seeks to add 60 more agencies to federal AI testing platform by end of 2026

A General Services Administration official said (GSA) plans to onboard 60 additional federal agencies to the agency’s USAi artificial intelligence (AI) evaluation platform by the end of 2026, significantly expanding a governmentwide effort to help agencies test, evaluate, and deploy AI tools in a secure environment. Speaking on June 11 at the Government Service Delivery conference in Washington, D.C., GSA Deputy Administrator Michael Lynch said more than 25 federal agencies are already using the USAi platform. USAi, which GSA unveiled last year, provides agencies with a shared environment to evaluate generative AI tools without building and maintaining separate testing platforms. (MERITALK.COM)

It’s not too late to fix the AI exports program

OPINION: The strategic logic is sound. China is moving fast to position its AI products as the default across Southeast Asia, Latin America, and other contested markets. While chip constraints prevent it from offering full-stack solutions as advanced as America’s, it will pair the chips it can export with broader tech infrastructure and state backing that American firms struggle to match. If its export push succeeds, a version of the 5G story could repeat, with Chinese infrastructure embedded in critical digital supply chains throughout the developing world. But the U.S. program’s Call for Proposals (the Call), released last month, suggests its design will not meet the moment. (JUSTSECURITY.ORG)

Critical infrastructure

Critical undersea infrastructure, ISR fusion, and NATO decision latency on Germany’s northern flank

OPINION: The Baltic critical undersea infrastructure (CUI) has become part of NATO’s sensor-decision environment, tracing the very pathway through which cable disruption can degrade ISR fusion, slow attribution, and produce decision latency. This makes the case of Germany’s digital-sovereignty debate operationally relevant by exposing the gap between Berlin’s desire for technological autonomy and NATO’s immediate reliance on commercially enabled, interoperable ISR systems to monitor and defend the Baltic Sea. Any degradation in the infrastructure layer can become a transatlantic intelligence problem before it becomes purely a German military one. As United States attention is pulled between Europe and the Middle East, and Germany faces renewed questions over American force posture, Baltic CUI protection becomes a test of whether NATO can preserve decision speed under strategic distraction. (SMALLWARSJOURNAL.COM)

Data centers

Abbott seeks new limits on Texas data centers 

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) is taking steps to implement new restrictions on data centers in the state, including proposals to set water-efficient technology requirements and repeal tax incentives. The Republican governor directed the Texas Public Utility Commission (PUC) and the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) on Wednesday to “take immediate steps” to safeguard state residents from economic ramifications resulting from these projects. “Data centers must operate in ways that reduce costs for residential electricity customers, do not drain water needed for our communities and take into consideration the needs of our neighborhoods,” Abbott said in a public statement. (THEHILL.COM)

The Army wants to build a better data center. Can they do it?

The Army got more than 200 responses to a March open-ended call for private-industry ideas on how the service could upgrade its infrastructure with new contracting models and public-private partnerships. Among the 120 that were deemed viable were proposals to build data centers on four Army installations—and officials are now studying the idea. Aware of the immense controversy surrounding data centers, officials are trying to get ahead of community concerns by requiring the centers to generate their own power and mitigate their water usage, while meeting with local residents to address their questions directly, an official told Defense One. (DEFENSEONE.COM)

Defense

Army commissions 3 more tech executives into Detachment 201

The Army commissioned a new batch of tech executives into its reserve ranks this week, the service said, the second cohort to enter a new unit officials say is meant to bring the private sector and military closer together to boost defense technology. The Army established Detachment 201 last year to recruit tech execs into the reserves as senior advisors, ones who are tasked with helping the Army quickly develop and scale modern capabilities. At the time, the service tapped four technologists from Palantir, OpenAI and Meta into the Army Reserve as lieutenant colonels. (DEFENSESCOOP.COM)

Energy

Solar capacity up 20% from last summer: EIA

Utility-scale solar generation is expected to increase 19% this summer compared to last summer, reflecting a 20% increase in capacity, while coal generation is expected to decline by 2%, according to a report from the U.S. Energy Information Administration. This summer is also set to be hotter than last year’s, EIA said, with an anticipated 3% increase in cooling degree days from June to September this year. That increase is set to correspond with a 3% increase in generation, or an additional 1,620 billion kWh. “We expect the increase will be met almost entirely by increased generation from renewable fuel sources,” EIA said in a Short-Term Energy Outlook report released Tuesday. (UTILITYDIVE.COM)

Transmission projects bolster New York, New England summer reliability: NPCC

New York, New England and the Canadian provinces of Ontario, Québec, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, are expected to have adequate electricity supplies for typical weather patterns this summer, according to an assessment published Wednesday. However, under higher peak load levels there is some chance that the Maritimes, New England and New York “will need to rely on operating procedures in addition to imports to address resource shortages,” the Northeast Power Coordinating Council said in its 2026 Summer Reliability Assessment. The higher peak load levels have a roughly 7% chance of happening, according to the report. (UTILITYDIVE.COM)

Exercises

Cyber Europe 2026: All eyes on the EU’s collective response and resilience

The two-day exercise simulated realistic large-scale cybersecurity incidents that escalated to cyber crises affecting EU’s interconnected transportation systems. Participants needed to analyze advanced technical cybersecurity incidents, while dealing with the pressure generated by complex scenarios, inspired by real-case events and threats. Central to their efforts was the effective sharing of relevant information with the right stakeholders and peers, contributing to an adequate level of situational awareness at technical, operational and political level. To bring this year’s edition to life, ENISA collaborated with over 100 leading cybersecurity experts from national cybersecurity agencies, EU and EFTA’s public and private sectors, as well as from EU Entities, bringing together over 5000 participants. (ENISA.EUROPA.EU)

IT modernization

Coast Guard pushes digital transformation, targets AI on every desktop by 2027

The U.S. Coast Guard is accelerating a servicewide digital transformation effort that aims to modernize operations, improve mission outcomes, and deliver artificial intelligence (AI) tools to every desktop by 2027. Brian Campo, the Coast Guard’s director of technology readiness and chief data and AI officer, outlined the service’s digital strategy during a June 10 discussion on Federal News Network’s Cloud Exchange. The strategy, released in May, focuses on digital transformation, data modernization, AI adoption, and next-generation maritime systems. (MERITALK.COM)

Resilience

Most cybersecurity teams struggle to find time for training on new cyber threats

Many cybersecurity teams are struggling to keep up with emerging technologies and the challenges around securing their organizations against them because they don’t have the time to undertake the necessary training, a new study has warned. The research, published by ISC2, asked nearly 1,000 cybersecurity leaders from large enterprises around the world how their organization approach cybersecurity team training. Nearly three-quarters of respondents (73%) said their organization’s security training budget has increased over the past year, as businesses react to the emergence of new technologies and cybersecurity challenges that accompany them. (INFOSECURITY-MAGAZINE.COM)

Senate plans fast action on Trump’s DNI pick

Senate Majority Leader John Thune told reporters Thursday he will try to get President Donald Trump’s pick for director of national intelligence confirmed “as quickly as possible.” “I don’t know what realistic is, but we’re gonna probe the limits of it,” the South Dakota Republican said. Trump on Thursday afternoon said he’d be nominating Jay Clayton, currently leading the office of the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, to the role. Within hours, the Senate Intelligence Committee had set a hearing for Wednesday and business meeting for Thursday. (ROLLCALL.COM)

Senate Democrats block short-term extensions of FISA 702 spy powers

Senate Democrats on Thursday blocked the GOP’s attempt to pass a short-term extension of the nation’s spy powers by unanimous consent. Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) asked the chamber for unanimous consent to extend Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) until July 2, but Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) objected. Wyden also objected to a subsequent proposal from Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) to extend the authority for one week. (THEHILL.COM)

CISA adds one known exploited vulnerability to catalog

CISA has added one new vulnerability to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV) Catalog, based on evidence of active exploitation: CVE-2026-10520 Ivanti Sentry OS Command Injection Vulnerability. This type of vulnerability is a frequent attack vector for malicious cyber actors and poses significant risks to the federal enterprise. (CISA.GOV)

TO BE INCLUDED IN THIS CALENDAR, SUBMIT YOUR SECURITY-FOCUSED EVENT FOR CONSIDERATION

NORTH KOREA: On June 12 join the Indo-Pacific Security Initiative (IPSI) of the Atlantic Council’s Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security for the launch of Nonresident Senior Fellow Jieun Baek’s latest book, “Privileged but Powerless.” Baek’s second book on North Korea draws on hundreds of hours of rigorous fieldwork and interviews with defectors to examine a surprising yet critical vector of regime instability. In a fireside chat, Baek will discuss how North Korea’s system of privilege and control shapes elite insecurity at the highest levels of the regime.

HYBRID WARFARE: On June 15 the Atlantic Council’s Eurasia Center will host an expert discussion on how the United States can best counter malign Russian and Chinese hybrid operations. Moscow and Beijing have long pursued campaigns of subversion, sabotage, and subterfuge against the West. Today, those efforts appear to be converging. Many of Beijing’s dual-use technologies have been instrumental in sustaining Russia’s war against Ukraine. Eurasia Center Senior Director and former US Ambassador to Ukraine John Herbst moderates a conversation on what the Russia-China hybrid axis means for Washington and its allies.

DIGITAL INFRASTRUCTURE: On June 16 the Atlantic Council’s Democracy + Tech Initiative will host a discussion to launch a new report examining the future of global connectivity financing and strategic competition over digital infrastructure. As China expands its Digital Silk Road through state-backed financing and integrated technology offerings, the United States and its allies face growing pressure to develop a credible alternative for expanding internet access in underserved markets. 

DIB: Join CNAS on June 16 for a fireside conversation with DoD’s Michael Cadenazzi examining the challenges and priorities shaping U.S. munitions production and defense industrial base policy. This event will examine how policymakers, industry partners, and acquisition officials can work together to build the surge capacity the United States needs, in a focused conversation on the future of U.S. munitions production and defense industrial base policy.

NUCLEAR: Why does the U.S. struggle while nuclear leaders such as China and France succeed? A combination of standardized designs, predictable regulation, and rapid regulatory approval all appear to play a role. And while bipartisan support for nuclear energy has grown due to its role in AI-driven energy demand and climate goals, political anxieties in the United States persist. Join AEI on June 18 to dissect the economic, regulatory, and political tensions that keep the U.S. lagging behind when it comes to nuclear energy.

MARITIME SECURITY: Please join the CSIS Defense and Security Department (DSD) and the U.S. Naval Institute (USNI) on June 18 for a Maritime Security Dialogue event featuring Lieutenant General Eric Austin, USMC, CG, MCCDC / DC, CD&I / PAE-MC. LtGen Austin will sit down with Dr. Seth G. Jones, president, CSIS Defense and Security Department, to discuss the future growth of the Marine Corps, lessons from the recent wars in Ukraine and the Middle East, and implications for the Indo-Pacific. Rear Admiral Raymond A. Spicer, USN (Ret.), chief executive officer and publisher, U.S. Naval Institute, will offer opening remarks. 

NUCLEAR: For the first time, the United States is preparing to deter two nuclear adversaries­­­, Russia and China. In today’s post-New START environment, U.S. adversaries remain committed to weakening American resolve and undermining Washington’s commitment to its allies. Join Hudson Senior Fellow and Keystone Defense Initiative Director Dr. Rebeccah Heinrichs and Administrator of the National Nuclear Security Administration Brandon Williams for a June 18 discussion on the administration’s priorities in strengthening the U.S. nuclear enterprise.

AI AND EXPORT CONTROL: Join House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Brian Mast and Senator Jim Banks for a June 25 fireside chat hosted by the Hudson Institute on Congress’s role in U.S. export control strategy to outcompete China in technology and AI development. The conversation will examine ways to close loopholes, guard America’s most critical technologies, and prevent Beijing from leveraging American innovation against American interests. 

GLOBAL SECURITY: Join the CSIS Defense and Security Department on June 30 for its annual Global Security Forum. This year’s conference will center on the theme “America at 250: A Defining Moment for American Statecraft and Military Power.: Through keynote addresses and expert panel discussions with government, industry, and finance experts, the Forum will examine how the tools of statecraft are being redefined and how the United States can harness innovation, rebuild industrial capacity, strengthen deterrence, and renew the foundations of leadership in a more dangerous world.

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