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Update to this. 25 days later, White Date is still down.
And Martha Root, the hacker, explained their motivations here, but not any technical details, which they promise are coming soon.
"No, this didn’t happen live on stage. And no it wasn’t a moment straight out of a hacker movie. It was mostly timing, a bit of performance and things that were already unfolding."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lJsS8lqCpwU
https://elk.zone/infosec.exchange/@lorenzofb/115844030264996434
NEW: Ireland is working on a law to regulate the use of spyware by the police.
There's no details yet, but the Irish government promises to balance the need to fight serious crime with spyware, with the need to respect privacy and human rights.
In this story I also included a little history lesson, a quick look back at Europe's two decades of using spyware.
https://techcrunch.com/2026/01/22/ireland-proposes-new-law-allowing-police-to-use-spyware/
These are good pieces on the alleged U.S. cyberattack against the Venezuelan power grid. It seems that for now the skepticism is warranted until we get more details and some independent confirmation from threat intelligence/infrastrucure researchers.
1) This Linkedin post by @msbrumfield
2) This blog post by @dangoodin
3) And here's the New York Times piece that cites "U.S. officials briefed on the operation."
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/15/us/politics/cyberattack-venezuela-military.html
NEW: Nicholas Moore, a hacker who broke into the systems of the U.S. Supreme Court and the Department of Veteran Affairs, stole the personal data of victims and then posted it online on his @ihackthegovernment Instagram account.
Moore faces a maximum of a year in prison and a fine of up to $100,000.
http://techcrunch.com/2026/01/16/supreme-court-hacker-posted-stolen-government-data-on-instagram/
NEW: 24-year-old Nicholas Moore will plead guilty to hacking the U.S. Supreme Court electronic filing system in 2023.
There aren't a lot of public details about this case for now. It will be interesting to find out what he accessed or stole.
https://techcrunch.com/2026/01/13/man-to-plead-guilty-to-hacking-us-supreme-court-filing-system/
This always works.
As of 18:45 UTC (1:45 pm ET/10:15 Tehran time) the internet has dropped to zero in Iran, according to Kertik.
(Chart via @dougmadory)
NEW: The internet in Iran is nearly completely shut down, according to monitoring firms.
The blackout comes in the midst of countrywide protests that have lasted for days after spikes in prices and shortages of basic goods. The govenrment has responded with a violent crackdown.
“I think we’re at a near-total disconnection from the outside world now,” said Amir Rashidi, an Iranian cybersecurity researcher.
http://techcrunch.com/2026/01/08/internet-collapses-in-iran-amid-protests-over-economic-crisis/
NEW: U.S. insurance giant Aflac says its June data breach affected 22.6 million people.
The hackers, the company says, stole data such as Social Security numbers, government IDs, and health information.
What's up with all these "secret location" Barcelona offensive cybersecurity conferences?
NEW: Cisco discovered a Chinese hacking campaign targeting an unknown number of customers.
The hackers have been exploiting a zero-day in some of Cisco's most popular products "since at least late November 2025," the company said.
There is no patch available at this point.
And Haaretz also had a good story on the flow of Israeli offensive cybersecurity workers to Barcelona.
If you’re wondering about the offensive cybersecurity and spyware scene in Barcelona, I wrote a deep dive into it earlier this year.
https://techcrunch.com/2025/01/13/how-barcelona-became-an-unlikely-hub-for-spyware-startups/
There's a new offensive cybersecurity conference in Barcelona. The tagline: "Sun, seafood, and spyware."
That rings a bell...🤔
NEW: Delivery giant DoorDash disclosed a data breach impacting an unspecified number of users.
Hackers stole names, emails, phone numbers, and physical addresses, but DoorDash said that “no sensitive information was accessed by the unauthorized third party." 🤔
NEW: Cybersecurity firm Deepwatch laid off around 80 people citing AI the reason.
CEO John DiLullo said the company “is aligning our organization to accelerate our significant investments in AI and automation.”
A current employee said that Deepwatch is “doing something with AI and agentic AI but it sounds like bullshit.”
NEW: The U.S. Congressional Budget Office was hacked.
@GossiTheDog says that the cause may be an unpatched Cisco ASA firewall. I asked CBO about that but it did not respond to the question.
https://techcrunch.com/2025/11/07/congressional-budget-office-confirms-it-was-hacked/
NEW: The Paragon spyware scandal in Italy widens again.
A political consultant who works with left-wing politicians, who are part of the opposition party Partito Democratico, has now come out as the latest target.
"It is time to ask a very simple question: Why? Why me?" Francesco Nicodemo said.
@jtk thank you, I appreciate you saying that.