A major information-sharing program at the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) has stumbled mightily because of security concerns involving the agency, according to the Department of Homeland Security’s inspector general.

A new IG report asserts that the sharing of threat indicators dropped 93% from 2020 to 2022 “because a key federal agency stopped sharing” cyber threat indicators, or CTIs, due to “unspecified security concerns” with transferring information to CISA.  

The cyber agency’s security posture was not the only problem. The inspector general report asserts that CISA did not determine the program’s cost and struggled to recruit and retain participants. This made it difficult for the watchdog to know whether the agency appropriately spent taxpayer funds. 

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said in a Pentagon memorandum made public this week that “Replicator” — the Defense Department program to rapidly deploy tens of thousands of low-cost drone weapons — is progressing and that “Replicator 2” is now planned. “In Replicator 1, we focused our aim on attritable autonomy, and we are on track with the initiative’s fielding plan for next summer,” Mr. Austin wrote in the memorandum.

While Replicator remains largely secret, military sources say the program is already paying off in bolstering deterrence against China in the Indo-Pacific region, specifically with regard to the prospect of Chinese military action against Taiwan. National Security Correspondent Bill Gertz reports the mass drone system means U.S. and allied forces will not need to achieve conventional air or naval superiority in East Asia, but will instead be able to deter attacks by denying China’s military the ability to conduct successful strikes in air, sea and ground areas.

Deputy Defense Secretary Kathleen Hicks announced in May that the “first tranche of Replicator capabilities include uncrewed surface vehicles (USV), uncrewed aerial systems (UAS) and counter-uncrewed aerial systems (c-UAS) of various sizes and payloads from several traditional and non-traditional vendors.” She said at the time that “in the air domain, the department will accelerate fielding of the Switchblade-600 loitering munition, produced by Simi Valley, CA-based AeroVironment Inc.”

The Biden administration has issued new sanctions on Russia’s Evil Corp cyber gang in an international crackdown conducted by American officials coordinating with their counterparts in the U.K. and Australia.

The Treasury Department this week sanctioned seven people and two entities associated with Evil Corp, while the Justice Department unsealed an indictment charging one gang member in connection to a ransomware attack that hit victims in Texas. Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco said the U.S. and its law enforcement partners abroad would ensure criminals will ultimately pay for their crimes.

The U.K.’s National Crime Agency called Evil Corp the “most pervasive cybercrime group to have ever operated,” in a report authored with the FBI and Australian Federal Police focused on the cyber gang’s actions. The report accused Evil Corp of coordinating with Russia’s intelligence services, documenting the cyber gang’s links and outreach to individual agencies doing Moscow’s bidding.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s recent veto of a bill that proponents viewed as aimed at promoting artificial intelligence safety has dealt a blow to regulators wanting to clamp down on the emerging tech.

The bill would have established new rules for large-scale AI models in the state that is home to Silicon Valley’s tech dynamos. Signing the bill could have paved the way for more state-level AI restrictions across the country.

“While well-intentioned, SB 1047 does not take into account whether an AI system is deployed in high-risk environments, involves critical decision-making or the use of sensitive data,” Mr. Newsom said in a veto statement this week. “Instead, the bill applies stringent standards to even the most basic functions — so long as a large system deploys it.”

The governor said he did not believe such an approach was best able to protect the public from what he described as “real threats” the new technology poses. The governor said the Golden State intends to partner with industry experts to better develop AI policy.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov recently declared that “denuclearizing North Korea is a closed issue,” as Moscow now “understands North Korea’s logic that nuclear weapons are a foundation of its defense.” He went on to say that Russia will stand with North Korea in resisting the U.S. push for expanded nuclear deterrence with both South Korea and Japan.

Joseph R. DeTrani, who served as special envoy for the Six-Party Talks with North Korea from 2003 to 2006, takes issue with Mr. Lavrov’s assertions, writing that “when the war in Ukraine ends, Russia will no longer need North Korean artillery and missiles and will likely be unable to provide North Korea with meaningful energy and food support.”

“That’s when North Korea will again rely on China — committed to the complete and verifiable denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula — in efforts to retain China’s economic lifeline for the energy, food and trade necessary for its survival,” writes Mr. DeTrani, an opinion contributor to Threat Status. “It will also be a time for North Korea to normalize relations with the United States — conditioned on complete and verifiable denuclearization — and be part of the family of nations, with the eventual lifting of sanctions and economic development assistance from the global community.”

• Oct. 4 — Targeting Taiwan: Beijing’s Playbook for Economic and Cyber Warfare, Foundation for Defense of Democracies

• Oct. 5-8 — 2024 Threat Conference, The Cipher Brief

• Oct. 7-9 — NVIDIA AI Summit, NVIDIA

• Oct. 8 — The Future of U.S. Strategy Toward Iran: A Bipartisan Roadmap for the Next Administration, Atlantic Council

• Oct. 21-24 — Gartner IT Symposium/Xpo, Gartner Conferences

• Nov. 8-10 — IISS Prague Defense Summit 2024, International Institute for Strategic Studies

• Nov. 21 — Competition Policy 2024: Urgent Questions Emerging within Digital Markets, Chatham House