U.S. Cyber "Security"

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The next major cyberattack could slip past unobserved and unstopped by the U.S. cyber defense agency, where political and operational pressures exacerbated by a hostile White House have led to veteran staff departing in droves, functions being shuttered and state partners scrambling for support.

Current and former insiders at the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency say the agency's ability to carry out its mission and core duties has been fundamentally weakened during the first nine months of the Trump administration. A government shutdown and the likelihood of further staff reductions have exacerbated already fraying conditions, they say.

Only about 35% of CISA staffers, who were working in January are still on the job, and as many as hundreds of those employees have been reassigned to other missions throughout the Department of Homeland Security such as immigration enforcement. Former officials describe those reassignments as unprecedented and say the constant shakeups are causing staff and outside partners who rely on CISA for guidance to question the agency's long-term stability and future as a central force in U.S. cybersecurity.

A new study from the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) and the University of Maryland has uncovered a startling gap in global communications security: roughly half of all geostationary satellite transmissions are unencrypted, leaving a vast array of sensitive data exposed to anyone with basic equipment.

Over three years, the research team used an $800 satellite receiver setup atop a UCSD building to capture data from geosynchronous satellites. What they found was alarming – thousands of T-Mobile users’ phone calls and texts, U.S. and Mexican military communications, critical infrastructure operations, and corporate traffic from banks and energy firms, all transmitted without encryption.

Other critical places believed to have been targeted by China over the years include New York City's Metropolitan Transportation Authority, 13 gas pipeline operators, the port of Houston and major phone companies.