Washington correspondent for The New York Times focused on cyber conflict, digital espionage and intelligence. Prior stops at WSJ, Reuters, National Journal. https://www.nytimes.com/by/dustin-volz
@dustinvolz.bsky.social
Dustin Volz
@dustinvolz.bsky.social
@dustinvolz.bsky.social@dustinvolz.bsky.socialNew: OpenAI ignored warnings from its own employees and independent security researchers who said they needed better safety measures at the company. www.nytimes.com/2026/09/29/t...
nytimes.comOpenAI Ignored Employees’ Warnings About Safely Testing A.I. Models (Gift Article)Employees and security researchers said that they had cautioned the company on safely testing its A.I. models and strengthening its corporate infrastructure, but that OpenAI did not listen.
@sheeraf.bsky.socialReposted by @dustinvolz.bsky.socialNEW- OpenAI ignored warnings from its own employees and independent security researchers who said they needed better safety measures at the company.
nytimes.comOpenAI Ignored Employees Who Warned It Wasn’t Doing Enough About SecurityEmployees and security researchers said they had cautioned the company on safely testing its A.I. models and strengthening its corporate infrastructure, but OpenAI did not listen.
@dustinvolz.bsky.socialF.B.I. Vows to Pursue ShinyHunters Hackers After Personnel Data Theft www.nytimes.com/2026/09/29/u...
@dustinvolz.bsky.socialAdding to confusion and chaos, ShinyHunters says in new statement they won't publish hacked FBI data publicly online -- but experts warn they could still sell to other criminals or foreign governments.
@dustinvolz.bsky.socialNew: FBI in internal memo says it believes ShinyHunters may have stolen private data on all employees. Fears of longterm consequences of breach magnify as hackers threaten to leak everything online by end of Tuesday.
www.nytimes.com/2026/09/28/u...
nytimes.comEmbarrassing Breach at F.B.I. Fuels Fears of Harm to Its Employees (Gift Article)In an internal memo, the F.B.I. said it believed the hackers may have stolen sensitive information on all of its employees.
@dustinvolz.bsky.socialLate to this, but my former @wsj.com colleagues had a great story a couple weeks ago relying on internal documents from a Chinese hackers-for-hire firm showing how AI is being used to organize and analyze huge stockpiles of hacked data from foreign governments www.wsj.com/tech/how-a-c...
@dustinvolz.bsky.social"One blogger compared Western A.I. fears to novels like Mary Shelley’s “Frankenstein” and the motif that man is punished for trying to create life, the exclusive domain of God." www.nytimes.com/2026/09/27/w...
@dustinvolz.bsky.socialNew from FBI: “While the point of breach is still undetermined—whether a third-party or the FBI’s enterprise—we are actively and aggressively investigating this matter + working closely with those third-party providers that support FBIJobs(.)gov to mitigate any/all risk”
@dustinvolz.bsky.social“What worries me most is how any criminal with a grudge could use this data to target and physically harm not only the F.B.I. agents who investigated them, but also those agents’ families,” former senior FBI official Cynthia Kaiser said.
www.nytimes.com/2026/09/23/u...
@dustinvolz.bsky.socialThe apparent ShinyHunters hack of the FBI
1) appears real
2) is alarming for counterintel reasons but also the possibility of criminals seeking retribution against FBI agents
3) is just latest security lapse at an FBI that has suffered a series of major breaches
nytimes.comHackers Say They Stole Thousands of Sensitive F.B.I. Personnel Records (Gift Article)The compromise, if confirmed, would be the latest in a string of cybersecurity failures at the F.B.I., which said it was investigating the matter.
@dustinvolz.bsky.socialLeah Stokes, a professor of environmental politics at University of California, Santa Barbara, wrote that A.I. was “eating up all our attention” and argued that climate change posed the more concrete danger, citing deadly heat waves in Europe this summer and a horrific glacier collapse in Nepal.
@dustinvolz.bsky.social“In terms of things that could be the end of humanity, I think A.I. is a bigger risk,” said Toby Ord, a researcher at Oxford University and author of “The Precipice: Existential Risk and the Future of Humanity.”
@peterbakernyt.bsky.socialReposted by @dustinvolz.bsky.socialStill at it: Russia targeting Americans with covert online disinformation to undermine public confidence in the midterm elections, using a familiar playbook to inject chaos into the voting season, per US intelligence. www.nytimes.com/2026/09/18/u...
@baylisswagner.bsky.socialReposted by @dustinvolz.bsky.socialScoop: John Cornyn & George W. Bush are headlining a Dallas fundraiser tonight for all of the Senate GOP nominees in tossup races—except Ken Paxton
It benefits a new joint fundraising committee for IA, ME, NH, OH, AK, MI & the NRSC
w/ @teddyschleifer.bsky.social www.nytimes.com/2026/09/21/u...
nytimes.comBush and Cornyn Leave Out Paxton as They Raise Cash for Senate CandidatesThe former president and Texas senator are headlining a fund-raiser in Dallas for top Republican Senate candidates. Not included: Ken Paxton, the nominee in their own state.
@dustinvolz.bsky.socialJoseph Gordon-Levitt, the U.N.’s first global advocate for “human-centric digital governance,” pushed back against narratives and vocabulary about A.I. that gave the false impression that humanity was helpless in the face of a “new technological revolution."
www.nytimes.com/2026/09/21/w...
nytimes.comSpectre of Rogue A.I. Looms Over U.N. Talks on Digital Cooperation (Gift Article)Diplomats, dignitaries and tech experts gathered amid the United Nations General Assembly to debate how to address the threats and harness the potential of artificial intelligence.
@dustinvolz.bsky.social"This is what it means to be the country’s paper of record: a great and imperfect newspaper steadfastly chronicling a great and imperfect nation." www.nytimes.com/2026/09/18/o...
@dustinvolz.bsky.socialReposted by @dustinvolz.bsky.socialNEWS: Classified U.S. intelligence assessments have determined that the Kremlin has again authorized a digital influence campaign to peddle content across social media in hopes of seeding or amplifying domestic divisions around the election season, U.S. officials said
www.nytimes.com/2026/09/18/u...
nytimes.comRussia Aims to Inject Chaos Into Elections, U.S. Intelligence Finds (Gift Article)The Kremlin is once again seeking to undermine confidence in American democracy with online influence campaigns, U.S. officials said.
@kylegriffin1.bsky.socialReposted by @dustinvolz.bsky.socialHeads up: The Russian government has been targeting Americans with covert online disinformation operations seeking to undermine public confidence the midterms — using a familiar playbook in an attempt to inject chaos into the voting season, according to U.S. officials familiar with the matter.
@wylienewmark.bsky.socialReposted by @dustinvolz.bsky.socialIn 2026, RIS mounting IO that attempts to undermine public confidence in election integrity through exploitation of societal divisions is: a) to be expected b) unlikely to be truly ambitious in terms of actual results c) understood as almost pro forma by RIS (gotta please Putin) d) still not CNA