Tim Starks

@timstarks.bsky.social

Senior reporter, CyberScoop, covering spyware, cyber policy and more. Russia-sanctioned. Former Washington Post, POLITICO, CQ Roll Call. @timstarks.02 on Signal. [email protected]. Mastodon [email protected], X timstarks, Threads tstarks2.

@thomasbrewster.bsky.social Oct 8, 2026, 2:34 PMReposted by @timstarks.bsky.social

🚨NEW🚨 In 2024, Apple launched a feature that rebooted an iPhone locked for 72 hours, making them much harder for cops to search.

Now, court/contract records and data obtained via FOIA show cops across America using a tool to break that protection.

ICE is now a user.

www.forbes.com/sites/thomas...

forbes.comICE Has A Hacking Tool That Breaks A Key Apple Security FeatureICE agents and cops across America are using a product called Graykey Preserve, which halts an Apple timer that makes it much harder to search an iPhone after 72 hours.

@snlyngaas.bsky.social Oct 8, 2026, 3:27 PMReposted by @timstarks.bsky.social

Someone apparently hacked the North Korean's Mission to the UN's voicemail and rerecorded "the greeting message as a satirical monologue about mass starvation and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un." www.cnn.com/2026/10/06/a...

@jamellebouie.net Oct 8, 2026, 2:16 PMReposted by @timstarks.bsky.social

“we call this flavor ‘the shoggoth.’ it opens the mind to non-euclidian geometry. it drove three of our top technicians to madness.”

@zackwhittaker.com Oct 7, 2026, 3:08 PMReposted by @timstarks.bsky.social

Whether it's coincidence or just bad timing, the two recent data breaches of U.S. government personnel records comes after extensive cuts and layoffs at CISA, NSA, and the broader federal workforce. The White House can't now argue that less cybersecurity talent is better at protecting federal data.

@eliothiggins.bsky.social Oct 7, 2026, 8:08 PMReposted by @timstarks.bsky.social

So it was the US State Department all along! Maybe Shellenberger should be emailing them about censorship instead of conference participants. #disinfo26 www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...

@timstarks.bsky.social Oct 7, 2026, 8:01 PM

An under-the-radar one. cyberscoop.com/federal-cont...

@timstarks.bsky.social Oct 7, 2026, 7:52 PM

Good read here from Lindsey!

@joemenn.bsky.social Oct 6, 2026, 8:34 PMReposted by @timstarks.bsky.social

Uh-oh, China just announced Super DUPER Intelligence!

@cyberscoop.bsky.social Oct 6, 2026, 1:08 PMReposted by @timstarks.bsky.social

Government auditors say federal agencies haven’t met mandated security steps for operational technology, which hackers targeted in water sector attacks this summer.

@zackwhittaker.com Oct 6, 2026, 1:48 PMReposted by @timstarks.bsky.social

That's one way to get a hacked company's attention. www.bbc.com/news/article...

@evacide.bsky.social Oct 5, 2026, 5:23 PMReposted by @timstarks.bsky.social

Russia has been blocking Signal/WhatsApp/Telegram and it has made VK's Max increasingly mandatory to reach govt services. We assumed it was a privacy nightmare, but InterSecLab brings the goods: interseclab.org/research/max/

@cyberscoop.bsky.social Oct 3, 2026, 7:09 PMReposted by @timstarks.bsky.social

Internet-exposed tech, PLCs, outside integrators and inside protections are all factors the water sector’s information sharing and analysis center is watching.

@cyberscoop.bsky.social Oct 3, 2026, 9:22 PMReposted by @timstarks.bsky.social

Collaboration with industry is key to balancing AI security risks and benefits, as well as staying ahead of China and other adversarial nations, National Cyber Director Sean Cairncross said Thursday.

@timstarks.bsky.social Oct 1, 2026, 7:58 PM

ENDORSE.

@gate15.bsky.social Sep 30, 2026, 5:22 PMReposted by @timstarks.bsky.social

@cyberscoop.bsky.social released an article on the water sector’s biggest ongoing weaknesses after a summer of cyberattacks.

Read more below:
cyberscoop.com/water-utilit...

#cybersecurity
@andyjabbour.bsky.social
@timstarks.bsky.social

@cyberscoop.bsky.social Sep 30, 2026, 12:55 AMReposted by @timstarks.bsky.social

Microsoft says the cyberespionage campaign has hit U.S. and U.K. targets, relying on sheer volume and requiring only a single victim interaction.

@cyberscoop.bsky.social Sep 30, 2026, 1:03 AMReposted by @timstarks.bsky.social

The U.S. government is working with critical infrastructure operators to integrate artificial intelligence into the nation’s most vital systems and strengthen cyber defenses, National Cyber Director Sean Cairncross said Tuesday.

@cyberscoop.bsky.social Sep 22, 2026, 2:28 PMReposted by @timstarks.bsky.social

Nearly two of every 10 U.S. water and wastewater organizations have identity data actively exposed from infostealers harvesting their credentials, according to research published Tuesday.

@cyberscoop.bsky.social Sep 24, 2026, 2:28 AMReposted by @timstarks.bsky.social

A key House Democrat and his bipartisan sponsors want to see a $100 million DHS pilot to help critical infrastructure owners and operators — separate from another administration-proposed pilot program.

@cyberscoop.bsky.social Sep 24, 2026, 3:07 AMReposted by @timstarks.bsky.social

Nearly nine out of 10 federal civilian executive branch agencies failed to meet last summer’s deadline to implement cloud security directives from CISA, a watchdog report published Wednesday found.

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