Your Trusted Source for National Security News & Analysis

April 30th, 2025 | 2:46 PM ET

The Dead Drop

noun

  1. A location to secretly pass information without a face-to-face meeting.

Each week we hope to give our readers tidbits of gossip from the world of national security and intelligence. The Dead Drop is a source of fun or intriguing news you can’t get anywhere else.

Got a tip for us? Email us at [email protected] and share the scoop. We promise to protect our sources and methods.

Below is our recent intelligence collection:

Dead Drop: April 25

THE CIPHER BRIEF SPEAKEASY IS OPEN FOR BUSINESS (BRIEFLY): While all the buzz was about The Cipher Brief HONORS Dinner last weekend and the amazing honorees and presenters, (it really was like the Oscars of national security), one of the most popular parts of the evening happened after all of the awards had been presented at The Cipher Brief speakeasy. While The Cipher Brief certainly isn't Vanity Fair or anything, we have to say that they hosted a pretty cool after party. Spotted among those celebrating the evening: ABC News [...] More

Read more

Dead Drop: April 18

THE BEST NATIONAL SECURITY BALL OF THEM ALL:  The Cipher Brief is hosting its annual HONORS Dinner this week in Washington, recognizing the best of […] More

Dead Drop: April 11

“LUDICROUS”: CIA Director John Ratcliffe reportedly made a secret trip to Dubai this week to oversee the release of U.S. Russian dual national Ksenia Karelina, […] More

Dead Drop Archive

Dead Drop: April 4

EXPERTS NEED NOT APPLY: The Dead Drop has learned that NSA Director General Timothy Haugh (who also serves as Commander of U.S. Cyber Command) and […] More

Dead Drop: March 28

CATCH ME IF YOU CAN: With The Cipher Brief HONORS Dinner just two weeks away, we thought we’d have a little fun introducing you to […] More

Dead Drop March 21

ROGAN RUSHES TO DEFEND CANADA’S FREEDOM: Everyone agrees that Donald Trump did his candidacy a LOT of good by spending a whopping two hours and […] More

Dead Drop: March 14

THEY SAID IT WOULDN’T LAST:  Or maybe it was: “shouldn’t last.” We forget.  But in any case, welcome to the 500th edition of The Dead Drop. Our […] More

Dead Drop: March 7

BEST YEAR EVER FOR NATIONAL SECURITY GOSSIP: We have to keep reminding ourselves that it’s only March because the flurry of activity in Washington over […] More

Dead Drop February 28

FOUR MORE YEARS OF SALTY GOSSIP:  While the Dead Drop plays no political favorites, we’d be lying if we said the gossip business isn’t booming […] More

Dead Drop: February 21

WELL, ISN’T THAT SPECIAL?  According to The Wall Street Journal, Russia’s spy services have cooked up a shadowy new unit called the ‘Department of Special Tasks’, known by […] More

Dead Drop: February 14

RUSSIA’S SHADOW FLEET SAILS INTO TROUBLE:  A 19-year-old Panama-flagged vessel that runs about the size of three football fields ran into a streak of bad […] More

Dead Drop: February 7

KILLING HIM SOFTLY?  Tucker Carlson, seemingly the only former Fox News performer without an assignment in the new administration, made some news recently by saying on his […] More

Dead Drop: January 31

EVER READY:  According to the Russian news agency TASS, Sergey Naryshkin, the director of the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) says he is ready to meet […] More

Dead Drop: January 24

MUST BE AN ‘ACTING DIRECTOR’ RECORD – The Senate moved quickly this week to confirm John Ratcliffe as the Trump administration’s new CIA Director as […] More

Dead Drop: January 17

DUST OFF THE TUX FOR SPY PROM: Who doesn’t love a Washington black-tie dinner?  Especially one where the ‘who’s who’ of the national security world […] More

Dead Drop: January 10

WHAT A DRAG: Finnish authorities say the tanker suspected of cutting multiple underwater cables in the Gulf of Finland apparently dragged its anchor for “up to 50 […] More

Dead Drop: January 3

A BRAVE NEW YEAR: The Ukrainian Defense Innovation Fund known as BRAVE1 isn’t waiting around to find out what happens regarding U.S. support for Ukraine […] More

Dead Drop: December 27

HO, HO, HOLY SMOKE: Drones are much in the news these days. The ones over New Jersey (so far) appear to be benign. The same cannot be said […] More

Dead Drop: December 20

UMM, BECAUSE HE’S EVIL?  We must admit that we are not regular followers of Tucker Carlson’s podcast – but you can rest assured, when something really […] More

Dead Drop: December 13

Happy Friday, the 13th (why does no one ever say that?) Let’s dig in: Access all of The Cipher Brief’s national security-focused expert insight by […] More

Dead Drop: December 6

Access all of The Cipher Brief’s national security-focused expert insight by becoming a Cipher Brief Subscriber+ Member. Sign Up Log In

Search

Close