DON’T YOU HATE WHEN THAT HAPPENS? It used to be that embarrassing mistakes that popped up during public presentations just kinda got forgotten about, eventually. But not in a world full of social media. Our case in point: a presentation by the State Department at a global conference on AIDS in Brazil this week turned rather awkward when a slide showing a map of Africa that was included in a State Department presentation listed highlighted countries that were all mislabeled. (Looks like someone wasn’t paying attention in geography class.) If we’re honest, we’ve all mislabeled a country or two on a map but conference attendees started snapping pictures and posting them on their social media channels. The State Department did the right thing and took full responsibility for the mistake, saying it was the result of a last-minute change to the slidedeck. Maybe they just wanted to see if people were paying attention? In any case, the person who put the slideshow together earned The Cipher Brief’s Nightcap Newsletter toast of the week this week.
CELL-YA LATER: “Loose lips sink ships” just got a 21st-century update. Some U.S. troops deployed in the Middle East, particularly in Jordan, could soon be ordered to surrender their personal cell phones, sources tell Reuters, amid growing concern that videos and photos posted online are handing Iran free battle damage assessments. CENTCOM commander Adm. Brad Cooper expressed concern to his troops in a July 28 letter. He was troubled by footage, including a clip shot on Meta smart glasses during an Iranian strike on Jordan's Muwaffaq Salti Air Base, that would help Tehran learn exactly how successful its strikes were, and just as importantly, what they missed. Phone restrictions are old news for special operators on sensitive missions. But a broader confiscation order for conventional troops would be a real escalation, especially for service members whose phone is the only proof of life they can send home. So far, a ban of personal mobile devices hasn’t been ordered. Adm. Cooper apparently is asking for selfie-discipline.
HOW REALISTIC WILL IT BE? Actors Liam Neeson and Zachary Levi are starring in a new action movie set in (of all places) Iran. Guy Mosche’s The Fix is scheduled to come out in September. The film takes place in Tehran and stars Neeson and Levi as former CIA operators who are sent to carry out a rescue mission. Producers have described the film to be a character-driven thriller while balancing large-scale action. If it’s anything like the real-life headlines out of Iran lately, we’re pretty sure the real-life action part is a guarantee.
TELEGRAM FOUNDER GIVES MOSCOW THE BIRD – Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) announced today it has charged Telegram founder Pavel Durov with facilitating terrorist activity, for allegedly allowing Ukraine to use his popular messaging app to recruit Russians to mount attacks inside Russia. Durov, a Russian who now lives in Dubai, responded by posting a middle finger salute on Telegram's official account on X. According to Reuters, the FSB said 46 Russians have been arrested in the past year after being recruited to attack law enforcement officers or set fire to transport, energy, communications or financial infrastructure.
THE LUCK O' THE SPYRISH: Ireland is about to add a little more cloak to its cloak-and-dagger. According to The Irish Sun, Dublin has confirmed plans to open the country's first dedicated Army Intelligence School at the Curragh by 2028, giving Irish military intelligence officers a chance to learn the trade at home instead of being packed off to courses in Britain or the United States. The new school will train intelligence specialists for the Army, Navy and Air Corps and help prepare military attachés headed for the first time to embassies in Washington, London and Paris.
JUST IN THE NICK OF TIME – Spies tell us that Cipher Brief Expert and former senior member of the British Foreign Office Nick Fishwick is out with a new book soon (coming this fall in the UK, and in January here in the U.S.) The Dead Drop knows that Nick has been involved in some rather - shall we say - ‘delicate’ global issues - over the course of his career, so we were a little surprised to find out that his book is titled, Moving the Goalposts: The Transformation of English Football. Honestly, the biggest surprise for us was that anyone in Nick’s prior position would have much time to do anything but work. But leave it to a true professional to find a link to national security. Nick may or may not have told us that “The implied national security argument is that English soccer used to be tightly knitted into local communities sharing essential values. Soccer, like other things in society, has become less local, less personal, more commercial, more cosmopolitan and that has weakened democratic resilience - which is something our enemies exploit.” We’ve already pre-ordered our copy. Now, we just need to get our hands on some meat pies, sausage rolls and pasties…and maybe a nice cup of Bovril (bonus points to any American who even knows what that is). We’ll probably have to settle for a nice pint of beer…which sounds a heckuva lot better than Bovril anyway.
MUCH POWER IN THE HANDS OF A FEW — As the U.S. works to hold its technological edge over China, a small circle of senior Trump administration officials are reportedly shaping the country's AI strategy - with no clear consensus on how far Washington should go in regulating the technology. According to WIRED, key players from the White House, Commerce, Treasury, and the National Cyber Director's office are divided over issues ranging from export controls and open-source AI models to preventing Chinese firms from leveraging U.S. innovations. The debate reflects a broader strategic dilemma: how to preserve America's leadership in artificial intelligence without slowing innovation or ceding ground to Beijing. With AI increasingly viewed as a pillar of economic and military power, the decisions made by this relatively small group of policymakers could influence the trajectory of U.S. national security, technology policy, and the global AI competition for years to come. (Editor’s note- as a former Green Beret reportedly once said in Afghanistan when watching aircraft overhead positioning for close air support- “Please do a good job”).
LT. GENERAL ADMIRAL, OR IS IT ADMIRAL LT. GENERAL – Nope, it’s not the latest installment of Naked Gun. The Pentagon has reportedly tapped Lt. Gen. Kevin D. Admiral to take command of U.S. Army Europe and Africa, replacing Gen. Christopher Donahue, who made an unexpected exit earlier this month after just 18 months on the job. If confirmed, Lt. Gen. Admiral will also lead NATO’s Allied Land Command—but he’ll do it with three stars instead of the four traditionally attached to the post. The nomination comes amid Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s continuing overhaul of the Pentagon’s senior ranks, which has already swept out more than a dozen top military leaders. We’re just wondering how many young privates are gonna mix up the General’s name and rank, TBH. This could be entertaining.
PUTIN’S PENCHANT FOR PROPAGANDA — Score one for the Russian propaganda machine. The country may soon be getting a new reality show called Battle of the Drones, which reportedly aims to pit war veterans, celebrities and students against each other in a made-for-TV drone pilot contest. Kremlin-friendly comedian Mikhail Galustyan reportedly pitched the idea directly to Russian President Vladimir Putin, suggesting that the show could make drones entertaining and popular. Putin’s reported response: “Propaganda is an extremely useful thing.” The show will air on state-controlled Gazprom’s TNT network. No word on whether the winner will get a first-place position along the frontlines of Russia’s war in Ukraine.
ROBBING THE ROBBERS: Hey! We trained you to steal money from OTHER people's banks — not ours! North Korean authorities reportedly arrested a ring of former state cyber operators and recruited IT specialists on July 12 on suspicion of hacking two of the country's own financial institutions, the Chosun Central Bank and the Foreign Trade Bank. The digital evil doers then laundered the proceeds through cryptocurrency, according to Daily NK, which first broke the story. The ringleaders were reportedly discharged veterans of the cyber operations unit under North Korea's Reconnaissance and Intelligence General Bureau, the same outfit that some officials believe is responsible for the regime's officially sanctioned foreign-bank-robbing squads. Coindesk notes the regime's cyber corps has been fingered for roughly $577 million in stolen crypto so far this year. And this is one bust. Can you imagine having a better picture of just how big of a problem this really is?
FROM RUSSIA, WITH TARGETING DATA? Reuters reports that U.S. intelligence agencies are now investigating whether Russia quietly helped Tehran improve the accuracy of drone strikes leveled against covert CIA facilities in the Gulf by providing targeting information, satellite-navigation technology or other technical assistance. Officials emphasized they have reached no conclusions, but the precision of the attacks is eyebrow-raising. An inquiry was launched after not one - but two Iranian drone attacks targeting the U.S. Embassy compound in Riyadh in March, where the CIA maintained (until then) a covert presence. According to sources who spoke with Reuters, one drone breached an exterior wall of the embassy compound, while a second exploded inside the compound, causing damage - but no casualties. The timing here is also interesting. Just days after Reuters disclosed the intelligence inquiry, President Trump said publicly that he trusted Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping and that he did not believe Russia or China were helping Iran. What kind of people would do that anyway?
JUST HOLD IT – Our spies tell us that a recent closed-door war game showed just how catastrophic a Chinese cyberattack could get following the discovery of the Volt Typhoon threat. A former strategist with the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency was the game master and co-hosted the exercise with a cyber firm for a couple dozen insurance industry executives. In gripping detail, Wired describes the exercise from initial scenario reveal to tense dynamics that included a warning for executives to not take any bathroom breaks lest they miss out on vital information. We can only imagine how the game must have revealed just how fragile assumptions are in the industry and what incident response triaging looks like under a nightmare scenario. (By the way, The Cipher Brief hosts in-person tabletop exercises at The Cipher Brief Threat Conference. You may wanna sign your execs up for this one.)
NOT A GREAT INTERN EXPERIENCE – Belgian authorities have reportedly arrested a Canadian intern - described as being of Chinese origin - who worked at NATO’s SHAPE headquarters, accusing her of spying for an unnamed third country. According to Reuters, prosecutors aren’t saying what she allegedly did - they’re only saying that she attracted the attention of Belgian security services. NATO has offered little information beyond that - confirming only that the intern had worked at the alliance’s military headquarters in Mons, Belgium.
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