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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  thedeaddrop@thecipherbrief.com  and share the scoop. We promise to protect our sources and methods.

Below is our recent intelligence collection:

Dead Drop: December 14-20

WOODWINDS OF WAR: A Florida middle school went into full lockdown recently after an AI-powered weapons detection system (called ZeroEyes) flagged a clarinet as a firearm. Yes, a clarinet. The Washington Post reports that the band kids briefly became suspected domestic threats. A police search eventually turned up a youngster wearing a military costume for “dress-up day” and toting his wind instrument. The incident proves to us that artificial intelligence remains extremely confident and occasionally wrong. But given all the recent school shooting incidents – it seems like we’re in the land of [...] Read More

Dead Drop: Week of December 7

THERE’S SOME WHACKY SH*T GOING ON AT NSA: It’s like leadership roulette at the National Security Agency (NSA), now with 100% more chaos. According to [...] More

The best national security gossip

THE MISSING ADMIRAL: There’s been a lot of media attention over the past few days about Frank “Mitch” Bradley – who back on September 2nd was a [...] More

Dead Drop Archive

Dead Drop: November 24

CODENAME 'INTELACCESS': For the first time ever in its decade of publishing national security insights from insiders, The Cipher Brief is offering a [...] More

Dead Drop: November 16

WHAT ABOUT THE SCULL AND CROSSBONES? The Washington Post reported recently that the U.S. Coast Guard had modified its stance on whether swastikas and [...] More

Dead Drop: Week of November 9

SIGNS OF THE TIMES: We assume the Trump administration elected to change the name of the Department of Defense to the Department of War to send a [...] More

Dead Drop: Week of November 2

RECKLESS PEACEMAKER: MILEAGE MAY VARY – The Institute for Global Affairs — a think tank that measures global risk and public mood — just dropped a [...] More

Dead Drop: Week of October 26

RIGHT AND WONG: To say that there is a little sniping going on between federal government spokespeople and the media – might be underselling it just [...] More

Dead Drop: Week of October 19

WRECKING BALLROOM: There has been a ton of discussion over the past few days about the demolition of the East Wing of the White House to make space [...] More

Dead Drop: Week of October 12

‘MUST SEE’ TV: Pete Hegseth has ordered Defense Department leaders to verify that every member of the Department has watched or read a transcript of [...] More

Dead Drop: Week of October 5

BIGGEST CROWD FOR A PROMOTION CEREMONY EVER! PERIOD! We are sure that is what Sean Spicer would say about this week’s event where Pete Hegseth [...] More

Dead Drop: Week of September 28

HOLD MY BEER (IN CYBER) — Imagine the nightmare scenario of a cyberattack depriving you of your favorite beer. That may soon be the sobering reality [...] More

Dead Drop: Week of September 21

UH, SECURITY RISK ANYONE? Secretary of War Pete Hegseth has ordered hundreds of U.S. military senior ranks to the Marine Corps base at Quantico next [...] More

Dead Drop: Week of September 15

MI6 WANTS YOU – YEAH, YOU: Do you have access to secrets that could topple regimes, foil terrorists, or mildly annoy the Kremlin? Then MI6’s dark web [...] More

Dead Drop: Week of September 8

CHINA KILLS ‘IMMORTAL’ VIDEO: Remember that recent video of President Xi and Putin caught on a hot mic talking about how organ transplants may soon [...] More