We’re Tracking the Future of Security

Category: Government

  • Asheville City Council Votes to End Flock Safety Camera Contract, Remove All 11 License-Plate Readers

    Asheville City Council Votes to End Flock Safety Camera Contract, Remove All 11 License-Plate Readers

    The Asheville, North Carolina City Council voted on Tuesday, August 25, 2026, to terminate the city’s contract with license-plate reader vendor Flock Safety and remove all 11 of its cameras from city streets, according to local reporting from WLOS.

    Mayor Esther Manheimer said the decision reflected growing concerns about how Flock manages the data its cameras collect and who can access it, framing the vote as an attempt to balance public-safety utility against privacy risk. Rondell Lance, president of the local Fraternal Order of Police chapter, opposed the removal, arguing the system had given investigators an efficient way to narrow suspect vehicles by characteristics rather than manually checking every potential match.

    Part of a Wider Pattern of Contract Reviews

    Asheville’s vote follows a period of intensifying scrutiny of automated license-plate reader networks nationally, after Flock Safety itself cut its default data-retention window to seven days earlier this month in response to similar pressure. Other jurisdictions, including communities in the Chicago suburbs, have faced comparable public fights over whether to keep, expand, or cancel Flock deployments amid concerns that plate-reader data could be accessed for purposes such as immigration enforcement or unauthorized personal tracking by officers.

    Asheville’s existing contract with rival vendor Axon includes provisions for stationary license-plate readers, though none are currently installed; city officials said any future deployment would require new privacy policies to be established first.

  • TSA Unveils Horizon 25 Strategy to Modernize Checkpoints and Expand Counter-Drone Capabilities

    TSA Unveils Horizon 25 Strategy to Modernize Checkpoints and Expand Counter-Drone Capabilities

    The Transportation Security Administration launched a new strategic plan called Horizon 25 on August 24, 2026, timed to the agency’s 25th anniversary, outlining three priorities: modernizing checkpoint technology, improving the traveler experience, and hardening security across multiple transportation modes, according to TSA’s own press release and reporting from International Airport Review and Federal News Network.

    TSA Administrator David P. Cummins said the plan is intended to streamline how the agency acquires new screening technology, including next-generation scanners and biometric identity-verification systems, as well as expand TSA’s capability to detect and respond to unmanned aircraft near airports and other transportation facilities. The agency has been steadily rolling out Credential Authentication Technology 2 units, which pair document scanning with live facial comparison, as part of a broader $781 million technology-modernization program already underway.

    Gold+ Program to Be Replaced

    As part of Horizon 25, TSA said it will retire its existing Gold+ program and replace it with an evolved Screening Partnership Program, expanding the role private security contractors play in airport checkpoint operations under federal oversight. The agency framed the changes as part of a longer-term effort to reduce checkpoint friction for low-risk travelers while concentrating resources on higher-risk threats, including the small-drone threat vector that has drawn increasing federal attention this year.

    TSA said further implementation details will be worked out with field and headquarters staff in September, with the counter-UAS and technology-acquisition components expected to roll out in phases rather than all at once.

  • Berlin State Government Refuses to Pay Extortionists After State Network Breach

    Berlin State Government Refuses to Pay Extortionists After State Network Breach

    Berlin’s state government confirmed on August 28, 2026 that it is the target of an extortion attempt following the compromise of the city-state’s administrative network earlier in August, and said it will not meet the attackers’ demands, according to a Senate Chancellery statement and reporting by The Hacker News. The same statement disclosed that forensic investigators had found further data outflows tied to the Senate Department for Mobility, Transport, Climate Protection and Environment, with exfiltration dated between August 7 and August 12, 2026.

    The Senate Chancellery said the affected department first reported an outflow on August 7 and was cut off from the network on August 14, seven days later. Berlin has not published a figure for how much data left the network; the only itemized account in circulation is from the attackers’ own leak-site post, indexed on August 28. The Chancellery said personal or other non-public data cannot be excluded from what was taken, and that the scope and content of the breach are still being examined.

    Refusing extortion demands after a confirmed government network breach carries operational risk if attackers publish or sell stolen data, but security officials increasingly favor the approach to avoid funding further attacks and to preserve credibility with other public bodies watching how governments respond. The case adds Berlin to a growing list of European state and municipal governments that have had to publicly navigate ransomware extortion decisions on live, unresolved incidents this year.

  • ATF Confirms Cyberattack on Standalone System Containing Investigation Targets, Calls It a Major Incident

    ATF Confirms Cyberattack on Standalone System Containing Investigation Targets, Calls It a Major Incident

    The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives confirmed on August 27, 2026 that a standalone computer system containing information about targets of ATF investigations was breached, designating the incident a “major incident” under federal guidelines, according to an agency statement and reporting by Recorded Future News. The Justice Department component had appeared on the leak site of the Qilin ransomware gang earlier in the week, though the group did not publish samples of stolen data.

    An ATF spokesperson said the affected system “was not connected to any other ATF systems, including any case management systems, laboratory systems, or eForms systems,” and that it was shut down as soon as the breach was discovered. The agency said its investigative and operational missions were not disrupted, and that the Justice Department is investigating the incident. Qilin has been among the most active ransomware operations of the past two years, with previously claimed attacks on Kuala Lumpur International Airport, beverage maker Asahi, a Texas municipal government and several U.S. power cooperatives.

    The incident adds to a run of cyberattacks affecting Justice Department components in recent years, including earlier breaches involving the U.S. Marshals Service and the federal courts’ docketing system. For law enforcement and government facilities, the case underscores a recurring theme in ransomware incidents: segmenting sensitive investigative systems from broader case-management and operational networks can limit the blast radius of an attack even when a breach cannot be entirely prevented.

  • ATF Confirms Data Breach After Ransomware Group Claims Access to Investigation Data

    ATF Confirms Data Breach After Ransomware Group Claims Access to Investigation Data

    The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) has confirmed a cyberattack affected a system containing information about the targets of its investigations, following claims by a ransomware group that it had gained access to the agency’s data, Reuters reported.

    What’s New

    According to court documents and public reporting, the ransomware group gained access to a computer system holding information related to ATF investigative targets. The agency confirmed the breach but has not disclosed the full scope of the data involved or attributed the intrusion to a specific threat actor.

    Why It Matters

    A breach touching active investigation data raises risks beyond typical data-exposure incidents, potentially compromising ongoing law enforcement operations and the safety of investigative targets and personnel if the information is misused or leaked. The incident adds to a string of confirmed breaches at U.S. federal agencies this year and comes weeks after the Justice Department and FBI moved to disrupt state-sponsored hacking infrastructure targeting other parts of the federal government.