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The Cipher Brief: National Security news, analysis and expert commentary.

Report for Wednesday, July 23, 2025

U.S. nuclear weapons agency breached in Microsoft zero-day hack

US NATO ambassador warns China over 'subsidizing' Russia's war in Ukraine

Russian troops enter Pokrovsk, Ukrainian 'search and destroy' operation ongoing

U.S. to mediate Israel-Syria meeting Thursday to avoid new crises

China 'clearly' seeking to interfere in Taiwan's democracy, Taipei says ahead of recall vote

Access the Report

China's Disinformation Offensive in Taiwan

Inside the CCP's Evolving Influence Campaign

China's Disinformation Offensive in Taiwan

CIPHER BRIEF REPORTING - TAIPEI, Taiwan—During last year’s Presidential election in Taiwan, rumors swirled that Victor Lai Ching-te of the [...] More

The Experts

Cipher Brief Experts bring context to today’s global events

Trapped by His Own Lies: Putin’s Echo Chamber Backfires—Again

Glenn Corn

OPINION — Is anyone surprised that Russian President Vladimir Putin so badly overestimated his ability to continue to string along U.S. President [...] More

Third-Country Deportations in Legal Limbo Under Trump

Walter Pincus

OPINION — “Government has assured emaSwati [the Swazi people] that the arrival [in southern Africa Wednesday in Eswatini, formerly Swaziland] of five [...] More

News & Analysis

Experts Warn of Insurgents' Paradise in West Africa

Experts Warn of Insurgents' Paradise in West Africa

CIPHER BRIEF REPORTING– A terrorist group with links to Al Qaeda now controls a swath of territory five times the size of Texas, threatens the [...] More

Opinion

The Huawei Dilemma: Why Europe Needs Strong Intelligence Guardrails

OPINION — Spain's recent decision to award Huawei a contract worth €12.3 million to manage and store legally authorized wiretaps raises significant [...] More

What’s on The Cipher Brief’s Digital Channel

“Putin has drastically overplayed his hand”

Interview with former Senior CIA Officer Ralph Goff

The Problem with Iran’s Proxies

Interview with Glenn Corn, Former Senior CIA Officer

Lessons from Israel’s Stunning Intelligence Operation

Interview with Beth Sanner, Former Deputy Director for National Intelligence, ODNI

Book Reviews

IN THIS WEEK’S EDITION: CIA’s existential threat might not be what you think it is, the CIA’s EXDIR is back in business, a warning to be careful of online love, especially when your new ‘boo’ asks for national security secrets and China is turning flying insects into cyborgs now? Seriously?The Dead Drop uses its own sources and methods to bring you the best collection of national security gossip anywhere, so let’s get to it.CIA’S EXISTENTIAL THREAT: It might not be what you think, according to former CIA Executive Mark Kelton, who wrote a piece exclusively in The Cipher Brief this week saying the greatest threat to the [...] More

Get The Drop

Events

Live Events

Threat Conference

Threat Conference

The Cipher Brief Threat Conference is the nation’s premier forum for non-partisan discussion of global threats and solutions as well as high-level [...] More

Upcoming: 19 October, 2025

Podcasts

State Secrets



In a recent opinion piece published in The Cipher Brief, former senior CIA Executive Mark Kelton suggests that the country’s leading intelligence organization has a trust problem both with policy makers and the public. One component of that problem that Kelton argues poses an existential threat to the Agency, is leakers. Cipher Brief CEO & Publisher Suzanne Kelly talks with Kelton – who oversaw the CIA’s response to the devastating intelligence leaks made by Edward Snowden – about why he believes the future effectiveness of the Agency depends on restoring trust.

Cover Stories: Spies, Books & Entertainment


In October1979, the most powerful cyclone in recorded history, raced across the Pacific and set in motion circumstances that caused a horrendous fire at a U.S. Marine Corps facility at the foot of Japan’s Mount Fuji. Thirteen Marines died of their burns and more than 70 other people were seriously injured. And yet few people today know of or remember these events. Chas Henry who served twenty years as a Marine and went on to have a highly successful career as a broadcast journalist – is out with a new book called Fuji Fire: Sifting Ashes of a Forgotten U.S. Marine Corps Tragedy.  We will talk with him about his four-year-long effort to investigate the tragedy and what he learned about the chaos of the mass casualty event and the courage of those who fought the fire and battled their injuries during the long recovery process. We will ask him why a disaster of such magnitude is so little remembered and why official investigations into the fire appear to have been so limited.