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Patrick Howell O’Neill

@patrickhowelloneill.com
8.2K followers 1.1K following 243 posts

Journalist at Bloomberg News in DC. Signal: @howelloneill.01, email: patoneill1@bloomberg.net www.bloomberg.com/authors/AXb8dLPHB…

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Reposted by Patrick Howell O’Neill
William Turton @williamturton.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
In 2024 the former CEO of a defense contractor made a stunning confession to two FBI agents. He alleged that was the ringleader of a massive pay-to-play operation, bribing senators with campaign contributions in exchange for govt contracts. www.propublica.org/article/fbi-...
propublica.org
The FBI Anti-Corruption Squad Was Circling Susan Collins — Until Trump Got in the Way
After the FBI caught a defense contractor’s CEO making illegal campaign contributions, it sought to launch a sweeping political bribery probe involving Collins and others. Then the second Trump admini...
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Techmeme @techmeme.com · 17/09/2026
Sources: the White House's Office of the National Cyber Director is drafting an EO to establish a government-led incubator aimed at cybersecurity research (Bloomberg) Main Link | Techmeme Permalink
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Zach Dorfman @zachsdorfman.bsky.social · 13/09/2026
The NSA is about to undergo its biggest internal institutional shake-up in at least a decade, my @washingtonpost.com colleagues and I report: www.washingtonpost.com/national-sec...
washingtonpost.com
National Security Agency launches historic restructuring
Gen. Joshua M. Rudd is retooling the massive spy agency to focus on priorities including AI, China and cybersecurity.
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kate conger @kateconger.com · 11/09/2026
Over six months, we tracked the appearance of child sexual abuse material on X. We found images from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children's database, which is considered one of the most highly vetted and which many tech companies block on upload. www.nytimes.com/2026/09/11/t...
nytimes.com
Elon Musk Has Pledged to Rid His Platform, X, of Child Sexual Abuse, but It Persists
Reviews by the Canadian Center for Child Protection and The New York Times found that explicit images of children remain on the social media site owned by Elon Musk.
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CYBERWARCON @cyberwarcon.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
CYBERWARCON is BACK for 2026! Registration and CFP are now officially open! We’ll be in Arlington, VA+ virtually on November 20th, with Rob Joyce as our keynote. cyberwarcon.com 1/x
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Patrick Howell O’Neill @patrickhowelloneill.com · 10/09/2026
thinking about extreme credulity about AI causing the imminent extinction of humanity vs skepticism on climate change a month after 35k+ people died in European heat waves in the hottest summer in recorded history
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Patrick Howell O’Neill @patrickhowelloneill.com · 08/09/2026
Patch Tuesday and other big patches being this huge again is interesting. It all seems like an unqualified success for defenders rather than the apocalyptic win for offense that gets touted a lot by doomsayers. Is it really an AI vulnpocalypse if the main result so far is quicker and faster patches?
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Patrick Howell O’Neill @patrickhowelloneill.com · 04/09/2026
A mini-controversy periodically emerges about elected officials on Signal. It's rarely a nuanced discussion. The idea that using Signal is in and of itself shady is truly wacky. But elected officials conducting business in ways that escapes public records and oversight actually warrants attention
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Patrick Howell O’Neill @patrickhowelloneill.com · 03/09/2026
you people all need subways
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Patrick Howell O’Neill @patrickhowelloneill.com · 03/09/2026
Contractors would be allowed to conduct military hacking operations with US government approval under a Senate defense bill Gift link: www.bloomberg.com/news/article...
bloomberg.com
Senate Considers Allowing Contractors to Conduct Military Hacks
Contractors would be allowed to conduct military hacking operations with US government approval under a Senate defense bill that would mark the first time Congress has explicitly authorized the privat...
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Patrick Howell O’Neill @patrickhowelloneill.com · 03/09/2026
I'd read a good article about the journalism/media/discourse around the last year of the Clippers scandal
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Patrick Howell O’Neill @patrickhowelloneill.com · 02/09/2026
This Clippers punishment and Ballmer suspension seems significant
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Patrick Howell O’Neill @patrickhowelloneill.com · 02/09/2026
Lots of Tupac news this week, let me recommend this 1997 classic read on the man www.newyorker.com/magazine/199...
newyorker.com
The Takedown of Tupac
Tupac Shakur was one of gangsta rap’s biggest stars. But he got caught in a collision of cultures when inner-city gangs met up with the multibillion-dollar record industry.
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Reposted by Patrick Howell O’Neill
Eric Geller @ericjgeller.com · 02/09/2026
Resharing my scoop. It's an interesting window into tensions inside CISA between staff in CSD, based in DC, and IOD, spread out across the country. “It has been hard on the IOD side,” said one person familiar with the matter. IOD field staff sometimes struggle to keep up w/ what's happening at HQ.
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Patrick Howell O’Neill @patrickhowelloneill.com · 28/08/2026
US military officials are set to brief a House oversight committee next week as part of lawmakers’ examination of an unusually high number of deaths by suicide among personnel of US Cyber Command as its workload has surged because of conflicts abroad www.bloomberg.com/news/article...
bloomberg.com
Cyber Command to Brief Congress Military Committee On Suicides
US military officials are set to brief a House oversight committee next week as part of lawmakers’ examination of an unusually high number of deaths by suicide among personnel of the country’s cyberwa...
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Patrick Howell O’Neill @patrickhowelloneill.com · 26/08/2026
bike commuting is excellent. driving during rush hour in dc is a nightmare. through ebikes, all things are possible. highly recommend giving it a try
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Kevin Collier @kevincollier.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
I've covered surveillance for a long time, and I've never seen an outcry like that around Flock cameras. I've got a few ideas what makes this different but am curious why people think Flock in particular has gotten so many so riled up.
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Patrick Howell O’Neill @patrickhowelloneill.com · 19/08/2026
There's a whole cottage industry now of professional posters who take journalism and repost it with no credit, no link. What's considered normal now is wild. Polymarket is a multibillion dollar company and their whole social media strategy is to never ever credit journalists who work they use
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Reposted by Patrick Howell O’Neill
David DiMolfetta @ddimolfetta.bsky.social · 18/08/2026
NEW -> Trump’s new plan to enlist private companies to disrupt cybercriminals abroad may face a fundamental problem when it comes to Russia: distinguishing criminal hackers and state-backed operatives, former officials + experts tell me. www.nextgov.com/cybersecurit...
nextgov.com
The Russian hurdle in Trump’s new offensive cyber program
The White House wants private companies to help take down cybercriminals overseas. But in Russia, the line between criminal hackers and the government is difficult to draw.
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Patrick Howell O’Neill @patrickhowelloneill.com · 13/08/2026
I think a lot of people have thoughts about the latest White House EO but have not read the entire EO. This is genuinely understandable, these memos are written in lawyerly gobbledygook, but if you care about cyber I beg you to read the whole memo before posting takes. Fact sheet doesn't count!
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Patrick Howell O’Neill @patrickhowelloneill.com · 13/08/2026
The White House is setting up a program to have private companies conduct government-authorized cyber operations against foreign cybercriminal groups, including surveillance and disruption www.bloomberg.com/news/article...
bloomberg.com
Trump Enlists Private Sector to Boost Cyber-Offensive Arsenal
The US government is partnering with private-sector firms to launch cyber attacks abroad, expanding the scope of national security operations that until now have been largely conducted by government a...
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Patrick Howell O’Neill @patrickhowelloneill.com · 10/08/2026
I'm kind of losing track of what is and isn't "rogue ai"
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Patrick Howell O’Neill @patrickhowelloneill.com · 06/08/2026
NEW: US Cyber Command is grappling with an unusually high number of personnel deaths by suicide this summer including members of one of the command’s elite units. www.bloomberg.com/news/article...
bloomberg.com
America’s Cyber Forces Grapple With Cluster of Deaths by Suicide
The US military’s cyberwarfare unit is scrutinizing an unusually high number of deaths by suicide among personnel over a month-long period this summer, according to government officials and other peop...
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Patrick Howell O’Neill @patrickhowelloneill.com · 27/07/2026
New: AI is driving new records in software vulnerabilities but prophecies of a so-called "bugpocalypse" haven't come to pass www.bloomberg.com/news/article...
bloomberg.com
AI Finding Twice as Many Cyber Flaws in 2026 as It Did in 2025
The number of software security flaws discovered in popular technology products in 2026 is on pace to roughly double the tally of vulnerabilities that surfaced in 2025, an explosion driven by increasi...
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Patrick Howell O’Neill @patrickhowelloneill.com · 27/07/2026
what is doordash doing here
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Zack Whittaker @zackwhittaker.com · 24/07/2026
New, by me: The Justice Department is prosecuting an American for allegedly providing U.S. border agents with a "duress" passcode that wiped the contents of his phone when they entered it. We've confirmed the phone was running GrapheneOS. Bypass for ad-blockers: web.archive.org/web/20260724...
techcrunch.com
US accuses American of allegedly wiping his phone using a 'duress' password during border search | TechCrunch
A U.S. citizen has asked a court to throw out the government's claim that he gave over a passcode to border authorities that wiped his phone's data, opening up fresh questions about a person's constit...
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Patrick Howell O’Neill @patrickhowelloneill.com · 24/07/2026
By the time the season starts the Knicks are gonna be like #6 on the title favorite betting odds
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Patrick Howell O’Neill @patrickhowelloneill.com · 24/07/2026
I still don't fully understand cyber company code names. If you're tracking a Russian group that you name explicitly as Russian, why do you need a cryptonym that means Russia? Isn't this just an extra layer of obfuscation? Only thing I can make out is that coming up with code names is kick ass fun
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Patrick Howell O’Neill @patrickhowelloneill.com · 22/07/2026
Blog history question: Nowadays, it seems like all the cool weather blogs/accounts do weather ratings. The 1st time I remember seeing this was in The Awl, Choire Sicha would post a pic of the sky in ny and rate it and then write some unhinged prose. Was this a thing before Choire's weather reviews?
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Patrick Howell O’Neill @patrickhowelloneill.com · 21/07/2026
this is one of the most insane security incidents I can recall
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Reposted by Patrick Howell O’Neill
Brad Heath @bradheath.bsky.social · 20/07/2026
The Trump administration sought the phone records of several New York Times journalists and their relatives — including one reporter’s mother — in its effort to unmask the confidential sources. www.nytimes.com/2026/07/20/b...
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Patrick Howell O’Neill @patrickhowelloneill.com · 18/07/2026
In the interest of helping well-meaning lay folks understand: It's a company that hacks iPhones part of their business. Magnet in particular does it as part of a suite of investigative software. This sort of product is how, for example, police break into locked iPhones.
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Patrick Howell O’Neill @patrickhowelloneill.com · 17/07/2026
New: A Canadian cybersecurity firm accused a former contractor of sharing trade secrets about a previously unknown flaw used to hack iPhones with a rival firm Gift link: www.bloomberg.com/news/article...
bloomberg.com
IPhone Hacking Firm Sues Ex-Worker Over Alleged Theft of Secrets
Magnet Forensics Inc., a Canadian cybersecurity firm, accused a former contractor of sharing trade secrets about a previously unknown flaw used to hack iPhones with a rival firm.
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Ben Penn @benjaminpenn.bsky.social · 13/07/2026
SCOOP: DOJ sets a case quota for all line prosecutors, requiring at least 25 open matters. Trump DOJ leaders are monitoring stats to find low performers. Spox says this'll push out unproductive AUSAs, with "patriotic AUSAs taking their place." news.bloomberglaw.com/us-law-week/...
news.bloomberglaw.com
DOJ Sets Case Quotas for Line Prosecutors in Push to Boost Stats
Justice Department leaders have started requiring all prosecutors to maintain at least 25 open cases, tightening the Trump administration’s grip on operational decisions previously left to US attorney...
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Reposted by Patrick Howell O’Neill
Eric Geller @ericjgeller.com · 13/07/2026
Hugely embarrassing failure here, and great story by @ddimolfetta.bsky.social. www.nextgov.com/cybersecurit...
nextgov.com
DHS network intrusion was twice ruled a false positive before breach confirmed
Suspicious activity on the Homeland Security Information Network, which is being used to support World Cup games around the U.S., was first detected around mid-to-late May.
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Patrick Howell O’Neill @patrickhowelloneill.com · 08/07/2026
This is a very good write up of a very crazy situation that is worth extrapolating as this kind of technology proliferates
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Joe Flynn @chinajoeflynn.bsky.social · 02/07/2026
I know he's divisive, but the We Rate Dogs guy has been cooking recently.
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Patrick Howell O’Neill @patrickhowelloneill.com · 02/07/2026
I have no desire to be in a book club but I do want to be in a longform journalism club where we just discuss banger articles. First up would be www.newyorker.com/magazine/202...
newyorker.com
Did a Climber Leave His Girlfriend to Die at the Top of a Mountain?
An Austrian court pieces together the mysterious circumstances of a couple’s disastrous hike.
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Patrick Howell O’Neill @patrickhowelloneill.com · 30/06/2026
if free throws = penalty kicks, question for soccer fans: is there anyone who is the equivalent of mitch robinson? ie a really significant player on a championship squad who cannot get a PK goal except by sheer luck
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Reposted by Patrick Howell O’Neill
Eric Geller @ericjgeller.com · 16/06/2026
You rely on critical infrastructure maintained by your state and local governments. My new story explains why those governments may now be struggling to protect that infrastructure from hackers.
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Patrick Howell O’Neill @patrickhowelloneill.com · 11/06/2026
At this point I'm really just inventing new ways to rewatch last night
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Patrick Howell O’Neill @patrickhowelloneill.com · 11/06/2026
Has anyone on this website mentioned the Knicks game yet
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Patrick Howell O’Neill @patrickhowelloneill.com · 11/06/2026
I've never been more desperate for a post-game press conference than this Wemby presser
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Patrick Howell O’Neill @patrickhowelloneill.com · 04/06/2026
I'm posting a bit less on social media these days but to make up for it I'm shouting GO KNICKS at anyone on the street who looks up for it so it all balances out
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Elon Green @elongreen.bsky.social · 04/06/2026
ok, this place has the juice
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Patrick Howell O’Neill @patrickhowelloneill.com · 03/06/2026
2026 election news: Intelligence agencies are no longer providing the classified threat briefings that gave state election officials insight into foreign and domestic efforts to disrupt voting or influence results, along with guidance on how to counter them www.bloomberg.com/news/newslet...
bloomberg.com
US Stops Sharing Crucial Election Threat Data With State Officials
Classified briefings and some cybersecurity services have ceased.
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Patrick Howell O’Neill @patrickhowelloneill.com · 26/05/2026
For as long as I've been in security, one major problem is that smart security people have a problem understanding that non-security people mostly will not sacrifice usability even if they are high value targets. The inability to think and talk about this is a huge weakness across the field
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Patrick Howell O’Neill @patrickhowelloneill.com · 26/05/2026
This is a good investigation www.nytimes.com/2026/05/24/u...
nytimes.com
How Prediction Markets and Crypto Firms Steamrolled a Watchdog Agency
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Doug Madory @eldomador.bsky.social · 26/05/2026
Just to keep today's partial restoration of Iranian internet connectivity in perspective, please take a look at this overall timeline. Iran has a long way to go to get back to pre-Jan-8 levels of traffic volumes. #DigitalBlackOutIran‌
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Dr. Dan Lomas @sandbaggerone.bsky.social · 21/05/2026
Israeli security forces made a list of thousands of militants who participated in the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks. One by one, they are being tracked down, captured and killed. www.wsj.com/world/middle...
wsj.com
Inside Israel’s High-Tech Campaign to Kill or Capture Every Oct. 7 Attacker
One by one, militants who videotaped their exploits that day have been identified and killed, in a measure of Israel’s surveillance acumen and desire for retribution.
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