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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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Patrick Howell O’Neill @patrickhowelloneill.com · 21/09/2026
Hope everything is good, I'm very much looking forward to the book
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Patrick Howell O’Neill @patrickhowelloneill.com · 18/09/2026
it'll be on YouTube, worth watching! It was just a straight up stand up comedy routine, which I mean in the best way
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Patrick Howell O’Neill @patrickhowelloneill.com · 18/09/2026
honestly one of the best con talks I've ever seen
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Reposted by Patrick Howell O’Neill
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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Reposted by Patrick Howell O’Neill
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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Patrick Howell O’Neill @patrickhowelloneill.com · 12/09/2026
It’s insane
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Reposted by Patrick Howell O’Neill
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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Patrick Howell O’Neill @patrickhowelloneill.com · 10/09/2026
you're doing everyone a service with the newsletter
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Reposted by Patrick Howell O’Neill
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
sad that we're going to go extinct ten times this week but the math bears it out
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Patrick Howell O’Neill @patrickhowelloneill.com · 10/09/2026
saving this insolent flesh brain take for our clanker overlords to review
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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
discussions like this always bring me back in time a decade. do you guys remember pgp? god that was annoying.
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Patrick Howell O’Neill @patrickhowelloneill.com · 04/09/2026
withthat said, Signal is a landmark app first for delivering easy e2ee to the public but also because for most people, not public officials, auto-deleting messages is the smart thing to do from a security and privacy pov, making it normal and easy is great. I wish every app had this option.
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Patrick Howell O’Neill @patrickhowelloneill.com · 04/09/2026
what Tim said! bsky.app/profile/timm...
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Patrick Howell O’Neill @patrickhowelloneill.com · 04/09/2026
Using auto-deleting messages in private chats to conduct government business or hiding chats that should be responsive to record-keeping, that all needs attention. But some non-technical people get really weird about Signal and then about encryption and by the end of it the issue is garbled badly
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Patrick Howell O’Neill @patrickhowelloneill.com · 04/09/2026
But questionable reporting on this prevents a good discussion. I've seen big outlets say that Signal's e2ee are incompatible with record-keeping and freedom of information laws. Huh? Are we responding to FOIA by capturing data in transit? Must have missed that FOIA office capability
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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
all great rapid transit systems bring big beautiful benefits while forcing riders to occasionally suffer in a meaningful way
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Patrick Howell O’Neill @patrickhowelloneill.com · 03/09/2026
sitting for 45 minutes in the atlantic avenue station as temps in the tunnel reach 115 degrees developed character
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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
for sure, mixed feelings as always on a day like this, but I felt inspired reading back on her journey
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Patrick Howell O’Neill @patrickhowelloneill.com · 03/09/2026
Really enjoyed reading the obit, what a life
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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 · 03/09/2026
I have a foolproof system for describing the four main ways people make mistakes speaking about the Pyramid of Pain. I call it the Diamond Model
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Patrick Howell O’Neill @patrickhowelloneill.com · 03/09/2026
i love local news
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Patrick Howell O’Neill @patrickhowelloneill.com · 02/09/2026
My other dumb thought is that it's kind of wild that whatever the deal ESPN has with Shams, it obviously allows for him to post his scoops on social way, way, way before they're able to get anything up on ESPN dot com. I guess just goes to show what matters to them now.
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Patrick Howell O’Neill @patrickhowelloneill.com · 02/09/2026
I know that's a dumb and obvious thing to say, it just comes to mind because of the parade of posts I've read over the last year who were (understandably) sure that it's currently impossible for bad behavior to have consequences
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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 · 02/09/2026
my man Jim came up at least a dozen times when i was at mitre. he's a minor star over there
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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 · 27/08/2026
i have no idea, are ebikes allowed to lane split? i dont lane split with my bike because i value my life, i use bike lanes
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Patrick Howell O’Neill @patrickhowelloneill.com · 26/08/2026
few better feelings than biking past car to car traffic
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Patrick Howell O’Neill @patrickhowelloneill.com · 26/08/2026
awesome, congratulations
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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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Patrick Howell O’Neill @patrickhowelloneill.com · 25/08/2026
I'm ready to buy the murder house. Presumably the demand's a bit lower so the price should be too. Starting unpacking my stuff into the room with the most fatalities, I've got the bank on the phone and they're offering a mortgage right now
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Reposted by Patrick Howell O’Neill
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 · 21/08/2026
visually alone, it's so god damn fun. I love the giant cops wearing marshmallow armor. nypd, take notice
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Patrick Howell O’Neill @patrickhowelloneill.com · 21/08/2026
I rewatched it this week, definitely a classic. It had me wondering, there are so many movies that have tried to take inspiration from Blade Runner for good and obvious reasons but Fifth Element has so many distinctive and fun characteristics that newer movies should be looking to borrow/steal
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Patrick Howell O’Neill @patrickhowelloneill.com · 19/08/2026
aggregation has always been a thing, credit has always been an issue, but this shit is just way worse than it's ever been by miles
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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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Patrick Howell O’Neill @patrickhowelloneill.com · 19/08/2026
absolutely incredible
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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 · 18/08/2026
Sometime beginning around my 50th watching, the scenes with them getting doors slammed in their face but continuing the work is what began to get me energized more than anything including scenes where they make major advances. And when they get mad at each other about rewrites, I enjoy that too much
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Patrick Howell O’Neill @patrickhowelloneill.com · 18/08/2026
this movie is therapy
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