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ajvicens.bsky.social
AJ Vicens
@ajvicens.bsky.social
12K followers 3.5K following 840 posts
Cybersecurity correspondent at Reuters; former Mother Jones, CyberScoop. Will bore you with skateboarding, UFO lore or Denver Broncos minutiae on request. Signal: ajvicens.57, additional contact methods: https://tinyurl.com/47jc45h7
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ajvicens.bsky.social
AJ Vicens @ajvicens.bsky.social · Apr 25
Hello! Let's chat.

I'm a cybersecurity correspondent with Reuters focused on cybercrime, state-aligned threats, intelligence, data breaches, influence/info ops.

Get in touch:

Signal (pref): ajvicens.57
Email(s): a.j.vicens@tr.com, aj_vicens@proton.me
Latest work: www.reuters.com/authors/a-j-...
QR code for my Signal username: ajvicens.57
Reposted by AJ Vicens
campuscodi.risky.biz
American surveillance giant Palantir has filed a lawsuit against Swiss magazine Republik over two articles that exposed vulnerabilities in its products.

The articles triggered a government investigation. The government eventually dropped the Palantir contract.

www.republik.ch/2026/02/14/p...
Palantir klagt gegen die Republik
Unsere Recherchen zum Unternehmen haben internationales Echo ausgelöst.
www.republik.ch
February 15, 2026 at 6:13 PM
Reposted by AJ Vicens
willbunch.bsky.social
This NYT column by @polgreen.bsky.social is the truest thing I've ever seen about the REAL reason public trust in the media collapsed
February 14, 2026 at 2:31 PM
ajvicens.bsky.social
With few other legal paths to freedom, immigrant detainees have filed more than 20,200 federal lawsuits demanding their release since Trump took office, a Reuters review of court dockets found, underscoring the sweeping impact of Trump's policy change. In at least 4,421 cases, more than 400 federal judges ruled since the beginning of October that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is holding people illegally as it carries out its mass-deportation campaign, Reuters found.
February 14, 2026 at 2:34 PM
Reposted by AJ Vicens
bradheath.bsky.social
NEW: Hundreds of judges around the country have ruled more than 4,400 times since October that President Donald Trump’s administration is detaining immigrants unlawfully, a Reuters review of court records found.

The government keeps doing it nonetheless.

www.reuters.com/legal/govern...
February 14, 2026 at 12:14 PM
Reposted by AJ Vicens
zackwhittaker.com
I wrote some words for this.weekinsecurity.com about how social media giants (aka: ad tech companies!) track you around the web, even if you don't have an account or use their apps. Follows from a brilliant column in the BBC about TikTok's use of website "pixels" to track people's browsing activity.
How tech giants track you across the web, even if you don't use their apps
Ad tech giants use near-invisible "pixels" on web pages to track what you do online, even if you don't have an account or use their apps. Thankfully, there is a solution.
this.weekinsecurity.com
February 14, 2026 at 2:16 PM
Reposted by AJ Vicens
jmail.world
All emails from the Jan 30 release are now browsable on Jmail!

See jmail.world
February 11, 2026 at 8:21 AM
Reposted by AJ Vicens
pixelatedboat.bsky.social
Hate to say it but I believe most, if not all, of my followers can be replaced by AI in 12-18 months
February 14, 2026 at 3:33 AM
Reposted by AJ Vicens
ddosecrets.org
Because the Department of Justice appears to have removed the .zip archives for the Epstein files, @ddosecrets.org is now the best place to get all of the data in bulk.

ddosecrets.org/article/epst...

Help us keep publishing: donorbox.org/ddosecrets
February 13, 2026 at 4:19 AM
Reposted by AJ Vicens
mshelton.bsky.social
We've been taking a close look at court documents on the FBI's raid on a Washington Post reporter's home. There's a lot journalists can learn from this incident. freedom.press/digisec/blog...
Five security lessons from the FBI’s Washington Post raid
Court documents show how investigators can track digital activities, and reveal ways to harden journalists’ devices
freedom.press
February 13, 2026 at 7:02 PM
Reposted by AJ Vicens
charlesornstein.bsky.social
ProPublica is hiring! Join our team:

* Data Reporter: grnh.se/t9m4zaoh6us
* Audience Writer: grnh.se/cie29dxy6us
* Visuals Editor: grnh.se/cie29dxy6us
* Business Reporters: grnh.se/6uxr327r6us
February 13, 2026 at 7:26 PM
Reposted by AJ Vicens
ashtonpittman.bsky.social
At MississippiFreePress.org, we reported that the Mississippi Today story saying staff at the Myrlie & Medgar Evers Home National Monument removed brochures calling Evers' killer a "racist" were wrong.

A fair writeup from Susie Banikarim at Columbia Journalism Review: www.cjr.org/laurels-and-...
Last Thursday, Mississippi Today reported that the National Park Service removed brochures from the Medgar & Myrlie Evers Home National Monument that called the murderer of Medgar Evers a racist. The article cited Park Service officials who “asked not to be named for fear of retribution.” Evers, a renowned civil rights activist, was assassinated in 1963 by a white supremacist named Byron De La Beckwith in the driveway of his home in Jackson, Mississippi. Condemnation was swift. “The murder of Medgar Evers was an act of racial terror. That fact is not partisan. It is historical,” Martin Luther King III posted on X in response to the story. “Sanitizing history from violence and racism does not bring the country together. It weakens our understanding of who we are and how far we still have to go.” Senator Raphael Warnock also weighed in: “This administration is celebrating Black History Month by erasing it. We won’t let them get away with it.” And it would indeed be appalling if the administration were attempting to erase the context of Evers’s killing. There’s just one problem: it appears the brochures may not have been removed or edited at all. When Jaylin Smith, a Mississippi Free Press reporter, visited the site for a follow-up piece, she found that the brochures were still available and unedited. Keena Graham, the monument’s superintendent, told another Free Press reporter, Kevin Edwards, that she was unaware of any directive to scrub references to racism, noting that any planned updates were merely cosmetic and operational. Strange. “We just did the most basic thing you could do and sent our reporter to confirm the brochures were gone,” Ashton Pittman, the news director of the Mississippi Free Press, told me. “But when she got there, they were still there.” Before publishing, Pittman contacted Jerry Mitchell, the author of the Mississippi Today report and a local journalism hero, to clarify the discrepancy. Mitchell maintained the brochures were missing during his own visit “sometime last week, likely on Saturday,” per the Free Press, and that he had been told they were “in the office.” Then, about an hour after the Free Press published its report confirming the brochures were available, Mississippi Today posted a follow-up claiming the brochures had been “returned.” Absent from the update: any mention of the Free Press reporting. “That was a red flag from a journalistic point of view,” Edwards said. Faced with this new, conflicting narrative, the Free Press went back to Graham for a final clarification: Had the brochures ever been removed, even for a second? Her answer was “Not one second. Not one day. That’s all I can tell you.” When I spoke with Mitchell, he said he later checked his records and that he actually visited the home on Tuesday, January 20. He declined to share specifics about whom he spoke with while there, but he was certain that he had been told the brochures were not available. He also noted that his original reporting was based on information from multiple sources. Mitchell told me that he did not reference the Free Press because an Associated Press reporter had told his editor that the brochures were available earlier the same day, and he had already drafted his second story before speaking with Pittman. But here’s another weird thing: the AP does not appear to have published a story on this topic. In another piece published yesterday about the Evers monument, Mitchell did reference the Free Press reporting, but did not include a correction to his earlier coverage. When I asked why, he said, “We’re still digging into this. I think that’s the correct answer.” Pittman stressed when we spoke that the intention of the Free Press was not to discount Mitchell’s report: “This is not about undermining the credibility of another news organization. It is just about reporting the facts.” But he said it is important that the staff at the monument are not misrepresented. “We saw comments from people saying shame on the staff at this monument for removing his brochures, for complying with this directive. And the fact is they didn’t do that,” he added. “If there was wrongdoing that we could find, we would report it,” he told me, “but we just don’t believe that that happened.”
February 13, 2026 at 5:16 PM
Reposted by AJ Vicens
campuscodi.risky.biz
Mini-scoop: IcedID malware developer fakes his own death to escape the FBI

-Apple patches zero-day used in an "extremely sophisticated attack"
-Tianfu Cup returns with an N-day track
-first malicious Outlook add-in discovered

Podcast: risky.biz/RBNEWS525/
Newsletter: news.risky.biz/risky-bullet...
February 13, 2026 at 9:01 AM
ajvicens.bsky.social
Exclusive: Arizona sheriff blocks FBI access to evidence in Nancy Guthrie abduction, source says - www.reuters.com/business/fin...
Exclusive: Arizona sheriff blocks FBI access to evidence in Nancy Guthrie abduction, source says
An Arizona sheriff is blocking FBI access to key evidence in the investigation into the abduction of U.S. television journalist Savannah Guthrie's mother, impairing its ability to assist in the probe,...
www.reuters.com
February 13, 2026 at 3:58 AM
Reposted by AJ Vicens
carlquintanilla.bsky.social
“.. Noem and Lewandowski frequently berate senior level staff, give polygraph tests to employees they don’t trust and have fired employees—in one incident, Lewandowski fired a U.S. Coast Guard pilot after Noem’s blanket was left behind on a plane ..”

@wsj.com
www.wsj.com/politics/pol...
February 13, 2026 at 2:09 AM
ajvicens.bsky.social
www.reuters.com/business/med...
CIA makes new push to recruit Chinese military officers as informants
Just weeks after a dramatic purge of China's top general, the CIA is moving to capitalize on any resulting discord with a new public video targeting potential informants in the Chinese military.
www.reuters.com
February 12, 2026 at 9:10 PM
Reposted by AJ Vicens
dustinvolz.bsky.social
News: The top-secret whistleblower complaint against Tulsi Gabbard is related to a conversation intercepted last spring in which two foreign nationals discussed Jared Kushner, according to U.S. officials familiar with the matter. www.wsj.com/politics/nat...
Gabbard Whistleblower Complaint Based on Intercepted Conversation About Jared Kushner
The substance of the conversation, which covered in part issues related to Iran, isn’t known.
www.wsj.com
February 12, 2026 at 9:00 PM
Reposted by AJ Vicens
szabolcspanyi.bsky.social
💥Dramatic turn in Hungary’s election race: Orbán rival Péter Magyar says that in 2024 his ex-girlfriend set a honey trap to secretly record them having sex—footage he claims Orbán’s camp plans to publish to ruin and blackmail him.

Magyar currently holds a big lead in the polls. Election in 59 days.
February 12, 2026 at 6:16 PM
Reposted by AJ Vicens
pearswick.press
WASHINGTON, Feb 12 (Reuters) Palo Alto Networks opted not to tie China to a global cyberespionage campaign the firm exposed last week over concerns that the cybersecurity company or its clients could face retaliation from Beijing, according to two people familiar with the matter.
Exclusive: Palo Alto chose not to tie China to hacking campaign for fear of retaliation from Beijing, sources say
Palo Alto Networks opted not to tie China to a global cyberespionage campaign the firm exposed last week over concerns that the cybersecurity company or its clients could face retaliation from Beijing...
www.reuters.com
February 12, 2026 at 8:17 PM
Reposted by AJ Vicens
pressfreedomtracker.us
If you are a journalist — or know one — who has been attacked, seriously threatened, denied access by a public official or targeted with a legal order in the course of reporting, let us know. You can now submit tips in English or Spanish.

Email: tips@pressfreedomtracker.us
If you are a journalist — or know one — who has been attacked, seriously threatened, denied access by a public official or targeted with a legal order in the course of reporting, let us know. You can now submit tips in English or Spanish. Email: tips@pressfreedomtracker.us
February 12, 2026 at 7:55 PM
Reposted by AJ Vicens
raphae.li
Scoop: A report published last week outlined what Palo Alto researchers believed was a China-linked hacking campaign.

But after an intervention from execs, the report's language was changed to refer more vaguely to "a state-aligned group that operates out of Asia."
www.reuters.com/world/china/...
Exclusive: Palo Alto chose not to tie China to hacking campaign for fear of retaliation from Beijing, sources say
Palo Alto Networks opted not to tie China to a global cyberespionage campaign the firm exposed last week over concerns that the cybersecurity company or its clients could face retaliation from Beijing...
www.reuters.com
February 12, 2026 at 6:25 PM
Reposted by AJ Vicens
chrisgeidner.bsky.social
BREAKING: Judge blocks Hegseth effort to punish Sen. Kelly.

"This Court has all it needs to conclude that Defendants have trampled on Senator Kelly's First Amendment freedoms and threatened the constitutional liberties of millions of military retirees."

Background: www.lawdork.com/p/breaking-k...
UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA MARK KELLY, Plaintiff, Civil Case No. 26-81 (RJL) V. PETE HEGSETH, et al., Defendants. MEMORANDUM OPINION February 12, 2026 [Dkt. #2] United States Senator Mark Kelly, a retired naval officer, has been censured by Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth for voicing certain opinions on military actions and policy. In addition, he has been subjected to proceedings to possibly reduce his retirement rank and pay and threatened with criminal prosecution if he continues to speak out on these issues. Secretary Hegseth relies on the well-established doctrine that military servicemembers enjoy less vigorous First Amendment protections given the fundamental obligation for obedience and discipline in the armed forces. Unfortunately for Secretary Hegseth, no court has ever extended those principles to retired servicemembers, much less a retired servicemember serving in Congress and exercising oversight responsibility over the military. This Court will not be the first to do so! Worse still, Secretary Hegseth contends that this Court is not yet competent to decide the issues in this case. He and his fellow Defendants argue that military personnel 1 Case 1:26-cv-00081-RJL Document 37 Filed 02/12/26 Page 2 of 29 decisions are exempt from judicial review and, in any event, that Senator Kelly should first be required to go through the military appeals process so the military can have the first crack at adjudicating his First Amendment rights. I disagree. This Court has all it needs to conclude that Defendants have trampled on Senator Kelly's First Amendment freedoms and threatened the constitutional liberties of millions of military retirees. After all, as Bob Dylan famously said, "You don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows." To say the least, our retired veterans deserve more respect from their Government, and our Constitution demands they receive it! Senator Kelly's First Amendment claim is not only justiciable; he is likely to succeed on the merits. He has also shown irreparable harm, and the balance of the equities fall decidedly in his favor. As such, his motion for a preliminary injunction on his First Amendment claim is hereby GRANTED.
February 12, 2026 at 5:41 PM
Reposted by AJ Vicens
campuscodi.risky.biz
Financially motivated threat actors also experimented with AI tools, but they "have not yet made breakthroughs in developing AI tooling."
February 12, 2026 at 2:18 PM
Reposted by AJ Vicens
gregotto.bsky.social
Customs and Border Protection personnel — not U.S. troops — used military laser to shoot object near El Paso -- new from @dflawrence.bsky.social over on @defensescoop.bsky.social defensescoop.com/2026/02/11/e...
Customs and Border Protection personnel — not U.S. troops — used military laser to shoot object near El Paso
U.S. Customs and Border Protection personnel shot down an object with a military laser earlier this week near El Paso, Texas, according to multiple sources familiar with the situation.
defensescoop.com
February 11, 2026 at 10:57 PM
Reposted by AJ Vicens
cwnewser.bsky.social
A Reuters photographer captured this image of a page from Pam Bondi's "burn book," which she used to counter any questions from Democratic lawmakers during an unhinged hearing today.

It looks like the DOJ monitored members of Congress’s searches of the unredacted Epstein files.

Just wow.
February 11, 2026 at 11:06 PM
Reposted by AJ Vicens
karnythia.bsky.social
Colon cancer numbers are rising in the US, UK, Canada, China, Australia, India, South Korea, the EU, Brazil, South Africa etc., the exception is in women in Nordic states who are more likely to eat a diet high in fiber because of berries. Eat beans, berries and other high fiber foods. Limit booze
almasuono.bsky.social ALMA SUONO BA.,CN. @almasuono.bsky.social · 4d
So many Americans are dying from colon cancer and thats terrifying to me.
February 11, 2026 at 11:22 PM