CyberWire Daily A storm brews behind the firewall.
Nov 4, 2025
Ben Yelin, a researcher at the University of Maryland Center for Cyber Health and Hazard Strategies, dives into ICE's controversial facial recognition initiative. He reveals the alarming policy that individuals cannot refuse a scan, raising Fourth Amendment issues. Yelin discusses the long retention periods for biometric data and the potential racial biases in the technology. Heightened security concerns are juxtaposed with civil liberties implications, as Yelin explores the reliability claims made by DHS and the legal challenges looming over this intrusive approach.
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Cisco Firewall Campaign Reveals Persistence Risk
- Storm-1849 exploited known Cisco ASA vulnerabilities to gain persistent control of network gateways.
- Affected orgs must reset configurations and credentials after patching to fully remove intrusions.
Retraction Highlights AI Hype Dangers
- MIT Sloan retracted a paper that overstated AI's role in ransomware after researchers debunked its claims.
- Inflated AI hype can mislead security leaders and damage research credibility.
Training Alone Fails To Stop Phishing
- A UC San Diego Health study found cybersecurity training had little effect on phishing click rates among ~20,000 employees.
- The study suggests prioritizing technical defenses like MFA and spam filtering over training alone.