OUR PICKSHow Much Can 10,000 Mexican Troops Achieve at the Border? | Industry Must Prioritize Cybersecurity for Devices, Machines, and Systems in 2025 | Paranoia Is Winning, and more

A US Treasury Threat Intelligence Analysis Designates DOGE Staff as “Insider Threat”  (Vittoria Elliott and Leah Feiger, Wired)
An internal email reviewed by WIRED calls DOGE staff’s access to federal payments systems “the single greatest insider threat risk the Bureau of the Fiscal Service has ever faced.”

The Government’s Computing Experts Say They Are Terrified (Charlie Warzel and Ian Bogost, The Atlantic)
Four IT professionals lay out just how destructive Elon Musk’s incursion into the U.S. government could be.

Trump’s New Line of Attack Against the Media Gains Momentum  (David Enrich, New York Times)
First Amendment experts say Mr. Trump’s lawsuits, based on an unproven legal theory, lack merit. But more could be on the way.

Trump’s “Thomas Cromwell”: How a Little-Known Fixer Is Seizing Control of the U.S. Government  (Michael Day, The Telegraph)
The architect of Project 2025 has been confirmed as budget chief –securing his position at the heart of the White House.

How Much Can 10,000 Mexican Troops Achieve at the Border?  (Maria Abi-Habib and James Wagner, New York Times)
To stave off U.S. tariffs, Mexico agreed to deploy 10,000 troops to its northern border. Analysts and former officials question whether they can effectively stop the flow of fentanyl.

Paranoia Is Winning  (Jonathan Chait, The Atlantic)
How Elon Musk’s conspiracy theories became official White House policy

Cracking Down On Facebook Won’t Stop Teenagers Being Radicalized  (Ian Acheson, The Spectator)
“I’ve yet to meet an oncologist, thank God. But if I did turn up to be told I had cancer I wouldn’t expect him to start treating me with a chainsaw. That was my thought this morning when I read that our national counter-terrorism chief had described the effect of exposing kids to violent content online as carcinogenic. Matt Jukes, Assistant Commissioner for Specialist Operations for the Met Police, suggested that a ban on social media for the under 16s was a way to address the scourge of adolescent maniacs mobilized by online extremism who turn hateful thought into lethal action.”

Study Warns Industry Must Prioritize Cybersecurity for Devices, Machines, and Systems in 2025  (Matt Seldon, HSToday)
A new report highlights the urgent need for industries to strengthen cybersecurity measures for operational technology (OT) and Internet of Things (IoT) devices in 2025. The “OT+IoT Cybersecurity Report 2024”, published by German cybersecurity firm ONEKEY, highlights gaps in cyber resilience, particularly in software security for networked systems. The findings are based on a survey of 300 industry executives, revealing budget constraints, overreliance on contractual security measures, and insufficient preparedness for cyber incidents.

Trump’s NOAA Pick at Center of “Sharpie-Gate” Scandal That Altered Hurricane Dorian Forecast  (Adm. Thad W. Allen, HSToday)
In the fall of 2019, Hurricane Dorian made landfall in the Southeast US. In a now famous event in the Oval Office, President Trump used a NOAA-prepared map to show the track of the storm, with one addition — a hand-drawn circle extending the impact of the storm to Alabama.
Now infamously known as Sharpie-Gate, the event was intended to counter the Birmingham AL National Weather Service notice that the storm would not affect Alabama. It was inaccurate and false. As a result, several allegations of Scientific Misconduct were made against Neil Jacobs and Julie Roberts, NOAA leaders, who issued statements backing the president and undercutting their own NWS forecasters.
In 2020, a National Academy of Public Administration (NAPA) team that investigated the alleged scientific misconduct by NOAA personnel found that Jacobs and Roberts did not bother to consult with the NWS forecasters before issuing the misleading statement supporting the President’s false depiction of the storm track, and that the drafting of the statement by Jacobs and Roberts in support of the president was politically influenced by senior officials in the Department of Commerce, including Secretary Wilbur Ross.
Normally, the disturbing, politically motivated distortion of facts by Jacobs and Roberts, intended to support President Trump’s misleading comments, would end their prospects of promotion. However, it has now been announced that President Trump has nominated Neil Jacobs to be the NOAA Administrator in the current administration.