Derek Johnson

Washington, D.C., United States

Reporter and knowledge broker @CyberScoopNews, covering elections, privacy and more. Priors @fcwnow and @scmagazine. Catch me at [email protected].

Articles

Copyright office criticizes AI ‘fair use’ before director’s dismissal

1 day ago | cyberscoop.com | Derek Johnson

President Donald Trump’s firing over the weekend of Shira Perlmutter, director of the U.S. Copyright Office, has drawn strong criticism from Democrats and tech experts who believe her dismissal is related to a report on generative AI and copyright law that the register of copyrights released a day earlier. That report, overseen by Perlmutter, questioned whether AI companies can legally train their models on massive amounts of copyrighted data without compensating creators.
State and local election officials plead with Congress for election security funding

2 days ago | cyberscoop.com | Derek Johnson

As the Trump administration takes a hatchet to the federal government’s election security work and attempts to place conditions on funding to states, state and local election officials are pleading with lawmakers to provide robust support they say is crucial to keeping American elections secure.
Senators move to quash the use of Chinese AI system by federal contractors

6 days ago | cyberscoop.com | Derek Johnson

A bipartisan Senate bill would formally ban the use of DeepSeek by federal contractors, part of a larger effort to keep the Chinese-made large language model out of government systems and networks, where lawmakers fear it could pose cybersecurity and national security concerns. The bill, introduced by Sens. Bill Cassidy, R-La., and Jacky Rosen, D-Nev., would bar federal contractors from using the model to carry out any activity related to a federal contract.
Trump calls on Colorado to release election-denying clerk from jail

1 week ago | cyberscoop.com | Derek Johnson

President Donald Trump is calling on Colorado state officials to release Tina Peters, the former Mesa County clerk serving a nine-year prison sentence for stealing and sharing sensitive voting system data in a failed attempt to bolster Trump’s claims of mass voter fraud in the 2020 presidential election.
Cyber experts, Democrats urge Trump administration not to break up cyber coordination in State reorg

2 weeks ago | cyberscoop.com | Derek Johnson

Cyber experts are urging Congress to ensure that a planned reorganization of the State Department continues to integrate cyber diplomacy at the highest levels of decision-making, while providing the resources, staffing and structure necessary to project American digital security policy abroad with both allies and adversaries.
House passes legislation to criminalize nonconsensual deepfakes

2 weeks ago | cyberscoop.com | Derek Johnson

The House passed a bill Monday evening that would criminalize using a person’s likeness to create nonconsensual deepfake pornography. The Take It Down Act sailed through the chamber on a vote of 402-2, marking one of the first major pieces of legislation passed by Congress to address AI-generated deepfakes.
Judge tosses citizenship provisions in Trump elections order

2 weeks ago | cyberscoop.com | Derek Johnson

A federal court partially blocked a Trump administration executive order Thursday that seeks to impose requirements on states to use the White House’s definition of “documentary proof” of citizenship, inhibit mail voting and other election-related elements by threatening to withhold federal funding.
Multiple top CISA officials behind ‘Secure by Design’ resign

3 weeks ago | cyberscoop.com | Derek Johnson

Two top officials at the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency who worked with the private sector to manufacture secure products and technology are leaving the agency. Bob Lord, senior technical adviser and Lauren Zabierek, senior advisor at CISA, were both chief architects behind CISA’s Secure by Design initiative, which garnered voluntary commitments from major vendors and manufacturers to build cybersecurity protections into their products at the design stage.
House investigation into DeepSeek teases out funding, security realities around Chinese AI tool

4 weeks ago | cyberscoop.com | Derek Johnson

A House panel has concluded that the U.S. government should double down on export controls and other tools to slow down the progress of Chinese AI companies like DeepSeek, while also preparing for a future where those efforts fail.
CISA reverses course, extends MITRE CVE contract

4 weeks ago | cyberscoop.com | Derek Johnson

In a last-minute switch, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency said it will continue funding a contract for MITRE to manage the CVE program and other vulnerability databases. In a statement sent to CyberScoop, a spokesperson said the agency executed an option to extend the contract and avoid a potential lapse in a program that has become essential to the broader cyber community’s vulnerability management.