Richard Vanderford

3 days ago | createsend.com | Richard Vanderford

Good morning. Local infrastructure and small businesses are likely facing the greatest risk of Iranian cyber attacks in response to the U.S. bombings over the weekend. That’s because those entities, like the Iranian government and its aligned hacking groups, aren’t as sophisticated as large companies and federal assets, which if hacked would produce widespread disruptions, cybersecurity experts said.

4 days ago | createsend.com | Richard Vanderford

Good morning. Oil traders see it as a worst-case scenario. Pentagon officials have long warned against it. Vice President JD Vance believes it would be suicidal. Yet Iranian lawmakers on Sunday reportedly threatened a closure of the Strait of Hormuz, a strip of water connecting the energy rich Persian Gulf to global markets, after the U.S. joined Israeli strikes on Tehran’s nuclear facilities. That rattled oil markets and sent U.S. stock futures lower on Sunday evening.

2 weeks ago | createsend.com | Richard Vanderford

Good morning. The Justice Department will resume investigating foreign-bribery cases with a narrowed focus on matters that relate to U.S. strategic interests, including buttressing the ability of American firms to compete for business overseas. Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche announced the changes after a four-month review triggered by President Trump’s order earlier this year freezing corruption investigations.

3 weeks ago | createsend.com | Richard Vanderford

Top U.S. cyber agency faces staff and funding cuts in new budget. The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency would have its funding slashed by $495 million to a $2.38 billion allocation in President Trump’s proposed budget for fiscal 2026. The falloff marks a stark reversal in budgetary trends for CISA, which saw its funding either climb or stay relatively flat over the past five years, from $2 billion in 2020 to almost $3 billion last year.

3 weeks ago | createsend.com | Richard Vanderford

Good morning. Iraq was a minor market for Visa and Mastercard a couple of years ago, generating just $50 million a month or less in cross-border transactions at the start of 2023. Then it exploded to around $1.5 billion in April that year, a 2900% increase almost overnight. What changed?