A new cyber threat from Russian hackers raises alarms over U.S. critical infrastructure vulnerabilities. Russian Cyber Threat Emerges Once More In August 2025, the FBI and Cisco publicly disclosed a significant cyber threat targeting U.S. critical infrastructure. Russian state-sponsored hackers, identified as FSB’s Center 16, exploited a long-standing vulnerability (CVE-2018-0171) in Cisco networking devices. This breach allowed unauthorized access to U.S. critical infrastructure networks, posing severe security risks to essential services. The vulnerability in question, publicly disclosed in 2018, has been leveraged by Russian actors to collect configuration files and modify device settings. These actions enable a persistent foothold within the networks, allowing for reconnaissance on industrial control systems. This discovery has alarmed U.S. agencies, highlighting the need for immediate remediation measures to protect national security. Historical Context and Ongoing Threats Russian cyber operations have a long history of targeting Western infrastructure. Groups like Berserk Bear/Dragonfly have been active for over a decade. The geopolitical tensions following Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine have only intensified these cyber activities. Persistent vulnerabilities in unpatched or outdated networking equipment make critical sectors increasingly susceptible to these sophisticated attacks. Notably, the same Russian actors have previously conducted espionage and pre-positioning activities, indicating a strategy that combines intelligence gathering with potential for future disruptive attacks. These operations often target sectors like energy, water, transportation, and communications, given their strategic importance to national security. Impact and Urgent Response Required The implications of these cyber threats are profound, both in the short and long term. In the immediate future, there is an increased risk of espionage, data theft, and disruption of critical services. Long-term effects could involve destructive attacks, especially if geopolitical tensions escalate further. This situation underscores the urgent need for modernization and patch management across infrastructure sectors. FBI Warns of Russian Cyber Hackers Targeting Critical US Infrastructure.Russian hackers have been caught accessing the computer networks of critical U.S. infrastructure. https://t.co/kXZifbBFLf. — Will Trivellini (@WillTrivellini) August 21, 2025 Economic impacts could include financial losses and increased cybersecurity costs, while social implications might affect public safety and trust in essential services. Politically, this elevates tensions between the U.S. and Russia and intensifies the focus on cyber defense policies. Collaborative efforts between government and the private sector are crucial to enhancing defenses against these persistent threats. Sources: FBI and Cisco Warn of Russian Hackers Exploiting Cisco Vulnerabilities Homeland Threat Assessment 2025 CISA Alert on Russian GRU Targeting FBI Warns of Russian FSB-Linked Hackers CISA Cybersecurity Advisories

Vice President JD Vance torched vulnerable Georgia Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff as a “far-left liberal” during a visit to the state Thursday to promote President Donald Trump’s tax cuts. Vance hammered Ossoff for his left-wing voting record and fierce opposition to the One Big Beautiful Bill Act — which he, along with every Senate Democrat, voted […]

'Foreign-built wind turbines'

The Supreme Court allowed the Trump administration to move forward Thursday with terminating hundreds of millions in National Institutes of Health (NIH) grants. In a 5-4 vote, the majority enabled the administration to terminate nearly $783 million in grants, which the government said were opposed to its policy positions on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) […]

'We are in a state of unfathomable sadness and grief'

'Police on scene'

Who needs morons fighting at stadiums

Ex-felon city official received 'clean slate' from state program

Stories of “deconstruction” among millennials who grew up in the 1990s have become so common they’re rather passe. Men and women my age are expected to talk about how purity culture, Promise Keepers, and Focus on the Family scarred them for life. I, for one, am grateful for our past evangelical overlords, however. The Christian conservative movements of the 1980s and 1990s weren’t perfect, but they kept traditional values alive in a way that benefited me, and this week one of the absolute giants in that movement passed away. James Dobson James Dobson, 89, went to join his heavenly father on Thursday. He left behind a loving family and a tremendous legacy for American Christians struggling to respond to family breakdown and a hostile culture. Dobson fought the Sexual Revolution in the 1970s by emphasizing marriage and family. He founded Focus on the Family in 1977 in California, and moved it to Colorado Springs, Colorado, in 1991. That city became known as “The Vatican of the Religious Right,” with Dobson as the implied pontiff. The title seemed rather apt. Dobson spearheaded the movement to bring conservative Christianity to politics. He helped found the think tank Family Research Council in 1981, family policy councils that lobby state governments, and Alliance Defending Freedom, a premier conservative Christian law firm. He fought against abortion and for the traditional definition of marriage. Dobson eventually stepped down from Focus on the Family, handing the reins to Jim Daly in 2010. He continued writing and speaking on the radio until his death. My Story I grew up in Golden, Colorado, just north of the Protestant Vatican. I have fond memories listening to Focus on the Family’s radio program, “Adventures in Odyssey,” and my parents read Dobson’s books. I grew up attending Focus-aligned Promise Keepers conferences, which encouraged men to be faithful husbands and fathers. My parents encouraged me to remain celibate until marriage, and I believe that has made my marriage and family stronger. Lessons from Focus on the Family helped me follow the “success sequence,” completing high school, entering the workforce, and delaying having kids until getting married. Research bears out my experience that this path isn’t just a way to avoid poverty but a road to fulfillment. I grew up in a Christian family open to books like “Harry Potter,” but my parents shielded me from inappropriate content and inoculated me from harmful ideologies as I grew older. American culture has a great deal to offer, but much of it has become hostile to conservative values. Parents cannot trust schools to teach reading, writing, and arithmetic without inserting climate, race, and transgender orthodoxy. These ideologies also enjoy a stranglehold in the legacy media, academia, Hollywood, and big business, despite President Donald Trump’s recent success in weakening that grip. Dobson, long before Trump, understood that conservatives have to take the cultural fight to the Left, and cannot sit back as the Sexual Revolution redefines love, marriage, and what it means to be human. Critics faulted Dobson’s movement for showing insufficient compassion to people struggling with same-sex attraction and gender confusion. While I doubt both the sincerity and the veracity of this complaint, I agree that Christians should emphasize God’s compassion—he offers eternal life through faith in Jesus to all sinners, both people like me and people who experience temptations different from mine. However, the LGBTQ movement presents a false gospel, one that places “Pride” above following God’s commandments. The gospel is open to all sinners who repent, but it doesn’t celebrate same-sex marriage. It offers hope to those struggling with gender confusion, but does not endorse the idea that God made a mistake when he created us male and female. The same hostility my generation feels toward purity culture also drives a hatred of the institutions Dobson strived to create. Defending Dobson’s Legacy The Southern Poverty Law Center smears many groups Dobson helped found—the Family Research Council, Alliance Defending Freedom, and many family policy councils—as “hate groups” worthy of inclusion on a “hate map” alongside Ku Klux Klan chapters. A terrorist used this map to target the Family Research Council in 2012. The SPLC once defended itself from claims that it is “anti-Christian” by noting that it did not put Focus on the Family on that “hate map.” This year, however, it did put Focus on the map, undermining its own defense and revealing that it is indeed an anti-Christian organization. Many of the SPLC’s targets have helped me personally, and I believe they are fighting an important fight in America today. That’s why I wrote my first book, “Making Hate Pay: The Corruption of the Southern Poverty Law Center.” In my own small way, I aim to repay some of my debt and to further Dobson’s legacy by exposing such attacks and creating space for conservative Christians to share our values in the public square. The post James Dobson Had a Profound Impact on My Life, But Not for the Reasons Our Culture Might Think appeared first on The Daily Signal.

Editor’s note: This is a lightly edited transcript of today’s video from Daily Signal Senior Contributor Victor Davis Hanson. Subscribe to our YouTube channel to see more of his videos. Hello, this is Victor Davis Hanson for The Daily Signal. I, each week, drive about 425 miles round trip from my farm residence in Central California to Stanford University’s Hoover Institution. And over the last 20 years, I’ve noticed that it is not just that the California infrastructure has gotten much worse as the population has incrementally increased to 41 million people. We have an infrastructure of the 1970s, when we had 20 million people. And now we have twice the number of people driving and the infrastructure is even worse than it was 50 years ago. And we may have somewhere around 100 million cars or 140 million cars, the estimates range, in California register. But what I’m getting at is this: It’s very dangerous now to drive on California freeways. There are either two lanes or three lanes, maximum. And we’ve had a new trend where truck drivers will get in the middle lane, on a three-lane freeway, and just stay there. And then you have two lanes of solid truck traffic and only one lane—in the left, if it’s three lanes—for cars. The truck drivers seem not to be as respectful of traffic as in the past. I bring this up because an illegal alien, Harjinder Singh from India, crossed over into the United States illegally in 2018. And he was ordered to leave. He ignored that during the Biden administration. He was issued a work permit that was revoked by the Trump administration later when it came in. But that’s controversial, but what is not controversial? Singh, who could not read or speak English, essentially, could only identify one or two traffic signs, for some reason was given a work permit. But more importantly, he was given a California driver’s license, even though he was known to be an illegal alien and not proficient in English. And California thinks that as the home of the most illegal aliens in the country—a state in which 27% of the people were not born in the United States and it has the largest sanctuary city infrastructure, where they do not comply with Immigration and Customs Enforcement requests to deport criminal illegal aliens—that it’s unique and it’s self-contained. It’s not. People that it grants licenses to or residence to, who are here illegally and are not familiar with traffic laws, they go all over the United States. So, what happened this past week, Singh was driving a semi-truck in Florida, and for some reason he decided—a major thoroughfare—that he was just going to make a U-turn and cut across the divider and go in the opposite direction, in the middle of fast-moving traffic. And so, the inevitable happened. As he’s making this turn, his own camera shows him nonchalantly looking around as a car has no choice but to hit his semi-trailer. And two people were killed instantly. The third died in the hospital. What was very disturbing was the expression on Singh’s face. It was calm. He looked around. It was almost as if, “Oh. I made a U-turn. Somebody hit my truck. I wonder what happened?” He didn’t get out and try to help anybody. He stood at the side of the road, finally. But why was he driving? He was driving because California issued him a license when they knew he was an unlawful resident of the United States and he was not proficient in English, at least enough to be able to read rudimentary traffic signs and signals. In other words, he killed three people. And he’s now charged with vehicular manslaughter because of the lax policy of California. What I’m getting at is, when I drive, I see a lot of drivers like that. I don’t know what their immigration status is. I don’t know where they’re born. All I know is that there are so many trucks on the California freeway. The infrastructure is so poor and this generation of truck drivers does not abide by the prior courtesies and policies of previous generations of truck drivers. It makes driving in California an experience like “Road Warrior” or “Mad Max.” And the trucks dominate, sometimes, all the lanes for periods of time on California freeways. And more importantly, they drive outside of California. So, California Gov. Gavin Newsom is in a fight with President Donald Trump—back and forth—who issued him a temporary work permit. But I think Gavin Newsom, who champions the cause of unlawful immigrants, is going to lose that argument against Donald Trump, who tries to deport them. But more importantly, it’s beyond controversy. Gavin Newsom’s California issued this man a driver’s license. This man was not a U.S. citizen. He was not here legally, and he could not read or write English, apparently. And the wages of that, we found out in Florida, were the death of three innocent people. And no remorse. No apologies on the part of California or Gavin Newsom. Bottom line: California is dangerous to itself, in a myriad of ways, but it’s also dangerous to everybody outside of California because its pathologies are not contained within its borders. We publish a variety of perspectives. Nothing written here is to be construed as representing the views of The Daily Signal. The post California Gives Illegal Truck Driver a License—3 Americans Pay the Price appeared first on The Daily Signal.