CyberWire Daily – "A morning without Cloudflare"

Date: November 18, 2025
Host: Dave Bittner (N2K Networks)
Guest: Kevin Kennedy, Vice President for Defense Strategy and War Fighting Integration at ManTech and retired USAF Lieutenant General

Episode Overview

This episode delivers urgent cybersecurity news, headlined by Cloudflare’s significant outage and a host of other industry developments—from zero-day vulnerabilities in Chrome and Logitech’s data breach to government policy, privacy debates, and an interview with Kevin Kennedy about the evolving battlefield. The show balances news with expert analysis on cyber warfare, non-kinetic effects, and public-private collaboration.

Key News and Analysis

1. Cloudflare Outage Disrupts Major Web Services

• Summary: Cloudflare experienced a major outage due to "a spike in unusual traffic," affecting access to websites worldwide and blocking users from performance dashboards. The incident demonstrates the internet’s reliance on core providers.
  • Partial recovery reported, but elevated error rates continued during mitigation.
  • Engineers disabled the Warp encryption service in London to stabilize traffic.
  • No clear attribution, though experts deem a large-scale cyberattack unlikely.
  • [01:14] Host Dave Bittner:

    "A major outage at Cloudflare disrupted access to numerous websites today, highlighting how much the Internet relies on a few core providers."

2. Google Chrome Emergency Update

• Summary: Google issued an urgent Chrome patch for two high-severity “type confusion” vulnerabilities, including one zero-day exploited in the wild, likely by state actors or spyware operators.
  • Users urged to update immediately (applies to all Chromium-based browsers).
  • [02:10] Google’s Threat Analysis Group discovered the active exploit on November 12th.

3. Logitech Data Breach via Third-Party Zero-Day

• Summary: Logitech reported to the SEC that a zero-day vulnerability in a third-party vendor allowed attackers to copy some internal IT data.
  • No sensitive data (like IDs or payment info) believed compromised.
  • The incident is possibly linked to CL0P’s larger campaign against Oracle E-Business Suite.

4. CISA’s Major Hiring Push

• Summary: The Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) aims to recover from staffing deficits and prepare for possible conflict with China.
  • About 40% vacancy rate remains after prior personnel cuts.
  • Initiatives: Priority hiring, university partnerships, and new internship pipelines.

5. Legislative Actions (U.S. Congress)

• Renewal of State and Local Cybersecurity Grants:

  • The Pillar Act was reauthorized, sending $1 billion+ to local governments through 2033.
  • Legislators stress stable funding as vital to national security.

• Strengthening Resilience vs State Threats:

  • New interagency task force led by FBI and CISA—focus on Chinese operations.

6. Military Security Oversharing Warnings

• GAO Report: The DoD is not training personnel well enough to prevent leaks of sensitive data online, enabling possible coercion or mission threats.

7. Encryption Backdoor Pushback

• 60+ tech groups worldwide call on governments to reject proposals weakening encryption, warning of privacy risks and undermined global trust.

8. Tragic Result of Outdated Software

• In Australia, a telecom customer died after an emergency call failed due to an outdated Samsung phone software issue.

9. Extradition of Alleged "Void Blizzard" Hacker

• Thai authorities arrested a Russian national suspected of links to a Russian-state cyber espionage group, pending U.S. extradition.

Featured Interview: The Future Battlefield

Guest: Kevin Kennedy (ManTech, retired USAF Lt. Gen.)

Integrating Across All Domains

• [14:33] Kennedy:

  "We are looking as a force...to integrate across all of the domains of warfare at levels that we haven't done to date...The physical domains of air, land, sea, space—cyberspace is the new part, right?...Information and the electromagnetic spectrum connect these domains."

Lower Cost of Entry in Cyber

• [15:52] Bittner:

  "The cost of entry into this battle space has gone way down because of the cyber domain. Is that fair?"

• Kennedy:

  "It's been democratized...Unitary actors, not just states, have access now—criminal actors, ransomware, and more. States are adopting similar ‘stand up and take down’ infrastructure for effects and access."

Kennedy’s Background

• 34 years USAF, spanning operational, strategic, and cyber/information warfare roles, including commander of the 16th Air Force.

Adversaries’ Use of Cyber

• [19:20] Kennedy:

  "Our adversaries are leveraging the domain for three reasons: pre-positioning for military ops, espionage, and criminal activity...e.g., North Korea uses cyber to evade sanctions; PRC's Volt Typhoon pre-positions in critical infrastructure to hinder U.S. action in the Pacific."

The Contested Electromagnetic Spectrum

• [20:50] Kennedy:

  "The spectrum is how we synchronize and integrate activities. We now see active jamming, like on the Ukraine battlefield, with both sides denying the spectrum for comms and navigation. We need to assure our access while denying adversaries theirs."

Public-Private Partnerships and Critical Infrastructure

• [22:42] Kennedy:

  "We need to tabletop and war-game resilience in critical infrastructure. Understanding dependencies, resilience, cybersecurity posture, and incident response capacity is vital."

Cyber Force Debate

• Cyber needs are so cross-domain that establishing a separate “Cyber Force,” akin to Space Force, would be problematic due to overhead and complexity.
• Suggests a SOCOM-like model for cyber, but with improvements in talent management and leadership authority.
  • [24:26] Kennedy:

    "Having a separate [cyber] force to do that wholly...would be problematic. The SOCOM model is about 75% what we need—what we lack is deeper talent management and force development within Cyber Command’s authority."

Building the Cyber Force of the Future

• Expand U.S. Cyber Command authorities for talent and leadership development.
• Invest in a Warfare Center for domain-specific innovation.
• Only reconsider a separate service if investment and personnel capacity increase.

Industry’s (ManTech’s) Role

• [29:18] Kennedy:

  "The partnership between academia, industry, and public sector is important. We're focused on creating digital environments—using digital twins—to test and develop capabilities across domains, shielded from adversaries. This enables rapid and safe innovation."

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On the pervasiveness of the Cloudflare outage:
  "Highlighting how much the Internet relies on a few core providers." – Bittner [01:14]

• On adversarial cyber operations:
  "Volt Typhoon...pre-positioning primarily for potential military operations…opportunities they're seeking in critical infrastructure…." – Kennedy [19:20]

• On the spectrum as part of the battlefield:
  "We now see active jamming...We need to assure access to the spectrum while denying the adversary theirs." – Kennedy [20:50]

• On the challenges of a standalone cyber military force:
  "The overhead that comes with being a [military] service makes a standalone cyber force difficult to justify…" – Kennedy [24:26]

• On industry’s potential contributions:
  "How do you create a digital environment...enable the government to look at capabilities across domain within a digital virtual environment—digital twins, test, field, and train without exposing to adversaries." – Kennedy [29:18]

Timestamps of Important Segments

• [01:14] – Cloudflare outage news
• [02:10] – Chrome zero-day/emergency patch
• [03:15] – Logitech data breach
• [04:30] – CISA hiring, legislative updates
• [05:50] – GAO report on security oversharing
• [08:00] – Encryption debates
• [09:45] – Australia software-induced emergency failure
• [12:00] – Void Blizzard hacker extradition
• [14:33] – Kevin Kennedy interview: future battlefield and non-kinetic effects
• [19:20] – Adversary posture in cyberspace
• [20:50] – Electromagnetic spectrum as contested terrain
• [22:42] – Public-private partnership for critical infrastructure
• [24:26] – Cyber force debate
• [27:04] – Organizing the cyber pipeline: leadership, training, talent
• [29:18] – ManTech’s strategic role
• [33:07] – "AI meets the IRS: What could go wrong?" (Intuit’s OpenAI deal)

Memorable Closing: “What Could Possibly Go Wrong?”

• [33:07] Intuit (TurboTax, QuickBooks, etc.) partners with OpenAI (ChatGPT) for tax and financial decision-making integration.

  "With permission, Intuit's tools will even dip into their financial data to estimate refunds, review credit options, or nudge clients about overdue invoices. ...Intuit insists it has guardrails, validation layers, and years of tax lore to keep hallucinations at bay, though it stayed politely vague about who pays if the AI makes an expensive oops." – Bittner

Conclusion

This episode provides an insightful blend of breaking cybersecurity news, legislative and policy updates, and a deeply informed look at the future of warfare and cyber-physical integration. Guest Kevin Kennedy’s experience gives authority to the analysis on domain convergence, talent and leadership development, and the critical role of public-private partnerships in countering emerging threats.

For more details on any topic, refer to The CyberWire's daily briefing at thecyberwire.com.