Government technology
Source reports covering Government technology. Stories will appear when analysis and community reactions are ready.
9 reports · page 1 of 1
Connected topics are temporarily unavailable. You can still browse stories below.
Source reports
France's tax agency got hacked (in French)
opinion
37 min read
La Direction générale des finances publiques (DGFiP) a confirmé qu’une intrusion a entraîné la fuite d’un fichier de 678 000 entrées concernant des particuliers et des professionnels. Amélie Verdier, directrice générale des finances publiques, a indiqué le 14 août que les données comprenaient notamment les noms, prénoms, quotient familial, revenu fiscal de référence et taux de prélèvement à la source. FrenchBreaches a relevé dans l’échantillon revendiqué par le pirate des adresses, numéros de téléphone, courriels et nombres de personnes à charge. La DGFiP avait interrompu l’accès fin juin, sans détecter alors l’exfiltration, qui n’a été identifiée qu’après la mise en vente des données le 12 août. Le même pirate a revendiqué une seconde attaque contre un serveur professionnel de données cadastrales, menée fin juillet et confirmée par l’administration. Il affirme avoir obtenu 252 149 lignes représentant plus de deux millions de personnes et avoir contourné l’authentification multifacteur; ces détails n’ont pas tous été confirmés publiquement. La DGFiP affirme que le site impots.gouv.fr et les espaces des usagers n’ont pas été compromis et avoir désactivé les comptes concernés ainsi que d’autres accès sensibles par précaution. L’incident s’inscrit dans une série de compromissions d’administrations françaises. La France n’avait toujours pas transposé la directive européenne NIS2 en août 2026, alors que son échéance était fixée à octobre 2024 et que la Commission européenne l’a renvoyée devant la Cour de justice de l’Union européenne en juillet 2026.
A joke domain purchase turned in geopolitical warfare
news
12 min read
SondeHub grew from a May 2018 joke domain that redirected radiosonde hunters to Habhub into an open platform for tracking weather-balloon transmitters, publishing data, and predicting balloon paths. Its operators began proxying radiosonde data in 2018 as Habhub struggled with the volume of daily launches, then built compatible APIs, a prediction service, live feeds, and an S3 data archive. A reverse-prediction feature uses wind models and a balloon’s observed path to estimate launch locations, identifying poorly documented launch sites and, according to its operator, some military installations and vessels. The platform has drawn attention from government, military, aviation, and accident-investigation organizations. SondeHub received a 2021 request to remove a sensitive military installation from maps and says it removes launch-site data after genuine requests. During the February 2023 balloon incidents, traffic rose after SondeHub was linked by The Washington Post; its operator says the US allegedly used an AIM-9X missile against an amateur radio balloon. In late 2024, repeated prediction API requests from an AWS IP were traced to users connected with Ukrainian military groups using wind predictions for balloon and fixed-wing operations. SondeHub asked AWS not to block the account, provided instructions for locally running its predictor, and cited concerns that an interruption could risk lives. The US NTSB contacted SondeHub in September 2025 while investigating balloons near Utah; Windborne later said one of its balloons likely collided with an aircraft and changed its system.
I decompiled the White House's new app
tool
9 min read
The White House's new app is built using React Native with Expo (SDK 54) and operates on the Hermes JavaScript engine. The backend utilizes WordPress with a custom REST API and was developed by "forty-five-press."
Pentagon taps former DOGE official to lead its AI efforts
news
2 min read
Gavin Kliger has been appointed as the Chief Data Officer of the Pentagon, overseeing the Department's AI projects. His role will involve daily alignment and execution of the Department's most ambitious AI initiatives.
IRS lost 40% of IT staff, 80% of tech leaders in 'efficiency' shakeup
news
3 min read
The IRS has cut 40% of its IT staff and 80% of its tech leaders during a major reorganization. This restructuring is the most significant in two decades, as reported by the agency's CIO, Kaschit Pandya.
DOGE Bro's Grant Review Process Was Literally Just Asking ChatGPT 'Is This DEI?'
news
8 min read
Federal grants were terminated by inexperienced individuals based on ChatGPT's assessment of their relation to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in under 120 characters. This practice has been criticized as "arbitrary and capricious" in a proposed amended complaint from the Authors Guild against the US government.
US plans online portal to bypass content bans in Europe and elsewhere
news
4 min read
The U.S. State Department is developing an online portal, hosted at "freedom.gov," to allow access to content banned by governments in Europe and elsewhere, including hate speech and terrorist propaganda. Officials are considering incorporating a virtual private network function to enhance user privacy.
How OpenAI, the US government and Persona built an identity surveillance machine
news
38 min read
OpenAI, the US government, and Persona have developed an identity surveillance system that compiles reports on individuals for federal authorities. The system, known as openai-watchlistdb.withpersona.com, has access to data on 27 million individuals.
I found Claude for Government buried in the Claude Desktop binary. Here's what Anthropic built, how it got deployed, and the line they're still holding against the Pentagon.
tool
7 min read
Claude for Government has been added to Anthropic's status tracker, indicating its status as a core product alongside Claude AI and Claude Code. The first release of the Claude Desktop binary with government deployment implementation is version 1.1.3363.