I emailed the following to Sens. Wyden + Merkley, + Rep. Dexter. As usual , Wyden's email box is full:
Please do all you can to get the Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act (CISA 2015) reauthorization passed before it expires on September 30th. Security professionals…business groups…and election vendors across the spectrum want this law renewed.
It is critical to have it in place for the midterm elections.
Ay Yi Yi Yi Yi. Going to call my favorite staffer in one of our senator's offices tomorrow. We had a good chat this morning. Will write the other senator and the 2 reps for our state one of whom is a former Intel officer. #HoldingFast
Jack, this is exactly the kind of story that gets buried under louder news and matters more than almost anything on the front page. You’ve identified something I keep trying to teach people to see: authoritarian consolidation rarely announces itself as an attack on democracy. It shows up as a funding lapse, a letter nobody reads, a law with a boring name that quietly stops working. The Cyber Command director testified plainly that interference is expected. The infrastructure built to detect it is scheduled to switch off five weeks before people vote. That gap is not an accident of bureaucratic timing — it is the precise shape of institutional erosion, and it will not be described that way by anyone with an interest in keeping voters uncertain.
Your framing of the actual threat is the right one, and it’s worth restating: foreign interference rarely changes vote counts. It changes what people are willing to believe about the count. That is the softer, more effective form of attack, and it is also the one democracies are worst at defending against, because it doesn’t require breaking anything — only making citizens stop trusting what still works.
One addition, from having watched this pattern before: name the people responsible for letting the law lapse, not just the law itself. Diffuse blame protects the people making the choice to let critical infrastructure expire. A senator’s staff can find the calendar too. Make them answer for the date, not just acknowledge it.
#HoldFast is a good sign-off. Keep pointing at the calendar. That’s the job right now.
Jane... I'll take the correction; I named the law...when I should have named the people who LET it die. Laws don't lapse; someone with a calendar...and a VOTE...decides not to ACT.
If you've watched this pattern before, I'd genuinely like to hear where....what you saw and how it ended. Not for the comment section. For ME. You clearly know this terrain, and I'd rather LEARN from you...than perform for each other.
"The 2024 election faced cyber probes…hoax bomb threats…and full-blown foreign influence campaigns…and it held. No foreign operation changed an outcome." Unless you don't consider Elon Musk to be a foreign operator.
I emailed my two senators regarding this. Hopefully enough of us citizens will communicate to our representatives to get the extension done. My message header was: Reauthorization Request Prior to September 30, 2026, Deadline.
On it.. and I won’t have any trouble remembering the date. It’s the day after my birthday.
I’ll call and email my Representative.. Chuck Edwards (R).. who I hope will no longer be my Rep after November.. or however long it takes to sort things out.
Thanks for letting us know about this, Jack. I would have certainly missed it otherwise.
I’m saving the date even though I won’t forget… and bookmarking the website. Also, sharing with friends.
I emailed the following to Sens. Wyden + Merkley, + Rep. Dexter. As usual , Wyden's email box is full:
Please do all you can to get the Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act (CISA 2015) reauthorization passed before it expires on September 30th. Security professionals…business groups…and election vendors across the spectrum want this law renewed.
It is critical to have it in place for the midterm elections.
Buck...THIS.
While the internet was arguing...you emailed two senators and a rep. Ten minutes, zero dollars...EXACTLY the play!
Full inbox? Use the website contact form or call the district office. Staffers log EVERY contact; a voicemail counts.
You're officially deputized on the neighborhood watch. 🫡
Who's copying Buck's playbook?
Well done.
-Jack
Thanks Jack. A little more work to fill out the form. Under topic I clicked Defense.
Beautiful, Buck!
-Jack
JFC had no idea.. but now I know. Thank you Jack for all the daily info.. I was blind but now I see🙌🏽🤙🏽🙌🏽
You're welcome.
Tens of millions don't know, Morgan. You certainly weren't alone.
-Jack
Ay Yi Yi Yi Yi. Going to call my favorite staffer in one of our senator's offices tomorrow. We had a good chat this morning. Will write the other senator and the 2 reps for our state one of whom is a former Intel officer. #HoldingFast
Roberta...this is it. This is EXACTLY it.
When you get your staffer ask for ONE thing:
The SPECIFIC DATE the funding lapses...AND... whether anyone in that office has raised it.
Not the talking points...the DATE.
That's the question NOBODY wants to answer ON the record!
Let me know what you hear.
#KeepHoldingFast
-Jack
Jack, this is exactly the kind of story that gets buried under louder news and matters more than almost anything on the front page. You’ve identified something I keep trying to teach people to see: authoritarian consolidation rarely announces itself as an attack on democracy. It shows up as a funding lapse, a letter nobody reads, a law with a boring name that quietly stops working. The Cyber Command director testified plainly that interference is expected. The infrastructure built to detect it is scheduled to switch off five weeks before people vote. That gap is not an accident of bureaucratic timing — it is the precise shape of institutional erosion, and it will not be described that way by anyone with an interest in keeping voters uncertain.
Your framing of the actual threat is the right one, and it’s worth restating: foreign interference rarely changes vote counts. It changes what people are willing to believe about the count. That is the softer, more effective form of attack, and it is also the one democracies are worst at defending against, because it doesn’t require breaking anything — only making citizens stop trusting what still works.
One addition, from having watched this pattern before: name the people responsible for letting the law lapse, not just the law itself. Diffuse blame protects the people making the choice to let critical infrastructure expire. A senator’s staff can find the calendar too. Make them answer for the date, not just acknowledge it.
#HoldFast is a good sign-off. Keep pointing at the calendar. That’s the job right now.
Jane... I'll take the correction; I named the law...when I should have named the people who LET it die. Laws don't lapse; someone with a calendar...and a VOTE...decides not to ACT.
If you've watched this pattern before, I'd genuinely like to hear where....what you saw and how it ended. Not for the comment section. For ME. You clearly know this terrain, and I'd rather LEARN from you...than perform for each other.
I'm glad you're here!
#HoldFast
-Jack
On it. Thanks for the heads-up!
#HoldFast
Rae...I knew you would be!
-Jack
"The 2024 election faced cyber probes…hoax bomb threats…and full-blown foreign influence campaigns…and it held. No foreign operation changed an outcome." Unless you don't consider Elon Musk to be a foreign operator.
Cathy...I hear you.
Technically my sentence survives...he's a naturalized citizen, so..in the most literal sense, 'foreign operation' doesn't reach him.
BUT... you've put your finger on the HARDER problem...and I'd rather concede...it than "win" on the technicality:
The biggest influence operation of 2024 wasn't foreign...covert...or illegal. It was open...domestic...and OWNED the platform it ran on.
Everything we built detects the first kind.
Nothing detects the second.
That's a different column, and YOU, Cathy... just made the case for writing it.
Well done!
-Jack
The old "The call is coming from inside the house" meme, seems to apply.
✓
✓
✓
#Holdfast
Outstanding, Kristine! Thank you.
-Jack
I emailed my two senators regarding this. Hopefully enough of us citizens will communicate to our representatives to get the extension done. My message header was: Reauthorization Request Prior to September 30, 2026, Deadline.
#HoldFast
CC...that subject line is the ENTIRE column in ONE sentence!
September 30, 2026...now it's ON the record, in THEIR inbox...with a DATE attached.
That's EXACTLY what makes it harder to quietly let slide. Masterful.
#HoldFast
-Jack
On it.. and I won’t have any trouble remembering the date. It’s the day after my birthday.
I’ll call and email my Representative.. Chuck Edwards (R).. who I hope will no longer be my Rep after November.. or however long it takes to sort things out.
Thanks for letting us know about this, Jack. I would have certainly missed it otherwise.
I’m saving the date even though I won’t forget… and bookmarking the website. Also, sharing with friends.
#Holdfast
~Susan