THURSDAY, MARCH 19, 2026

Cisco's latest round of firewall vulnerabilities has sent security teams scrambling for longer than expected. Robotics companies are asking Congress to consider security rules focused on their Chinese competition. And two interesting domains were registered by the federal government. This is CyberScoop for Thursday, March 19.

The Cisco Systems logo is displayed at the Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona on February 25, 2019. (GABRIEL BOUYS / AFP)

The ongoing Cisco vuln spree

Cisco customers are facing a wave of actively exploited vulnerabilities in the vendor’s SD-WAN and firewall management products, with five of nine recently disclosed flaws already confirmed under attack and two SD-WAN zero-days reportedly exploited for at least three years before discovery. Amazon Threat Intelligence said Interlock ransomware had been exploiting one max-severity Cisco firewall management flaw since Jan. 26, before public disclosure, showing how attackers are targeting management-plane and control-plane weaknesses at the network edge to gain broad administrative access and long-term footholds. Researchers say the campaign is a reminder that organizations cannot rely only on CVSS scores to prioritize patching, since several exploited Cisco flaws were not rated critical even though edge and management infrastructure remain “prime real estate” for attackers. Matt Kapko has more.

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A security warning tied to Chinese-made robots

U.S. robotics executives warned Congress that Chinese-made robots pose a growing national security risk, pointing to ties between firms like Unitree and the Chinese military as well as vulnerabilities such as a wormable exploit disclosed in 2025 that could let attackers take over entire fleets. Witnesses urged lawmakers to block federal purchases of Chinese robots and have CISA review foreign-made systems, arguing that AI-powered robots will become critical infrastructure as they spread across factories, energy sites, law enforcement and military operations. Lawmakers also confronted the domestic security risk that these same systems could be hacked, manipulated or used in ways that threaten Americans’ privacy and civil liberties as DHS and other agencies expand their use of AI-driven surveillance and robotics. Derek B. Johnson has more.

Aliens.gov?

A mysterious one: The White House registered two new government domains, alien.gov and aliens.gov, according to federal records, about a month after President Trump announced plans to release long-awaited U.S. government files on unidentified anomalous phenomena and extraterrestrial beings. The domains were not connected to live websites as of Wednesday, but public data shows they were registered Tuesday night and hosted on Cloudflare, raising questions about whether they will support new public-facing disclosure or reporting efforts tied to the Pentagon’s All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office. The registrations are especially notable because they occurred while CISA is not accepting new .gov domain requests due to a federal funding lapse, and the White House has so far only responded with “Stay tuned!” and an alien emoji. Brandi Vincent and Madison Alder have more on DefenseScoop.

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