Last Tuesday, while many of you were reading this newsletter over your morning coffee, I was circling a crowded parking lot outside the National Security Agency, searching for an open space in the sweltering Maryland heat. Before long, my phone and smartwatch were locked inside my car, replaced by a visitor badge after passing through multiple security checkpoints, interviews, and enough controlled access doors to remind me that some places still take secrecy seriously.

As I walked the quiet government corridors toward the conference center where I would address U.S. Cyber Command, I couldn’t help but think how unusual my career has been. Years ago, I walked similar halls as an FBI counterintelligence operative pursuing one of the most damaging spies in American history. This time, I was there to speak to the men and women defending the United States on a battlefield that barely existed when I began my career.

Standing before that audience—along with cyber professionals joining virtually from across the Department of Defense—I told them something they probably don’t hear often. They are America’s unsung heroes. Every day, without fanfare or recognition, they defend the digital infrastructure that keeps our nation running. Power grids, financial systems, communications networks, hospitals, military installations, and the countless invisible systems we depend upon all rely on people like them standing watch.

A few nights later, as fireworks burst above the Capitol, my thoughts drifted back to that room. I reflected on my years in the FBI, on the undercover operation that ended Robert Hanssen’s decades of betrayal, and on my daughter as she prepares to begin her own service in the United States Navy. It struck me that although America is approaching its 250th birthday—a relatively young nation by European standards—the responsibility borne by each generation remains remarkably constant. Every era inherits its own threats. Every generation is called to defend the country in ways its predecessors could scarcely have imagined.

Every Fourth of July we celebrate the birth of a nation, but independence was never the end of America’s story. It was only the beginning. For nearly two and a half centuries our adversaries have changed, our technology has evolved, and the battlefield has shifted repeatedly. From British troops and Soviet spies to terrorists, cybercriminals, and artificial intelligence, the methods have transformed. Human nature has not.

That was one of the first lessons I learned in counterintelligence. Successful spies rarely defeat sophisticated technology. They exploit trust, complacency, curiosity, ambition, and fear. Every espionage case eventually becomes a story about people long before it becomes a story about secrets.

Robert Hanssen understood this better than almost anyone. His greatest weapon was not technical brilliance but his understanding of institutions and human behavior. He recognized how organizations become comfortable with routine, how colleagues stop asking difficult questions, and how trust slowly replaces verification.

Today’s cybercriminals have reached exactly the same conclusion.

Modern ransomware gangs spend weeks studying their victims before they strike. Artificial intelligence now allows criminals to write flawless phishing emails, clone executive voices, generate convincing video, and automate deception on a scale intelligence agencies once could only imagine. The technology is revolutionary. The tradecraft is ancient.

George Washington would recognize it immediately.

His Culper Spy Ring succeeded because it followed principles that remain timeless: verify information before acting, protect your sources, assume deception is always possible, and never mistake confidence for proof. Those are no longer lessons reserved for intelligence officers. They have become essential habits for anyone living in a connected world.

We often talk about cybersecurity as though it belongs exclusively to engineers, CISOs, or government agencies. That is comforting because it suggests someone else is responsible for protecting us. Unfortunately, it is also wrong.

The first line of defense is not a firewall. It is a person exercising sound judgment.

It is the accountant who questions an unexpected wire transfer. It is the employee who picks up the telephone instead of trusting an email. It is the parent who pauses before responding to a panicked voice that may have been generated by artificial intelligence. These are not technical decisions. They are acts of vigilance.

Perhaps that is why, despite spending much of my career studying betrayal, espionage, and cybercrime, I remain optimistic. America has never endured because we built perfect defenses. We have endured because ordinary citizens adapted faster than our adversaries expected. Every generation accepted responsibility for protecting something larger than itself.

As we celebrate another Independence Day and look toward America’s 250th birthday next year, that lesson feels more relevant than ever. The threats have become quieter, faster, and increasingly powered by artificial intelligence, but they still depend on one timeless assumption: that someone will mistake appearance for truth.

A good spy hunter never makes that mistake. The first report is never the final story. Every source deserves scrutiny. Every claim requires evidence. Every conclusion remains provisional until the facts support it.

In an age of cybercrime, artificial intelligence, and digital deception, our nation would be stronger if every one of us learned to think like a spy hunter.

This week, before you trust an email, share a social media post, respond to an urgent text message, or believe an AI-generated image or video, pause for just a moment and ask three simple questions:

Who wants me to believe this?

Where did this information originate?

What evidence would change my mind?

Those three questions have protected intelligence officers for generations. They can protect you as well.

Thank you for spending part of your week with me. Whether you’re protecting a Fortune 500 company, serving your community, wearing the uniform of our armed forces, or simply trying to keep your family safe online, thank you for doing your part.

Next Tuesday we’ll return to our regular format with the latest in cybercrime, espionage, and artificial intelligence. Until then, I hope you have a safe, joyful, and meaningful Fourth of July.

If you enjoyed this week’s newsletter, you’ll find even more inside my new book, SPIES, LIES, AND CYBERCRIME. Drawing on my years hunting spies for the FBI, it reveals how espionage, cybercrime, and AI-powered deception intersect—and what you can do to stay one step ahead.

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Stay safe out there and keep thinking like a spy hunter.

Praemonitus Praemunitus!

Forewarned is Forearmed!

~Eric