Michael Lampe

Angry InfoSec guy, smasher of idols, Chaotic Good Fremen, born on Arrakis of House Atreides. I am my father’s son. His shadow weighs a tonne.

[Michael Lampe @MountainIT]

@shairnn 18

[Ricardo @Ric_RTP]

This AI just exposed the BIGGEST legal insider trading operation in America.

A platform called GovGreed built a seven-layer machine learning system that cross-references every stock trade disclosed by every sitting politician against the bills their committees control, the campaign donations they receive, and the companies their votes directly impact.

It scored all 540 politicians currently in Congress. And the numbers are crazy:

56% of every stock purchase made by Congress in the last 16 months was on a stock directly affected by a bill the buyer later voted on. That is 6,170 out of 11,016 total purchases.

More than HALF of all congressional stock buys are on companies whose fate that same politician is about to decide.

343 of 540 Congress members actively trade stocks while holding access to nonpublic legislative information.

That is 63.8% of the entire legislature making market bets with an informational edge that would put any hedge fund manager in prison.

The AI identified 752 active "Triple Signals" in the current Congress. A Triple Signal fires when three conditions line up at once:

The politician sits on the committee controlling a bill, they traded stock in a company affected by that bill, AND they received campaign contributions from that same industry.

Bills carrying these insider indicators pass at 5.4 TIMES the normal rate.

Now look at the individual leaderboard:

- Nancy Pelosi's estimated portfolio sits at $194 million with a Greediness score of 98.1 out of 100
- Ro Khanna made 13,231 trades across 800+ different tickers
- Michael McCaul made 32,302 trades and filed 6,670 of them late
- Thomas Suozzi filed 86.4% of his trades late with an average delay of 396 days, meaning his disclosures landed over a YEAR after he made the trade

And then there is Lisa McClain, the fourth-ranking Republican in the House. She has made 1,443 trades in three years, more than 98% of all politicians tracked.

She violated the STOCK Act twice in a single year, disclosing up to $900,000 in trades months after the legal deadline. Her husband bought up to $250,000 in Elon Musk's xAI, which quietly converted into SpaceX equity before last Friday's $2 trillion IPO.

The penalty for all of this? A $200 fine.

The number of Congress members ever prosecuted under the STOCK Act since it passed in 2012? Zero.

And the cruelest part is this:

A bill to ban congressional stock trading was introduced in January 2026. It has bipartisan support. Over 80% of American voters want it passed.

But Congress is sitting on it, because the people who would have to vote yes are the same people making millions from the system staying exactly the way it is.

They write the insider trading laws, they exempt themselves from enforcement, they trade on the information those laws generate, and when they get caught, they pay a fine that is basically nothing.

The AI didn't discover anything Congress was hiding. It just organized what was already public into a pattern so obvious that nobody can pretend it isn't there anymore.

[Tom Dörr @tom_doerr]

754 structured cybersecurity skills mapped to MITRE frameworks for AI agents

https://t.co/e4iY76zKIO

[Darshak Rana ⚡️ @thedarshakrana]

https://t.co/Ctz4zbfTG1

[Phil Venables @philvenables]

What most people get wrong about organizational politics and the security program.

Creating and running an enterprise wide security program requires you to navigate, and benefit from, organization politics. This takes influencing skill and executive presence. These aren’t simply innate skills. They can be developed like any other skill. Navigate the organization.

https://t.co/8G2eRIZOjw

[Dave Hale - Concerned Republican @CountryFirstRep]

A great July 4th reminder...

[Jammer @acrossthemersey]

History repeating itself.

[Chris Hedges @ChrisLynnHedges]

https://t.co/wI91ek2z32

[David Leavitt 🎲🎮🧙‍♂️🌈 @DavidLeavitt]

More relevant than ever

[❀ white nik ❀ @niknyxx]

Noah Bush, 8 years old, was found drowned in Jesup, Georgia in May 2024. He went out to play with neighborhood kids & never came home. After finding his body in a small body of water the sheriff’s office immediately announced it was accidental & for two months they did nothing.

[ᴅᴀɴɪᴇʟ ᴍɪᴇssʟᴇʀ 🛡️ @DanielMiessler]

💡I've enjoyed some of the life lesson-type lists I've seen recently, so I thought I'd make a quick one myself.

📄 Here are some of the things I accept as truth now that took me a long time to learn.

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In practice, weak people behave very similarly to evil people. Don't let yourself be taken advantage of by either.

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When I am feeling low mood or low energy, 95% of the time it's because I have not 1) gotten up early, 2) gotten outside, 3) worked out, 4) gone for a walk, or done anything else physical in the last 2 days. Just go do that and you'll instantly feel better.

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Radical honesty—or something close to it—is harder to do at the time but infinitely better for your relationships. Avoiding hard conversations creates toxicity that builds up over time and destroys things.

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You almost never lose by being kind to a stranger. No strings attached. A compliment. A gesture. A smile. Just be nice. People really really need it right now. Give it away freely. It feels good too.

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People believe things for mostly reasons they don't understand, which are largely emotional and identity-related. This is why facts and logic aren't really effective. If you want to change minds, start by figuring out why they hold that opinion.

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Taking responsibility for the state of your life is a superpower. There are few more powerful words than, "That's on me. I will fix that.", and few more destructive words than, "I can't do that because {someone else} is doing {a thing}."

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Meaning requires you have purpose. Purpose comes from being useful. Being useful comes from working on problems that matter. Build skills to help you work on those problems. Meaning -> Purpose -> Useful -> Problems -> Skills.

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It works in the opposite direction as well. If you don't know how to have meaning in your life, think about what skills you have. Then think about what meaningful problems you can apply them to. Which will make you useful. Which will give you meaning in your life. Skills -> Problems -> Usefulness -> Meaning.

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I am my most optimistic and kind when I am high-energy. And I am high-energy when I work out. So working out isn't just a physical thing: it makes me a kinder, more optimistic, and overall better person who is more productive as a side benefit.

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Procrastination and anxiety are a lot more related than people think. Good sleep, exercise, and general organization of your life addresses both.

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Your work can only be as rewarding as the problems you're working on are meaningful.

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When I'm not exercising and I feel bad, I realize exercise is not the problem. It's something else. Something worse. But as soon as I exercise, I realize the problem was that I wasn't exercising.

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The key to creating great content is authenticity and surprise. In that order. Be yourself, constantly explore, and share that with others. It's an evergreen content strategy.

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The ideal number of human workers in any business is zero. The purpose of companies is to make as much money as possible with the lowest possible expenses. So AI and other types of automation are not disruptions to a human-based Capitalism; they're revealing the actual nature of it, which is not fundamentally human.

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Few things help a relationship more than honestly asking for what you want, and both sides being willing to walk away if it's not a match.

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In hiring, I used to think that everyone is curious and ambitious and talented, and you just needed to expose them to the right training. But the truth is that some people only need a task and a search engine and they're highly productive. And others can get two master's degrees and take 6 months of training and still ask you what they should do every morning.

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Becoming comfortable with being yourself is everything. Authenticity is the only way to be truly fulfilled. You'll have some people who are jealous or who will hate; just accept it as part of the cost.

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VCs and HR representatives aren't your friends. They're there for the company, not for you. Just because they're smiling doesn't mean they'll do right by you. The incentives are misaligned.

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People do their best work when they're obsessed with a problem. Find problems that allow you to be like that, and hire people who feel like that about the problems you're working on.

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Many people wish they could find another partner, but they stay together because of kids, bills, or family obligations that would make it very difficult to split up. Don't let yourself be one of those people.

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Your parents are flawed people who were doing their best given their upbringing and their own traumas. Forgive them and love them as best you can.

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Don't work in an industry; work on problems.

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Don't expect someone to understand something if their job and role require that they don't.

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If you have the wrong partner in life, that's your ceiling for life happiness. If they're a 4, then 4 is the happiest and most successful you can be. Your partner is the most important choice you'll make.

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The way to tell who your real friends are is to think of who will celebrate a win you're having even if they're having a bad day or week or month. True friendship doesn't depend on them doing better than you.

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The most insane life hack in the world is somehow the most secret. Eat and exercise like a thin person and you'll be thin. Read like Charlie Munger and you'll be smart. Work out like Sam Sulek and you'll gain muscle. Copying what works actually works.

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Ok, that's it for now…

[Michael Lampe @MountainIT]

@UK_Daniel_Card I know there’s no single course but in honor of Ross Anderson’s contribution to security and his recent passing I submit: https://t.co/p0AOI8oSep

[Michael Lampe @MountainIT]

@apiratemoo I haven’t taken this but I haven’t seen anyone mention API security: https://t.co/54cO55FZ9X

[Michael Lampe @MountainIT]

@WIRED Phenomenal show

[Michael Lampe @MountainIT]

@mubix @assume_breach Excellent article! We need to see/hear these perspectives. Especially for those wanting to get into security. I’d like to hear your take on doing defensive side. Blue team I think aligns better for those with an admin background.

[Michael Lampe @MountainIT]

@frasch_thomas @techspence Why not though? What is so unique or confidential that you are doing that keeps you from showing off your tactics? I’m asking this sincerely.

[Michael Lampe @MountainIT]

@newtonlaw I am very sorry to read this but very thankful to have stumbled across your post and for you to have shared it. We all as human beings need this reminder more regularly. We would be much better to each other if we cultivated what you so beautifully articulated. God bless you both