What's with the UFO on a U.S. intelligence agency seal?

The image of a UFO and Russian fighter jet on the seal led some to wonder if the intelligence agency had been hacked.

When the U.S. intelligence community’s main aviation component updated its seal recently to include images of a flying saucer and what appears to be a Russian fighter jet many wondered if it was a joke.

Turns out it may have been, but the leadership of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence does not appear to be amused.

A spokesperson there told CyberScoop in an emailed statement that its National Intelligence Manager for the Air Domain, also known as NIM-Aviation, “erroneously posted an unofficial and incorrect logo.”

So, no, the agency wasn’t hacked, as several people who spotted the seal also wondered.

NIM-Aviation serves as the Director of National Intelligence’s principal adviser on air domain issues, leading efforts to identify, analyze, and integrate intelligence on threats and vulnerabilities in the skies. NIM-Aviation also co-authored a June 2021 ODNI report submitted to Congress on unidentified aerial phenomena.

It is unclear when the updated seal was first released or first noticed by anyone outside of NIM-Aviation. But by Saturday news of the odd aspects of the seal became more widely known when UFO enthusiast and documentary filmmaker Jeremy Corbell noticed the logo and posted it on Twitter with the snarky caption: “Lazar UFO in the official seal? Hahahhahaha. Radical. I still can’t believe they did this.”

The seal was also analyzed carefully by the military community website Sandboxx, which noted how unusual it would be for ODNI‘s aviation outfit to include Russian weaponry in an official seal.

“Of course, it’s not uncommon for government agencies (from all over the world) to accidentally include depictions of foreign aircraft in official graphics, but it seems extremely unlikely that an intelligence organization specializing in aviation would make such a mistake,” the Sandboxx author wrote, noting that the seal’s fighter jet silhouette appears to match that of a Russian Sukhoi Su-57 Felon.

Updated Sept. 27, 2022: To include the fact that NIM-Aviation co-authored an ODNI report on unidentified aerial phenomena.

House intel bill includes provisions on state and local threat intelligence, election security, AI

The House Intelligence Committee advanced its fiscal 2027 authorization legislation Monday.

U.S. agencies say Iranian hackers tried to pass ‘non-public’ Trump campaign docs to Biden’s campaign

Top spy official releases principles on intel agency use of info bought from data brokers

Government

• FBI officials say AI is bolstering adversaries, emphasizing need to focus on cyber basics, patching

• Feds accuse China of ‘systematic’ distillation of U.S. AI models

• CIA’s Michael Ellis says cyber intelligence is changing how the agency operates

• The G7 tells industry to hurry up and prep for post-quantum encryption

Technology

• European parliament members call for slowdown of Serbia’s EU entry over spyware use

• FCC proposes public scorecard to rate telecoms on anti-robocall efforts

• Pegasus, NoviSpy variant spyware found on devices of Serbian activists

• The Collective Cyber Defense letter wrote your next vendor questionnaire

Threats

• Chinese espionage groups swarm to exploit triple-link chain of zero-days

• Microsoft discloses two actively exploited zero-days among 974 vulnerabilities

• Russian national extradited to US for alleged involvement in bank-account takeover scheme

• Attackers exploit zero-days in consistently besieged SonicWall product

Policy

• Whistleblower says USPS deploying new, ‘untested’ IT systems governing mail-in ballots

• ‘Watershed 250’ test program in Texas looks to private sector for water cybersecurity help

• Former sexual abuse victims say Grok used their images, videos to train deepfake capabilities

• Cyber threats nudge Trump to sign executive order on foreign equipment in U.S. energy infrastructure