Systems, apparatuses and methods may provide for generating, in response to a decrease in trustworthiness with respect to a controller, a notification message and generating a message authentication code (MAC) based on the notification message and one or more locally stored keys. Additionally, the notification message and the MAC may be sent to the controller, wherein the notification message is directed to one or more peers in a network associated with the controller. In one example, the notification message includes one or more of an indication that the controller is compromised or an indication that the controller is suspected to be compromised.