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Scientific American – Climate change is bringing tourism and tension to Longyearbyen on the Norwegian archipelago of Svalbard. “…The consequences are extensive. The thawing permafrost, which can heave or slump, has ruptured roads and exposed the macabre contents of old graves. Extremely windy, heavy snowstorms—once rare—have triggered deadly avalanches on the mountain slopes looming above …
ZDNET – Microsoft warns of current Nobelium phishing campaign impersonating USAID: “Russian-backed group gained control of email marketing platform used by USAID to ramp up its attacks…” Microsoft Blog: “This week we observed cyberattacks by the threat actor Nobelium targeting government agencies, think tanks, consultants, and non-governmental organizations. This wave of attacks targeted approximately 3,000 email accounts at more than 150 different organizations. While organizations in the …
The Department of Energy controls many ‘black projects’ that live outside of the limelight that is intrinsic to the DoD and the intel community. “…the fact that there is a wholly separate cabinet-level department of the U.S. government that is arguably even more opaque in terms of secrecy and oversight than the Department of Defense. …
Via LLRX – Pete Recommends – Weekly highlights on cyber security issues, May 23, 2021 – Privacy and security issues impact every aspect of our lives – home, work, travel, education, health and medical records – to name but a few. On a weekly basis Pete Weiss highlights articles and information that focus on the …
Georgetown University’s Walsh School of Foreign Service, Center for Security and Emerging Technology: Truth, Lies, and Automation How Language Models Could Change Disinformation. Ben Buchanan, Andrew Lohn, Micah Musser, Katerina Sedova. May 2021. “Growing popular and industry interest in high-performing natural language generation models has led to concerns that such models could be used to …
CRS In Focus – Updated May 7, 2021 Deep Fakesand National Security – “Deep fakes”—a term that first emerged in 2017 to describe realistic photo, audio, video, and other forgeries generated with artificial intelligence (AI) technologies—could present a variety of national security challenges in the years to come. As these technologies continue to mature, they …
CRS Report – Science and Technology Issues in the 117th Congress. May 5, 2021: “The federal government supports scientific and technological advancement directly by funding and performing research and development, and indirectly by creating and maintaining policies that encourage private sector efforts. Additionally, the federal government regulates many aspects of S&T activities. This report briefly …
Capitol Police Inspector General’s Testimony Highlights Glaring Failures. Third Installment of Document Sourcebook Features Internal DHS Records Warning of Potential Violence, Testimony from D.C. National Guard Commanding General [Related links: The Capitol Riot: Documents You Should Read (Part 1) – January 13, 2021; The Capitol Riot: Documents You Should Read (Part 2) March 3, 2021. …
CRS – Afghanistan: Background and U.S. Policy:In Brief Updated March 25, 2021: “Afghanistan emerged as a significant U.S. foreign policy concern in 2001, when the United States, in response to the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, led a military campaign against Al Qaeda and the Afghan Taliban government that harbored and supported it. In …
Institute for Security and Technology – A Comprehensive Framework for Action: “Ransomware is no longer just a financial crime; it is an urgent national security risk that threatens schools, hospitals, businesses, and governments across the globe. This is not a problem that any one entity can solve. Over 60 experts from industry, government, law enforcement, …
NextGov – “The FBI, Homeland Security Department and Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency issued an alert on Russian government cyber tradecraft and mitigation techniques for targets. After publicly naming the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service, or SVR, as the culprit behind the SolarWinds hack that affected at least nine federal agencies, a set of U.S. security …
Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse – “In February 2021, according to federal internal case-by-case records on prosecutions obtained after successful court litigation by TRAC, there were 57 prosecutions of domestic terrorism filed in the federal district courts. The majority of these prosecutions—54—were filed in the District of Columbia following the storming of the Capitol on January …
