-
Truth decayJournalism Is an “Attack Surface” for Those Spreading Misinformation
For all the benefits in the expansion of the media landscape, we’re still struggling with the spread of misinformation—and the damage is especially worrisome when it comes to information about science and health. “Believing things that aren’t true when it comes to health can be not just bad for us, but dangerous,” said one expert.
-
-
Truth decayFaster Way to Replace Bad Data with Accurate Information
Research have demonstrated a new model of how competing pieces of information spread in online social networks and the Internet of Things (IoT). The findings could be used to disseminate accurate information more quickly, displacing false information about anything from computer security to public health.
-
style=”display:inline-block;width:468px;height:60px”
data-ad-client=”ca-pub-9143520698308305”
data-ad-slot=”4086223553”> -
COVID-19: UpdateU.S. COVID-19 Cases Surge Past 82,000, Highest Total in World
Confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus, COVID-19, reached 82,404 yesterday in the United States, giving it the most cases in the world. And yesterday was the most active day so far in the country, with 14,042 new cases reported, and the national death toll reaching 1,069 fatalities. The numbers came on day 10 of the White House’s “15 days to slow the spread campaign,” a nationwide effort at social distancing measures that has been implemented in a patchwork fashion across the 50 states.
-
-
Hemispheric securityU.S. Announces Narcoterrorism Charges Against Venezuela's Maduro
The U.S. Justice Department on Thursday announced narcoterrorism charges against Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and other top officials, accusing them of collaborating with a leftist Colombian guerrilla group to traffic cocaine to the United States.
-
-
Homegrown terrorismFBI Foils Neo‑Nazi Plot to Blow Up Missouri Hospital
FBI agents on Tuesday shot and killed a white supremacist in Belton, Missouri while trying to arrest him for plotting to use a car bomb to blow up a local hospital overflowing with patients. Timothy Wilson, 36, was initially considering blowing up a mosque or a synagogue, but with the onset of the epidemic, he reasoned that blowing up a hospital would allow him to kill more people.
-
-
ExtremismGermany Bans Far-Right “Reichsbürger” Movement
German Interior Minister Horst Seehofer last week banned a faction of the far-right “Reichsbürger” movement, also known as the Imperial Citizens’ Movement, a group which combines far-right nationalism and yearning to 1930s Germany. The movement rejects the legitimacy and authority of the modern-day German government, because all post-Second World German governments were not interested in reclaiming the territories Germany gained under Adolf Hitler – what the movement calls the German Empire — but was forced to relinquish when the Allies defeated Nazi Germany.
-
-
RansomwareDeal with Ransomware the Way Police Deal with Hostage Situations
When faced with a ransomware attack, a person or company or government agency finds its digital data encrypted by an unknown person, and then gets a demand for a ransom. The two major ways people have so far responded – pay the ransom of hire a specialist to recover the data — are missing another option that we have identified in our cybersecurity policy studies. Police have a long history of successful crisis and hostage negotiation – experience that offers lessons that could be useful for people and organizations facing ransomware attacks.
-
-
Disaster planningOnline Economic Decision Tool to Help Communities Plan for Disaster
Preparing a community’s buildings and infrastructure for a hurricane or earthquake can be an incredibly complicated and costly endeavor. A new online tool from NIST could streamline this process and help decision makers invest in cost-effective measures to improve their community’s ability to mitigate, adapt to and recover from hazardous events.
-
-
PerspectiveCyber Attacks against Hospitals and the COVID-19 Pandemic: How Strong are International Law Protections?
In a situation where most, if not all of us are potential patients, few government-provided services are more important than the efficient delivery of health care. The strain on hospitals around the world is rapidly growing, to which states have responded by mobilizing military medical units, nationalizing private medical facilities, and building emergency hospitals. All of this underlines the urgent need to understand what protections the law offers against attacks – including cyberattacks – on medical facilities.
-
-
PerspectivePoor Leadership during Times of Disease: Malta and the Plague of 1813
Disease ravaged the population. Thousands died and those who survived were forced to isolate themselves in their homes as medical officials attempted to purge the pestilence from the area. The economy, previously growing and sound, came to a standstill. Blame for the disaster was widespread, but it was an absence of leadership that bore the brunt of responsibility. The government officials charged with protecting the population were lax in preparation for a possible disaster and were often insufficient in their response to events. Andrew Zwilling writes that the sentences above describe the outbreak of plague on the islands of Malta in 1813. “Despite these differences, modern policymakers can learn from Malta’s experience two centuries ago,” he writes.
-
-
Our picksSelf-Isolation & Extremism | Adversarial Capital | Strategy for 5G Security, and more
· Self-Isolation Might Stop Coronavirus, but It Will Speed the Spread of Extremism
· The Coronavirus Is the Worst Intelligence Failure in U.S. History
· Fiona Hill: Trump’s Coronavirus Talk Sounds a Lot Like Russia’s
· The Intelligence Contest in Cyberspace
· White House Releases National Strategy for 5G Security
· DOD Official: “Adversarial Capital” Threatens Industrial Base
-
-
ExplainerChloroquine and Hydroxychloroquine: No Proof These Anti-Malarial Drugs Prevent Novel Coronavirus in Humans
There’s worrying news around the world of people self-medicating at home with the drugs chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine to treat COVID-19. Chloroquine is not yet proven to work against COVID-19, though news reports originating in China have speculated otherwise. But theories about chloroquine and COVID-19 have spread around the world, despite a lack of hard evidence about the value of chloroquine in preventing or treating COVID-19. No one should be self-treating with chloroquine or hydroxychloroquine for COVID-19 as there is currently no proof they can cure the infection – and accidental harm is more likely if they are used in this way.
-
-
COVID-19: UpdateECDC Warns of Overwhelmed Hospitals, Italy-Type COVID-19 Pattern
The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) yesterday warned in its latest COVID-19 risk assessment that cases are rapidly increasing in all of Europe, following rises that look similar to those of China’s Hubei province and Italy and that the risk of overwhelmed health systems is high. Three of the five worst-hit countries are in Europe: Italy, Spain, and Germany. Also, the global number of confirmed deaths passed 20,000 yesterday, with 20,857 reported so far.
-
-
COVID-4: Symptom trackerInitial Results of a New Symptom Tracking App: About 10% of Britons Are Infected
The first app monitoring symptoms of people in Britain with suspected coronavirus shows that, at present, one in 10 users have a mild form of the virus at present. The app, developed by researchers in King’s College London, was made available to the public on Wednesday. Within the first 24 hours of the app being made available, some 650,000 people had signed up – and an initial analysis revealed that 10 percent of people were showing mild symptoms of the virus.
-
-
COVID-19: MedicationsApp Helps Doctors Find the Right Dose of Corona Medication
Researchers have developed an app that doctors can use to more easily determine the right dosage of medication for corona patients. At the moment, doctors are prescribing many existing kinds of medication to patients. Using the app, they can determine a safe and effective dosage.
-
-
COVID-19: ModelingHow to Model a Pandemic
There is, however, a little known but highly successful field of science working in the background to unpick the mysteries of infectious disease. As I explore in The Maths of Life and Death, mathematical epidemiology is playing a crucial role in the fight against large-scale infectious diseases such as COVID-19.
-
-
The Russia connectionIn Politics and Pandemics, Russian Trolls Use Fear, Anger to Drive Clicks
Facebook users flipping through their feeds in the fall of 2016 faced a minefield of Russian-produced targeted advertisements pitting blacks against police, southern whites against immigrants, and gun owners against Obama supporters. The cheaply made ads were full of threatening, vulgar language, but according to a sweeping new analysis, they were remarkably effective, eliciting clickthrough rates as much as nine times higher than what is typical in digital advertising. The Kremlin-sponsored troll farms are still at it, already engaged in disinformation campaigns around COVID-19.
-
-
Energy securityReducing U.S. Fossil-Fuel Dependence: Left, Right Agree on Goal, Differ on Means
Both sides of the political spectrum recognize a need to reduce American dependence on carbon-based energy sources, but how the nation does so remains a divisive issue, a new study found.
-
-
ArgumentHow Recovered COVID-19 Patients Might Help Fight the Pandemic
President Trump is growing so worried about the economic impact of the coronavirus pandemic that he’s talking about drastic action, including ending the lockdown in states that haven’t seen lots of infections. Stewart Bakers writes that he’s right to be worried and right to be looking for dramatic solutions. There are responsible solutions which “might address the underlying concern. Instead of easing the lockdown state by state, we could do it person by person. Specifically, we could end the lockdown for people who have already recovered from COVID-19.”
-
-
Our picksSocial Media & Epidemics | Putin’s Big Fail | How the Pandemic Will End, and more
· Inside the Pentagon’s Lurching Efforts to Protect Its People from the Coronavirus
· Brazil Transforms Sports Venues into Field Hospitals for Coronavirus
· Social Media Sees Virus Solidarity Bloom in U.K.
· The Value of Science for Critical Decisions
· After Putin’s Big Fail, Russia Braces for COVID-19 Onslaught
· How the Pandemic Will End
-
-
COVID-19: UpdateNew York Notes Dramatic Increase in COVID-19 Numbers as Trump Mulls Lifting Restrictions Soon
Yesterday New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said the COVID-19 pandemic case count is doubling every 3 days in his state, as the World Health Organization (WHO) warned that the United States could become the next epicenter of the novel coronavirus, given that the country accounted for 40 percent of new cases recorded globally over the past 24 hours. Meanwhile, yesterday in the Rose Garden, President Donald Trump told viewers during a Fox News virtual town hall that he wants the country “opened up and raring to go by Easter Sunday,” which this year falls on 12 April.
-
-
COVID-19: U.K. ResponseHalf of U.K. Population May Already Be Infected: Oxford Study
A model developed by Oxford University researchers indicates that half of the population of the United Kingdom may have already been infected with the coronavirus. If follow-up studies confirm the modeling’s conclusions, it would mean that fewer than .01 percent of those infected require hospital treatment, with a majority showing only minor symptoms, if any.
-
More headlines
The long view
Perspective: Putin’s assassinsHow a Poisoning in Bulgaria Exposed Russian Assassins in Europe
Western security and intelligence officials say the attempted 2015 poisonings in Sofia of a Bulgarian arms dealer was a critical clue that helped expose a campaign by the Kremlin and its sprawling web of intelligence operatives to eliminate Russia’s enemies abroad and destabilize the West.
Perspective: The TroublesBlood and Brexit
The Troubles is the name given to the bloody war between Nationalists and Unionists in Northern Ireland, a war which began in the late 1960s and ended with the 1998 Good Friday Agreement. In a tiny country of a million and a half people, over three and a half thousand were killed in the Troubles. Almost fifty thousand were seriously injured. Nick Laird, a Northern Irish novelist and poet who experienced the inter-communal violence as a teenager, writes that unless care is taken, one of the consequences of Brexit might be the resumption of violence.
Perspective: Cyber operationsMilitary Cyber Operations: The New NDAA Tailors the 48-Hour Notification Requirement
Congress will soon enact the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2020 (NDAA fiscal 2020), which includes a provision that will fine-tune the range of military cyberoperations subject to the 48-hour notification requirement associated with “sensitive military cyber operations.”
Perspective: School shootingLockdown: Living Through the Era of School Shootings, One Drill at a Time.
Ninety-five percent of American schools now conduct drills to prepare students for a school shooter. Elizabeth Brocklin writes that “For adults who were out of high school by the time of the 1999 Columbine shooting, this is an unfamiliar phenomenon. We don’t have a clear picture of how the drills are experienced by the children they were designed for.”
Perspective: Cloak & daggerCambridge Five Spies Burgess and Maclean Lauded by Russia as Heroes of Anti-Fascism
The Russian intelligence community on Friday honored two of the notorious Cambridge Five spy ring, whose members spied for the Soviet Union from the late 1930s to the early 1950s. The Cambridge Five also included Kim Philby, Anthony Blunt, and John Cairncross. The five were attracted by communism, and the Soviet Union, as young Cambridge University students in the early 1930s, after coming to believe that British – and, more generally, Western — passivity in the face of Benito Mussolini and Adolf Hitler was aiding in the growth and spread of fascism. Maclean and Burgess defected to the Soviet Union in 1951, and for three years lived in the town of Samara on the Volga. On Friday, a plaque bearing the two Britons’ names was unveiled on the wall of the apartment where the two lived until returning to Moscow in 1955.
Argument: China syndromeThe Chinese Threat to U.S. Research Institutions Is Real
The Chinese government is pursuing a comprehensive, well-organized, and well-funded strategy to exploit the open and collaborative research environment in the United States to advance their economic and military expansion at our expense. Josh Rogin writes that for too long, U.S. research institutions have been asleep to Beijing’s efforts.
Perspective: Climate threatsU.S. Military Precariously Unprepared for Climate Threats, War College & Retired Brass Warn
A series of climate-related disasters has paralyzed the strategic capabilities of several U.S military bases in recent years. David Hasemyer writes that it has exposed the military’s vulnerability to extreme weather, shining light on its failure to prepare adequately and on the consequences this lack of preparation could have for U.S. national security.
ArgumentWas America’s Assassination of Qassem Suleimani Justified?
David Petraeus, the former American army general who served as the commander of the Central Command and later as director of the CIA, said that the killing of Qassem Suleimani was “more consequential” than the killing of Osama bin Laden or of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. The Economist writes that while few bemoaned the demise of the jihadist leaders of al-Qaeda and Islamic State, the killing of Suleimani on 3 January has sparked a debate over the legality, effectiveness, and impact of his assassination.
PerspectiveArtificial Intelligence: China “Uses Taiwan for Target Practice” as It Perfects Cyber-Warfare Techniques
China has already deployed its expertise in artificial intelligence to make China into a surveillance state, power its economy, and develop its military. Phil Sherwell writes that now Taiwan’s cybersecurity chiefs have identified signs that Beijing is using AI to interfere in an overseas election for the first time. It is “a laboratory for China for adaptation and improvement on political warfare instruments which can then be unleashed against other targeted democratic societies,” Michael Cole, editor of the Taiwan Sentinel, said
PerspectiveReview: Oscar Jonsson’s The Russian Understanding of War: Blurring the Lines between War and Peace
A new book analyzes the evolution of Russian military thought and how Russia’s current thinking about war is reflected in recent crises. Simon Cocking writes that while other books describe current Russian practice, Oscar Jonsson provides the long view to show how Russian military strategic thinking has developed from the Bolshevik Revolution to the present – especially, how Russian elites see information warfare and political subversion as the most important ways to conduct contemporary war.
ArgumentIran’s Revenge Plans Are Bigger Than Missile Strikes
The consequences of the killing of Maj. Gen. Qassem Suleimani, several U.S. intelligence officials say privately, will be clear: more deaths, and some of them American. Zach Dorfman writes that Iran’s noisy Tuesday attacks were only the beginning. Suleimani understood that, unlike Russia or China, Iran was not, and would never be, powerful enough to challenge the United States head-on. Suleimani instead developed a network of proxies which showed that a state could forgo traditional means of power projection and nevertheless powerfully assert its suzerainty outside its own borders. Those same tools will now be brought to bear by Iran on enacting vengeance for Suleimani—in the Middle East and beyond.
PerspectiveFacebook Takes a Step Forward on Deepfakes—and Stumbles
The good news is that Facebook is finally taking action against deepfakes. The bad news is that the platform’s new policy does not go far enough. On 7 January Facebook announced a new policy banning deepfakes from its platform. Yet, instead of cheers, the company faced widespread dismay—even anger. What went wrong?
PerspectiveJewish Student Accuses College of Ignoring Wild Anti-Semitism
A former Pennsylvania college student says in a lawsuit that she dropped out before the start of her junior year because of a string of hateful and threatening anti-Semitic incidents that the school failed to appropriately address.
ArgumentOn the Current Confrontation with Iran
Robert Jervis, the eminent scholar of international relations, writes that in trying to predict the next move in the U.S.-Iran confrontation, “Most obviously, humility is in order”: “Most of our generalizations are probabilistic,” Jervis notes. He writes that Trump may have calculated that the bold move of killing Soleimani would deter Iran from continuing to pursue the kind of malign activities Soleimani had orchestrated, and coerce Iran to be more accommodating on other issues, for example, the nuclear issue. But for the target country, being deterred or coerced is a matter of choice – a costly choice, but still a choice. And we should not discount the unexpected: “World politics rarely follows straight paths,” he writes.
ArgumentAbandoning West Africa Carries Risks for U.S.
News that the U.S. Department of Defense is contemplating a major drawdown in West Africa—potentially cutting support to France’s 4,500-strong combat mission in the Sahel as well—comes as the region is in crisis. France has been leading the fight against Islamist terrorism in the Sahel region since early 2013. “Not caring about Ghana’s fate is deplorable but understandable; not caring about France is at best reckless,” Michael Shurkin writes. “Leaving France in the lurch in the middle of the war could significantly damage that relationship. It would also signal to the world that the United States is not committed to helping even one of its closest and most important allies.”
PerspectiveIran and Hezbollah’s Presence Around the World
In the days since the U.S. strike that killed Quds Force commander Qassim Soleimani, Americans have heard dire warnings about potential retaliation by Iran. Eric Halliday writes that in addition to Quds Force, Iran’s ability to retaliate is enhanced by Iran’s extensive network of proxy forces, most notably Hezbollah in Lebanon. Iran and Hezbollah have spent the last three decades creating international bases of operation, which means they already have resources in place which would allow them to strike U.S. interests far outside of the Middle East.