Recommended readingU.S. cyber apathy; ISIS turns on Ian; Privacy at the border, and more

Published 27 July 2017

U.S. cyber diplomacy has bigger problems than the closure of its coordination office; ISIS turns its guns — and propaganda machine — on Iran; Crossing the U.S. border? Here’s how to securely wipe your computer; Surveillance: German police ready to hack WhatsApp messages; Here’s how DoD organizes its cyber warrior; Congress urged to find ways to move families trapped’ in homes that flood repeatedly; 100,000 pages of chemical industry secrets gathered dust in an Oregon barn for decades — until now.

U.S. cyber diplomacy has bigger problems than the closure of its coordination office (David Fidler, Defense One)
Keeping the Office of the Coordinator for Cyber Issues only makes sense if the White House makes cyber diplomacy a foreign policy priority, develops a comprehensive strategy that addresses the challenges U.S. interests in cyberspace face, and empowers the State Department to implement the strategy. The prospects for these preconditions appearing soon are grim. In this context, whether the State Department has a cyber coordinator’s office is not the most important question for the future of U.S. cyber diplomacy.

ISIS turns its guns — and propaganda machine — on Iran (Arash Azizi, Daily Beast)
With terror attacks, recruiting efforts, and slick, gruesome propaganda the so-called Islamic State is trying to take its fight to the ayatollahs.

Crossing the U.S. border? Here’s how to securely wipe your computer (Amul Kalia and Seth Schoen, Electronic Frontier Foundation)
Many people crossing the U.S. border are concerned about the amount of power that the government has asserted to search and examine travelers’ possessions, including searching through or copying contents of digital devices, like photos, emails, and browsing history. The frequency of these intrusive practices has been increasing over time.

Surveillance: German police ready to hack WhatsApp messages (Deutsche Welle)
Germany’s security forces will have the technology to install surveillance software on cellphones before the end of the year, a leaked document shows. Police plan to use private firms to skirt legal dilemmas.

Here’s how DoD organizes its cyber warrior (Mark Pomerleau, Federal Times)
The Defense Department is posturing itself to fight and win wars and conflicts in all domains, especially cyberspace. At the top level, DoD, along with the contributions of the services, is continuing to build out the cyber mission force that makes up U.S. Cyber Command, focused on strategic and joint force commander problem sets.

Congress urged to find ways to move families trapped’ in homes that flood repeatedly (Steve Hardy, The Advocate)
To protect lower- and middle-income families from floods, the federal government needs to flip the way it operates flood insurance.

100,000 pages of chemical industry secrets gathered dust in an Oregon barn for decades — until now (Sharon Lerner, The Intercept)
For decades, some of the dirtiest, darkest secrets of the chemical industry have been kept in Carol Van Strum’s barn in rural Oregon. As of today, those documents and others that have been collected by environmental activists will be publicly available through a project called the Poison Papers.