Our picksBolton’s Book & U.S. SigInt | Retiring Nukes | Chinese Honeypot, and more

Bolton Book Could Cause “Irreparable Damage” to U.S. Signals Intelligence, NSA Director Says (Shannon Vavra, Cyberscoop)
John Bolton’s tell-all on his time serving as President Donald Trump’s national security adviser could reveal classified information and damage U.S. signals intelligence collection if published, the National Security Agency’s director, Gen. Paul Nakasone, said Wednesday.
“At the request of the National Security Council legal adviser I have reviewed a limited portion of [Bolton]’s draft manuscript, and have identified classified information in that portion of the manuscript,” Nakasone said in a signed affidavit. “Compromise of this information could result in the permanent loss of a valuable SIGINT [signals intelligence] source and cause irreparable damage to the U.S. SIGINT system.”
Nakasone’s assessment of Bolton’s book was filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Washington alongside an emergency Department of Justice filing seeking to block the release of Bolton’s book.

Now Who’s Weak on China? Bolton Paints Trump as Ignorant and Servile (Kevin Baron, Defense One)
The GOP’s reelection effort to deflect criticism on ‘Beijing Biden’ is destroyed by Trump’s former national security advisor.

When Old Age Catches Up, Even Nuclear Weapons Go into Retirement (Thalif Deen, IPS News)
The world’s stockpile of nuclear weapons—estimated at over 13,400 at the beginning of 2020 – have at least one thing in common with humans: they are “retired” when they reach old age.

Scientists Just Found the “Chemical Fingerprint” of an Alleged Nuclear Explosion that Went Undeclared in Russia (Aria Bendix, Business Insider)
For the past three years, a group of scientists called the “Ring of Five” has been inching toward the conclusion that an undisclosed nuclear accident took place in Russia in 2017. A new study, released Monday, offers “irrefutable proof” that the explosion was linked to nuclear waste reprocessing — a method that separates plutonium and uranium from spent nuclear fuel. The Mayak facility is the largest nuclear reprocessing facility in the region. That makes it the most likely, if not the only possible, origin site — though Russia has never acknowledged a nuclear accident at the facility in 2017.

Chinese Students Are Key to US National Security, Eric Schmidt Says (Patrick Tucker, Defense One)
Google CEO-turned-DoD advisor pushes back on notion that turning them away will keep American safer.

Number of Far-Right Terrorist Prisoners in Britain Hits Record High (Dan Sabbagh, Guardian)
The number of far-right prisoners convicted for terror offences in Great Britain climbed by a third last year to their highest recorded level, and accounts for more than one in six of all terrorists held in prison, according to official figures. The Home Office data shows that 44 “extreme rightwing” prisoners were in custody for terror offences across Great Britain, up from 33 a year ago. Three years ago, the figure was nine and no higher than five before that.

Iran Appears Poised to Go on the Cyber Offensive (Stratfor)
The shift to trying to physically damage targets via cyberattacks threatens local and Western companies in the Mideast, and critical infrastructure worldwide.

Cybercrime Has Undergone an Industrial Revolution – How to Keep Up (Liv Rowley, Infosecurity) Cybercrime is an industry, with its own service economy, tools for hire, solution providers and end users, and this shadow economy is growing. Over several years, the cyber-criminal underground has undergone its own industrial revolution, a profound and far-reaching process of modernization and innovation. Any organization preparing to fight off cyber-attacks needs to first understand how this maturing cybercrime industry works.

Images Play Persuasive Role in Disinformation Campaigns (Nicole Ferraro, Dark Reading)
If the 2016 election is any indication, images included in state-sponsored social media posts are effective at disseminating propaganda, new analysis shows.

Harvard Professor Indicted on False Statement Charges (Elliot Setzer, Lawfare)
On June 9, a Havard University chemistry professor was indicted on charges of making false statements to federal authorities regarding his participation in a Chinese talent recruitment plan. Dr. Charles Lieber was indicted by a federal grand jury on two counts of making false statements. The professor allegedly claimed he was never asked to participate in China’s Thousand Talents Plan. The Justice Department alleges that Lieber served as a “strategic scientist” at Wuhan University of Technology (WUT), and that he failed to disclose that he was being paid a salary of up to $50,000 USD per month through the Chinese government program.
In a press release, the Department of Justice stated that “these talent recruitment plans seek to lure Chinese overseas talent and foreign experts to bring their knowledge and experience to China, and they often reward individuals for stealing proprietary information.”