Our picksElection Day Nightmare Scenarios | U.S. Cyber Command Against Protestors? | Incels & Terrorism, and more

“It’s 8 P.M. on Election Day.” Experts Share Their Nightmare Scenarios. (New York Times)
We asked security experts to tell us what keeps them up at night — and what to do about it.

Chinese Cyber Power Is Neck-and-Neck with U.S., Harvard Research Finds (Shannon Vavra, Cyberscoop)
As conventional wisdom goes, experts tend to rank the U.S ahead of China, U.K., Iran, North Korea, Russia, in terms of how strong it is when it comes to cyberspace. But a new study from Harvard University’s Belfer Center shows that China has closed the gap on the U.S. in three key categories: surveillance, cyber defense, and its efforts to build up its commercial cyber sector.
“A lot of people, Americans in particular, will think that the U.S., the U.K., France, Israel are more advanced than China when it comes to cyber power,” Eric Rosenbach, the Co-Director of Harvard’s Belfer Center, told CyberScoop. “Our study shows it’s just not the case and that China is very sophisticated and almost at a peer level with the U.S.”

German Officials: 1,000s of Extremists Joined Virus Protest (Frank Jordans, AP / Washington Post)
Thousands of far-right and anti-government extremists were among the crowds at demonstrations against Germany’s coronavirus restrictions last month that culminated in attempts by some protesters to storm parliament, German security officials said Wednesday.
A preliminary review of images from the protests indicated that “at least 2,500 to 3,000 right-wing extremists and Reich Citizens took part in the protests,” the head of Berlin state’s intelligence service, Michael Fischer, told lawmakers in the capital’s regional assembly.
The so-called Reich Citizens movement, which disputes the legitimacy of the post-World War II German Constitution and by extension the current government, has caused growing concern among security officials in recent years, in part due to its ties to the far right.

Neurotoxins Are A Rising Threat. Here’s How the Military Will Detect Them (Patrick Tucker, Defense One)
As Alexey Navalny recovers, a new spray promises far faster detection of these deadly chemicals.

FBI’s Terror Hunters Turn to a Different Threat: Incels (Adam Rawnsley and Seamus Hughes, Daily Beast)
The FBI’s top terrorism cops took down a different kind of alleged terrorist in a complaint filed earlier this month: an incel.
In a complaint filed in federal court in White Plains, New York, an FBI agent with the Bureau’s Joint Terrorism Task Force detailed a year-long campaign of harassment, rape, and death threats levied at a Long Island couple by David Kaufman, a self-described member of the “incel” movement and supporter of one of its most notorious murderers, Elliot Rodger.
Prosecutors alleged that Kaufman terrorized a couple he knew from college and their friends in a series of messages on Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube in retaliation for “for rejecting and depriving him of sex to which he believed he was entitled,” according to the complaint. He’s charged with making threatening interstate communications and stalking.

Facebook Bias Spurs Violence in India, U.S. Rights Groups Say (Al Jazeera)
A letter signed by more than 40 civil rights groups says Facebook has failed to address hateful content in India.

Africa Providing “Safe Haven” to Islamist Terror Groups, Special Forces Commander Says (Mike Glenn, Washington Times)

Manchester Arena Bombing Inquiry: MI5 Did Not Reopen Investigation into Salman Abedi Despite His Visits to Terrorist Prisoner (Lizzie Dearden, Independent)
Inquiry will consider if opportunities to intervene in radicalization or prevent attack were missed

Sen. Warner Knocks Congress on Election Security, IOT & Huawei (Sydney J. Freedberg Jr., Breaking Defense)
Congress has failed to pass even basic protections against Russian disinformation, Chinese spyware, and other high-tech threats, warns the Democratic Vice-Chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee – one of the few lawmakers with first-hand experience in the tech sector himself.
“I’m very concerned, on a host of areas, that we’ve not done enough,” Sen. Mark Warner told the Billington Cybersecurity Summit this morning. On election security in particular, “we as the Congress have not legislated any guardrails, and I think that leaves us vulnerable,” he said. With the vote less than two months away amidst a pandemic, a recession, and racial turmoil, he said, “I’m very, very concerned in these last 50-plus days [that] Russia could try to exacerbate those kind of racial divisions” as they did in 2016.
While the moderate Democrat didn’t call out any fellow legislators by name (and barely mentioned President Trump), he made clear he blames Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell for the inaction on the elections.

Could Trump Deploy U.S. Cyber Command Against Protestors?(Jason Healey, Defense One)
It’s time to set better limits on the U.S. military’s ability to operate against Americans.