Our picksRepatriating Jihadists | Safe Assumptions for Cyberstrategy | Updated Voting Security Standards, and more

Biden Govt Supports Repatriating Jihadists: U.S. Diplomat (France24)
President Joe Biden’s administration believes countries should repatriate jihadists and their families to counter the threat from the Islamic State group, an American diplomat told the United Nations on Wednesday. “The global threat from Isis will grow if the international community does not repatriate their citizens,” said Jeffrey DeLaurentis, the acting US ambassador for special political affairs. Former president Donald Trump’s government also supported the repatriation of fighters who went to fight abroad, mainly in Syria and Iraq. Several European countries — including France — refuse to repatriate adults, believing they should be tried in countries where they are accused of committing crimes. They only accept the return of their children on a case-by-case basis. “Beyond being the best option from a security standpoint, repatriation is also simply the right thing to do,” said DeLaurentis during a Security Council video conference dedicated to the threat of terrorism. “It is estimated that 90 percent of children in the camps are under 12 and 50 percent under five.” “We watch with concern as women and children languish in camps in dire conditions, with little access to education, increasing the potential for the radicalization,” he added. DeLaurentis warned that the IS group “remains a serious threat.

Debate on Islamist Extremism Law Exposes Deep Rifts in France  (Financial Times)
Another teacher threatened by Islamists four months after the beheading of Samuel Paty on the street outside his school; five people arrested this week for cyber-harassment and threats against a teenager for her social media posts deemed insulting to Allah: President Emmanuel Macron’s defenders say his government’s planned new law to curb Islamist extremism in France has never been more urgently needed. “Islamism is a Trojan horse containing a fragmentation bomb targeting our society,” wrote Gérald Darmanin, Macron’s interior minister, in his book Islamist Separatism: Manifesto for Secularism, published this year to accompany the law. ”Faced with an enemy so dangerous and insidious, which we know is a long way from the true religion of the Prophet, it’s normal for the authorities to take unprecedented measures.” Many French republicans of left and right, including some of Muslim immigrant origin, support the legislation as a bulwark against terrorism and Islamist attempts to control Muslim-dominated districts in the Paris suburbs and elsewhere in France — and it is likely to be approved by parliament and become law by the middle of the year.

Robert Kennedy Jr. Banned from Instagram for False Posts(VOA News)
The social media platform Instagram has permanently removed the account of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. for posting false information regarding vaccines and COVID-19.
In a statement Wednesday, Facebook, which owns Instagram, said, “We removed this account for repeatedly sharing debunked claims about the coronavirus or vaccines.”
Kennedy’s Facebook page, which has carried some of same information and has over 300,000 followers, remains active.

The Capitol Rioters Aren’t Like Other Extremists (Robert Pape and Keven Ruby, The Atlantic)
We analyzed 193 people arrested in connection with the January 6 riot—and found a new kind of American radicalism.

We Must Reorient U.S. Cyber Strategy Around the Only Safe Assumption  (Dimitry Alperovitch, Defense One)
We should assume adversaries are already in our networks — and Congress should take these five steps to mitigate the damage.

Water-Supply Hack Should Be a Wake-Up Call, Experts Say  (Mariam Baksh, Defense One)
The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency should be involved every step of the way, a former presidential adviser said.

Ex-Government Officials Urge U.S. to Take Action to Avoid Another SolarWinds-Style Hack  (Jeff Stone, Cyberscoop)
The U.S. government requires dramatic updates to its current approach toward cybersecurity if Americans want to avoid the kind of cyber-espionage campaigns that have recently rocked the national security establishment, a panel of security practitioners told Congress Wednesday. 

Federal Election Agency Adopts Updated Voting Security Standards. Not Everyone Is Happy.  (Tim Starks and Sean Lyngaas, Cyberscoop)
The Election Assistance Commission on Wednesday voted to adopt the first comprehensive update to its voting system security guidelines in more than 15 years, concluding a lengthy process that ended with a mixed reception from some election security experts.
The security community largely greeted the update as a security upgrade to standards that most states rely upon at least partially for their own equipment testing and certification. A significant number of academics, activists and even some in Congress, though, voiced displeasure in particular for how the so-called Voluntary Voting System Guidelines 2.0 would handle wireless connections on voting systems.