Our picksCyber: The Lawless Realm | Washington Power Brokers & Pegasus | Escaping Extremism, and more

Published 20 July 2021

·  How Washington Power Brokers Gained from NSO’s Spyware Ambitions

·  Ex-Trump Cybersecurity Head Krebs Sees Similarities Between Vaccine and Election Misinformation

·  Capitol Rioter Sentenced to 8 Months for Trying to Stop Vote Certification

·  U.K. Police Chief Warns of Terrorist Threat as Lockdown Eases

·  Escaping Extremism: What Are the Signs That Someone’s Becoming Radicalized?

·  How the Intelligence Community Can Get Better at Open Source Intel

·  TSA Pushes More Cybersecurity Mandates on Critical Pipeline Owners, Emphasizing Ransomware

·  The Lawless Realm

·  Majority of Covid Misinformation Came from 12 People, Report Finds

·  Unvaccinated Americans Are Behind Rising Covid-19 Hospitalizations

How Washington Power Brokers Gained from NSO’s Spyware Ambitions  (Drew Harwell, Washington Post)
The surveillance giant has failed to build a big business in the U.S. But an influential network of consultants, lawyers and lobbyists still made money representing the company.

Ex-Trump Cybersecurity Head Krebs Sees Similarities Between Vaccine and Election Misinformation  (Zoe Kalen Hill, Newsweek)
Christopher Krebs, the former director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), compared communication about the COVID-19 vaccine to misinformation surrounding the 2020 presidential election.
Krebs joined CBS News’ John Dickerson for Sunday morning’s Face the Nation show. The conversation began with Krebs’ take on the misinformation swarming the vaccine. Dickerson asked the former CISA director if he noticed a similarity to his fight against election misinformation.
“Absolutely,” Krebs responded. “What we are seeing here is an ecosystem of information purveyors. Some of this is politically motivated. Some of it is the anti-vax community. Some of it is profiteering. And I tend to believe that there’s a lot of that going on here.”

Capitol Rioter Sentenced to 8 Months for Trying to Stop Vote Certification  (Alan Feuer, New York Times)
The first person to have pleaded guilty to storming the Capitol on Jan. 6 with the intention of stopping the certification of the Electoral College vote was sentenced on Monday to eight months in prison in what could serve as an indicator for scores of similar cases. The defendant, Paul A. Hodgkins, pleaded guilty last month to a single felony count — obstruction of an official proceeding before Congress — and admitted to breaching the Senate floor with a Trump flag and a backpack filled with items like goggles, rope and a pair of latex gloves. Mr. Hodgkins was one of about 50 people who made it to the Senate floor, prosecutors say. His acknowledgment that he went deep into the Capitol intending to disrupt the peaceful transition of power set him apart in the eyes of prosecutors from scores of other members of the mob who had merely walked into the building. At a sentencing hearing in Federal District Court in Washington, Judge Randolph D. Moss said there needed to be “severe consequences” for the attack, but also noted that Mr. Hodgkins, a 38-year-old Florida crane operator, was a first-time offender and had pleaded guilty early. Those circumstances will apply to only some of the other defendants who are facing similar charges.