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U.K. Police Chief Warns of Terrorist Threat as Lockdown Eases  (Nicky Harley, The National)
The head of London’s Metropolitan Police has warned of the risk of a terrorist attack as lockdown restrictions eased in England on Monday. Cressida Dick said her officers are dealing with more than 800 live cases and that they have seen a rise in the threat of far-right terrorism. Since 2017, she said, 29 lethal intended attacks had been prevented, 18 of which were by Islamist militants and 10 by far-right extremists. The UK’s terrorism threat level is currently rated as “substantial”. Ms Dick has warned an attack is “still likely” as travel opens up and people gather together. “As lockdown eases there may be greater opportunities for terrorists to exploit in terms of travel and crowds of people,” she told The National. “Right now the police and the security services are working on a very high level of investigations, more than 800. Of these, we are seeing an increased proportion of extreme right-wing terrorists. There is no doubt there is an increasing threat. Around one in four of our arrests relate to extreme right-wing terrorists.” She also warned of youngsters being radicalized, with one in 10 of those arrested under the age of 18. “It is a global phenomenon and we are working with our international partners to defeat it,” she said.

Escaping Extremism: What Are the Signs That Someone’s Becoming Radicalized?  (Sophie Kesteven and Isabelle Summerson, ABC Australia)
Mubin Shaikh describes the journey he took towards de-radicalization as going “from the dark side to Jedi”.  Now a professor of public safety at Toronto’s Seneca College, Shaikh became radicalized when he was 19, after a chance encounter with the Taliban on a holiday to Pakistan in 1995. A man with a beard wears a hoodie, black boots and reflective sunglasses.  He returned home to Canada and spent the next six years immersed in the culture. He became a Islamic extremist and recruited others. But it was the September 11 attacks in New York in 2001 that made Shaikh reconsider his commitment to the cause. “I just could not comprehend how it would be permissible to fly planes into buildings [and] non-combatant targets,” the former jihadist says. Over the next year, he gradually turned away from the Taliban ideology to become a counter-terrorism agent for the Canadian Security Intelligence Service. “I went to Syria [in 2002]. I spent two years there studying Arabic and Islamic Studies and came to relinquish my [extremist] interpretations because I could see that they were not actually founded on scripture,” he says.  “Once you decide that you want to turn away from [extremism], the subsequent months are going to be filled with you just second-guessing your whole life all over again.

How the Intelligence Community Can Get Better at Open Source Intel  (Bob Ashley and Neil Wiley, Defense One)
Several factors make it harder to use publicly available information in all-source assessment than classified information.

TSA Pushes More Cybersecurity Mandates on Critical Pipeline Owners, Emphasizing Ransomware  (Tim Starks, Cyberscoop)
The Transportation Security Administration on Tuesday handed down additional cybersecurity requirements for owners of major pipelines, this time focused on ransomware.
It’s the second time the Department of Homeland Security’s TSA has issued a security directive to critical pipeline owners since ransomware attackers struck Colonial Pipeline in May, an incident that spurred panic-buying amid fears of a gas shortage. The specific requirements of the directive were not immediately clear.

The Lawless Realm  (Marietje Schaake, Foreign Affairs)
Countering the Real Cyberthreat.

Majority of Covid Misinformation Came from 12 People, Report Finds  (Erum Salam, Guardian)
CCDH finds ‘disinformation dozen’ have combined following of 59 million people across multiple social media platforms.

Unvaccinated Americans Are Behind Rising Covid-19 Hospitalizations  (Melanie Evans and Julie Wernau, Wall Street Journal)
Some hospitals in regions where vaccination rates are lower prepare for surges rivaling pandemic peaks.