Our picksStill Possible to Save Afghanistan? | Answers on GPS Data Spoofing | $600M Crypto Heist, and more

It Might Still Be Possible to Save Afghanistan  (Economist)
But America is refusing to try.

America Failed Its Way to Counterterrorism Success  (Hal Brands and Michael O’Hanlon, Foreign Affairs)
How a Flawed “War on Terror” Eventually Yielded the Right Approach

Ending Title 42 for Illegal Border Crossings Will Jeopardize Post-Pandemic Recovery  (Rep. John Katko, Roll Call)
Biden administration is playing politics with a vital public health authority

Feds Warn of Potential Violence Fueled by False Election Claims  (Ken Dilanian, NBC News)
False claims of fraud in the 2020 election are fueling calls for violence on social media, the Department of Homeland Security is warning local police departments. “DHS has seen an increasing but modest level of individuals calling for violence in response to the unsubstantiated claims of fraud related to the 2020 election fraud and the alleged ‘reinstatement’ of former President Trump,” a DHS spokesperson told NBC News. Officials were clear that they have no intelligence of a specific domestic terrorism plot. But DHS leaders say they believe security agencies were unprepared for the Jan. 6 riot in part because they paid too little attention to violent and extremist rhetoric on social media. In an effort to avoid repeating that mistake, the department is trying to sound the alarm among local police agencies about the potential for political violence. DHS issued a so-called awareness bulletin last week and discussed the security climate at a meeting with intelligence officers from major police agencies, including departments in New York, Washington and Las Vegas, DHS officials told NBC News.

Aide to Capitol Riot Inquiry Is Accused of Whistle-Blower Retaliation  (Luke Broadwater, New York Times)
For the second time, a senior member of the staff of the House select committee on the Jan. 6 attack has been accused of retaliating against a whistle-blower in the Trump government.

$600M in Digital Tokens Lost in Hack of Cryptocurrency Site  (Joseph Choi, The Hill)
A cryptocurrency platform has lost about $600 million in digital tokens in a hacking attack believed to be one the largest ever thefts in the cryptocurrency market.
Reuters reported that decentralized finance platform Poly Network announced the hack Tuesday, calling on users to blacklist tokens coming from digital wallets they believe the money was transferred to.

How DHS and a National Lab Aim to Advance First Responders’ Drug Detection  (Brandi Vincent, Nextgov)
As opioid abuse rises, government officials are engaging with states and industry to improve tech used to spot narcotics.

DOD Looks for Answers on GPS Data Spoofing  (Lauren C. Williams, FCW)
The Defense Department is looking for solutions that would prevent the growing threat of location data spoofing that can affect satellite-based technology like global positioning systems.
The Defense Innovation Unit published a solicitation looking for commercial solutions that can help sniff out potential global navigation satellite system disruptions, particularly those that result in “falsified” or spoofed location data across large areas.

New Senate Report Reveals Few Federal Agencies Have Made Meaningful Cybersecurity Improvements Since 2019  (Scott Ikeda, CPO Magazine)
Given that cyber crime ramped up in an unprecedented way during the Covid-19 pandemic, one might assume that federal agencies made a concurrent push to improve security (particularly given that an unusually contentious federal election landed in the middle of this period). A new Senate report reveals the opposite. Seven of eight federal agencies were found to have not made any meaningful improvements to their security since 2019.
The inspectors found that these agencies were not meeting even the basic expected standards for cybersecurity, finding issues that have continued to persist for a decade. Overall, the largest federal agencies received a “C-” grade on average for their cybersecurity posture.