• Leveraging Social Media During a Disaster

    During a disaster, many people turn to social media seeking information. But communicating during disasters is challenging, especially using an interactive environment like social media where misinformation can spread easily.

  • Aiding Evaluation of Adversarial AI Defenses

    There are many inherent weaknesses that underlie existing machine learning (ML) models, opening the technology up to spoofing, corruption, and other forms of deception. Evaluation testbed, datasets, tools developed on GARD program were released to jump-start community and encourage creation of more robust defenses against attacks on ML models.

  • What Will 2022 Bring in the Way of Misinformation on Social Media? 3 Experts Weigh In

    At the end of 2020, it seemed hard to imagine a worse year for misinformation on social media, given the intensity of the presidential election and the trauma of the COVID-19 pandemic. But 2021 proved up to the task, starting with the Jan. 6 insurrection and continuing with copious amounts of falsehoods and distortions about COVID-19 vaccines.

  • What Is Log4j? A Cybersecurity Expert Explains the Latest Internet Vulnerability, How Bad It Is and What’s at Stake

    Log4Shell, an internet vulnerability that affects millions of computers, involves an obscure but nearly ubiquitous piece of software, Log4j. So what is this humble piece of internet infrastructure, how can hackers exploit it and what kind of mayhem could ensue?

  • UTEP to Advance Cybersecurity Talent Pipeline with $4M Grant

    Award will support highly qualified computer science students, with an emphasis on Hispanic and female students.

  • Moral Echo Chambers on Social Media May Boost Radicalization: Study

    As Congress continues to investigate the storming of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, psychologists are examining how online communities can foster radical thoughts and intentions. A new study finds that that social media echo chambers can create a strong bond and increase the likelihood of radicalization.

  • CISA Hosts Cybersecurity Navigators Forum for Election Officials

    CISA recently concluded a forum for state and local election officials to discuss cyber navigator programs. Cyber navigators are state liaisons that can help under-resourced local jurisdictions manage their cyber risks, help sort through the onslaught of risk information, advice, and available services, and help fast-track mitigation efforts. DHS is currently in the midst of its “Election Security” sprint, focused on the need to cement the resilience of the nation’s democratic infrastructures and protect the integrity of its election.

  • Computer Attacks with Laser Light

    Computer systems that are physically isolated from the outside world (air-gapped) can still be attacked. This is demonstrated by IT security experts in the LaserShark project. The researchers demonstrate hidden communication into air-gapped computer systems: Data transmitted to light-emitting diodes of regular office devices.

  • Extradited Kremlin-Linked Russian Businessman Charged with Cybercrimes, along with Four Other Russian Suspects

    Russian businessman Vladislav Klyushin was extradited from Switzerland to the United States last week over his involvement in a global scheme to trade on hacked confidential information. One of Klyushin’s codefendants, Ivan Ermakov, a former officer in Russia’s GRU military intelligence, was charged in court in 2018 for his role in hacking and disinformation operations the GRU conducted in 2016 as part of Russia’s interference in the U.S. presidential elections.

  • Problems in Regulating Social Media Companies’ Extremist, Terrorist Content Removal Policies

    The U.S. government’s ability to meaningfully regulate major social media companies’ terrorist and extremist content removal policies is limited.

  • Far Too Little Vote Fraud to Tip Election to Trump, AP Finds

    >The Associated Press conducted a thorough review of every potential case of voter fraud in the six battleground states disputed by former President Donald Trump.Joe Biden won the 79 Electoral College votes of these states by a combined 311,257 votes out of 25.5 million ballots cast for president. The AP comprehensive review has found fewer than 475 potential fraud cases. The cases could not throw the outcome into question even if all the potentially fraudulent votes were for Biden, which they were not, and even if those ballots were actually counted, which in most cases they were not.

  • Securing U.S. Democracy

    Most of the homeland security architecture built in the past twenty years has been devoted to protecting Americans from an act of international terrorism. Carrie Cordero writes that as a result, Americans are safer than they were twenty years ago from a terrorist attack directed or inspired by foreign groups on U.S. soil. She says, though, that more significantly, the threats to American safety and security have compounded in the past two decades. “These disparate threats and circumstances have challenged the effectiveness of the homeland security enterprise.”

  • Foreign Disinformation Effort Raises Fears of Violence in U.S.

    Foreign intelligence services and global terrorist organizations are engaged in a broad effort to seed the United States with disinformation, and this effort appears to be working, raising new fears of a terrorist attack in the coming weeks, according to a senior DHS official.

  • Antisemitism Disseminated Across Social Media Platforms

    Gab, a self-described “free speech” platform, has a long history as a haven for antisemites, extremists and conspiracy theorists. On Gab, and on Gab’s Twitter account, extremists promote a range of antisemitic tropes, such as Jews having dual loyalty to the U.S. and Israel, that Jews are to blame for the crucifixion of Jesus and that Jews control the U.S. government.

     

  • Hate Speech on Social Media Fueled By Users’ Shared Values, Moral Concerns

    People whose moral beliefs and values align closely with other members of their online communities — including those on social networks Gab and Reddit — are more prone to radicalization, according to new research.