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Russia’s Remaining Weapons Are Horrific and Confounding
Along with concerns over the possible deployment of tactical nuclear weapons, the Biden administration is now warning that the Russian military may launch a chemical weapons attack in Ukraine. Harvard Kennedy School’s Matthew Bunn assesses threat, possible fallout of chemical attack in Ukraine, including the excruciating choices Biden and NATO would face.
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Ukraine Offers Lessons for Russia’s 2024 Election Interference
For all the media attention on the domestic political dimensions, the Kremlin’s interference in the 2016 and 2020 presidential elections (and the 2018 midterms) included a significant focus on shaping U.S. policy toward Ukraine. Exerting influence on U.S. Ukraine policy Ukraine has long been a goal of Russian disinformation efforts, so American policymakers must prepare now for this influence effort to reemerge in 2024.
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No Letup in Russian Influence Operations
Moscow’s efforts to win over the world with its accounts of events in Ukraine are doing no better than Russia’s military forces inside Ukraine. More often than not, they are meeting with stiff resistance.
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The Information War – How to Deal with Fake News and Misinformation
Over the past few weeks, we have seen a growth in the use of the term ‘Information War’. The term, at first glance, would appear to be fairly innocuous: I mean, how hurtful or harmful could information actually be? However, as the conflict in Ukraine continues, we have seen the use of information take on a more powerful, weaponized status. We can help stop the spread of misinformation.
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Russia Shows the Limits of Propaganda
Beyond the outer fringes of Western politics, neither Russia’s contrived casus belli nor its wartime information operation have been taken seriously in Europe or America.
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Ukraine: What Would a Russian Invasion Actually Look Like? These Are the Three Most Likely Scenarios
Russia has been laying the ground for military action against Ukraine since 2014, when it seized Crimea and thereby gained a more substantial military foothold to the south. Meanwhile, the ongoing war in Ukraine’s Donbas region allowed Russian security and intelligence units to continue to gauge Ukrainian military and paramilitary operations. If military action does occur, there are three likely scenarios for how it would play out.
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Russia Planning Post-Invasion Arrest and Assassination Campaign in Ukraine: U.S. Officials
Russia has prepared a detailed list of prominent Ukrainian opponents of Russia ad anti-corruption activists, and of Belarusian and Russian dissidents living in exile in Ukraine, who would be hunted down and killed by Russian special forces should Russia move forward with plans to invade Ukraine.
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Possible Russian Cyberattacks Could Reverberate Globally: U.S., Allies
The United States and its Western allies are bracing for the possibility that a Russian invasion of Ukraine would have a ripple effect in cyberspace, even if Western entities are not initially the intended target.
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China Suspected of Targeting U.S. Organizations with Cyberattacks
Media giant News Corp is investigating a cyberattack that has accessed the email and documents of some of its employees and journalists. “Mandiant assesses that those behind this activity have a China nexus, and we believe they are likely involved in espionage activities to collect intelligence to benefit China’s interests,” Dave Wong, Mandiant vice president and incident responder, said.
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The U.S. Warning of a Fake Russian Video Isn’t Alex Jones Territory
The U.S. claim that Russia was planning to release a fake film showing a Ukrainian attack, which the Kremlin would then use to justify further invading the country. The accusation is consistent with Russia’s current disinformation campaigns and its past use of fabricated evidence. Calling out the potential fake video also limits Moscow’s ability to credibly rationalize war based on similar lies.
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Africa embraces Huawei technology despite security concerns
Shunned in the Global North due to privacy and security issues, Huawei is a front-runner in Africa. But the Chinese giant’s data collection methods may also appeal to authoritarian regimes as a way to cling to power.
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NSA Releases 2021 Cybersecurity Year in Review
The NSA last week released its 2021 NSA Cybersecurity Year in Review which highlights how the agency continues to address threats to the U.S. most critical systems.
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Broad, and Likely Unauthorized, Use of Pegasus Spyware by Israel's Police Shocks Israel
Since 2015, Israel’s police has employed the intrusive Pegasus spyware to spy on businesspeople, journalists and editors, senior managers of government ministries and agencies, leaders of protest movements, and more – and it appears that in many, if not most, of these cases, the spying was done without judicial approval or after judges were misled by the police about the nature of the monitoring technology. The Pegasus software has been used by authoritarian governments around the world to spy on political opponents, human rights activist, journalists – and in at least one case, to spy on U.S. diplomats. The U.S. has blacklisted the Israeli company NSO, Pegasus maker, and American companies are not allowed to sell their technology to NSO or do business with it
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Energy Weapon Only 'Plausible' Explanation for Some Cases of Havana Syndrome
U.S. intelligence agencies may have ruled out the idea that a rash of mysterious illnesses plaguing American diplomats and other officials is part of a sustained campaign by one of Washington’s adversaries, but they now say that in a small number of cases the only likely explanation is the use of some sort of weapon.
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Experts Suggest U.S. Embassies Were Hit with High-Power Microwaves – Here’s How the Weapons Work
The technology behind the suspected weapons is well understood and dates back to the Cold War arms race between the U.S. and the Soviet Union. High-power microwave weapons are generally designed to disable electronic equipment. But as the Havana syndrome reports show, these pulses of energy can harm people, as well.
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More headlines
The long view
States Rush to Combat AI Threat to Elections
This year’s presidential election will be the first since generative AI became widely available. That’s raising fears that millions of voters could be deceived by a barrage of political deepfakes. Congress has done little to address the issue, but states are moving aggressively to respond — though questions remain about how effective any new measures to combat AI-created disinformation will be.
Chinese Government Hackers Targeted Critics of China, U.S. Businesses and Politicians
An indictment was unsealed Monday charging seven nationals of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) with conspiracy to commit computer intrusions and conspiracy to commit wire fraud for their involvement in a PRC-based hacking group that spent approximately 14 years targeting U.S. and foreign critics, businesses, and political officials in furtherance of the PRC’s economic espionage and foreign intelligence objectives.