• Pegasus Project Shows the Need for Real Device Security, Accountability and Redress for those Facing State-Sponsored Malware

    It is no surprise that people around the world are angry to learn that surveillance software sold by NSO Group to governments has been found on cellphones worldwide. People all around the world deserve the right to have a private conversation. Communication privacy is a human right, a civil liberty, and one of the centerpieces of a free society. And while we all deserve basic communications privacy, the journalists, NGO workers, and human rights and democracy activists among us are especially at risk, since they are often at odds with powerful governments.

  • Growing Unease in Israel over Pegasus Case

    Israel is worried that the Pegasus spyware revelations may turn a PR black eye into a diplomatic crisis. Israel never exhibited any qualms about dealing with and selling arms to pretty unsavory regimes, but such deals were typically kept secret. The fact that the Israeli Ministry of Defense authorized the NSO Group to sell the Pegasus spyware to regimes which then used it to spy on opposition figures, civil society activists, and journalists – and, in the case of Saudi Arabia, to track Jamal Khashoggi and kill him — has raised questions about what did the government know and when did it know it.

  • Macron’s Secure Mobile Phone Compromised by Pegasus Spyware

    The secure smartphone of French president Emmanuel Macron was compromised by the Pegasus surveillance malware. It was surreptitiously installed by Moroccan intelligence operatives, who introduced the virus into the phones of former Prime Minister Edouard Philippe and fourteen other current and former French cabinet ministers.

  • China Spy Agency Using Contract Hackers to Extort, Destabilize Western Companies

    The United States and its allies in Europe and Asia have charged that China’s Ministry of State Security is employing criminal contract hackers to conduct cyber operations globally, from which the hackers personally profit. The activities include ransomware operations against private companies which are forced to pay millions in ransom demands to regain access to their data.

  • Chinese Company’s Global Genetic Data Collection Poses Economic, Security Threats: Experts

    A Chinese gene company is collecting genetic data through prenatal tests from women in more than 50 countries— including Germany, Spain and Denmark, as well as in Britain, Canada, Australia, Thailand, India and Pakistan. Collecting the biggest and most diverse set of human genomes could propel China to dominate global pharmaceuticals, and also potentially lead to genetically enhanced soldiers, or engineered pathogens to target the U.S. population or food supply, biosecurity experts told Reuters.

  • Will China Retaliate Against U.S. Chip Sanctions?

    In response to a series of Chinese trade infractions (intellectual property theft, forced technology transfers, cyber espionage, and WTO violations), the U.S. government implemented a sanctions regime which has inflicted increasing pain on China’s semiconductor industry. The Biden administration has doubled down on the Trump’s sanction strategy against China’s high-tech sector. Terry Daly and Jordan Schneider write that China has so far abstained from taking major retaliatory measures against the United States, but this is not likely to last. “The prudent course in a period of uncertainty is risk mitigation. This applies to countries and companies alike,” Daly and Schneider write.

  • MI5 Director: U.K. Faces Growing Threats from Russia, China, Iran—and Far-Right Extremists

    The director-general of MI5, the U.K. domestic intelligence service, said the agency is doubling the resources it devotes to tackling threats from Russia, China and Iran, and shifting more resources to tackle the rapidly growing posed by right-wing extremists, many of whom are teenagers.

  • Sen. Rubio Urges Senate to Pass Genomics Data Security Act

    Senator Marco Rubio urged the Senate to pass his Genomics Data Security Act following a new Office of Inspector General’s (OIG) report, which found that the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) did not consider national security risks for any CMS programs. Rubio noted that Chinese and Russian labs may be receiving federal dollars to processing Americans’ genomic data.

  • Germany Fights Cyberattacks and Fraud Claims to Ensure Fair Election

    Germany is in the middle of an election year that will see unprecedented use of mail-in ballots as well as hacker attacks against politicians. Election authorities reject claims of potential voter fraud.

  • An Urgent NATO Priority: Preparing to Protect Civilians

    Russia’s hybrid warfare approach calls for attacking the populations of Russia’s adversaries not through WWII-like carpet bombing, but rather with a combination of disinformation campaigns, cyberattacks on critical infrastructure, supporting proxy forces, and backing terrorist attacks. “Should NATO prepare for this scenario? Absolutely,” Victoria Holt and Marl Keenan write.

  • U.S. Military Urges Washington to Heed Warnings on China

    For much of this year, officials with U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, the Pentagon and U.S. intelligence agencies have repeatedly warned about the threat from a rising China, from its growing military might to what they describe as Beijing’s ever bolder forays into cyberspace and brazen espionage campaigns. These official are voicing concern that key policymakers and lawmakers may not be taking the threat posed by China seriously enough.

  • Understanding Influence in the Strategic Competition with China

    What do qualitative metrics and case studies reveal about how China attempts to exert influence around the world? How should the United States respond to China’s influence-seeking activities? A new report assesses China’s ability to use various mechanisms of influence to shape the policies and behavior of twenty countries, as well as the lessons that these examples offer for the U.S. strategic competition with China.

  • Beijing’s Persecution of Uyghurs Reaches Nearly 30 Countries: Report

    China persecutes the Uyghurs not only inside China, but in other countries as well. Its anti-Uyghur campaign has expanded overseas, and so far has reached 28 countries. The Chinese campaign has been successful because these countries’ governments, out of fear of Beijing’s power and influence, have been eager to accommodate China and its demands.

  • With Cyberattacks Growing More Frequent and Disruptive, a Unified Approach Is Essential

    Coordinated cyberattacks can create massive disruptions to infrastructure and supply chains. New treaties are needed to prevent cyberwarfare, but it’s challenging to predict technological advances.

  • Matt Hancock and the Problem with China’s Surveillance Tech

    Matt Hancock, Britain’s Health Secretary, resigned last week – and informed his wife that he was divorcing her – after CCTV footage emerged of him snogging his assistant outside his office. Ian Williams writes that the Hancock affair raises serious questions involving surveillance and national security: The cameras involved were made by the Chinese company Hikvision, one of the 1.3 million Hikvision cameras installed across the U.K. Hikvision has close links to the Chinese Communist Party and China’s intelligence services. Even if the Chinese intelligence services were not involved in leaking the compromising Hancock video to the press, the episode is one more indication, if one were needed, of the security risks involved in allowing an unregulated access by Chinese technology companies access unfettered and unregulated access to Western markets.