• U.S. Critical Infrastructure May Not Be Resilient Enough to Fend Off, Survive Chinese Cyberattacks: CISA Director

    Americans “need to be prepared” for Chinese cyberattacks, U.S. cyber official said, because the United States may not be resilient enough to fend off and survive Chinese attacks on its critical infrastructure should the present great power competition between Washington and Beijing evolve into an actual conflict.

  • UFOs: What We’ll Learn from the NASA Panel Investigating Sightings

    Later this year, a full report will be released with even more details and findings from NASA investigations of unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAPs), or what most of us would call UFOs (unidentified flying objects). No UFOs or aliens just yet, but NASA is now taking claims of the UAPs very seriously and seems determined to understand them all.

  • Le Pen’s Far-Right Party “Mouthpiece,” “Communication Channel” for the Kremlin: French Parliament Report

    Marine Le Pen and her populist far-right National Rally party had long been accused of parroting Russia’s propaganda and praising Vladimir Putin’s strongman approach to politics. In the hope of refuting these charges, the NR set up a parliamentary inquiry to investigate foreign interference in French politics. The move backfired spectacularly: The committee’s findings, which will be released next week, show that on a host of issues, Le Pen’s policy stances were indistinguishable from Putin’s – and in most cases, she and her party used the very same language used by Russia’s propaganda organs.

  • China Extends Its Lead Over U.S. in Key Technologies

    Western democracies are losing the global technological competition, including the race for scientific and research breakthroughs, and the ability to retain global talent—crucial ingredients that underpin the development and control of the world’s most important technologies, including those that don’t yet exist.A new report from the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI) finds that China’s global lead extends to 37 out of 44 technologies that ASPI is now tracking. These findings should be a wake-up call for democratic nations, who must rapidly pursue a strategic critical technology step-up.

  • The Executive Order on Commercial Spyware: Implications and Prospects

    The growing national security threat from misuse of commercial spyware is increasingly being recognized. The US has been taking the lead in addressing the growing menace of unregulated spyware companies and the proliferation of intrusive tools. The Biden administration’s latest Executive Order will ensure that commercial spyware firms will be subjected to unprecedented scrutiny.

  • Amid Fears of Chinese Influence, the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States Has Grown More Powerful

    The Committee on Foreign Investment, a U.S. government interagency committee established in 1975 by President Gerald Ford, is tasked with studying and coordinating the implementation of policy on foreign investment in America.The primary objective of the committee is to review selected foreign investments and some real estate transactions by foreigners in the U.S. for their national security implications.

  • State-Sponsored Chinese Hackers Targeting U.S., Western Critical Infrastructure: Microsoft

    Microsoft says that Chinese government-sponsored hacking group Volt Typhoon has been attacking critical infrastructure targets in the US, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and UK, and possibly many more countries. The affected targets span various sectors, including communications, manufacturing, utilities, transportation, construction, maritime, government, information technology, and education. The attacks began in mid-2021 and appear to be aimed at undermining the US in the event of a regional conflict.

  • U.S. Reliance on Chinese Drones: A Sector for the Next CHIPS Act?

    More and more lawmakers from both parties are beginning to pay attention to the issue of drones and national security. Different bills seek to regulate federal agency procurement and use of certain foreign-made unmanned aircraft systems (UASs), or drones. Annie I. Antón and Olivia C. Mauger write that “Building on the bipartisan consensus to enact the 2022 Creating Helpful Incentives to Produce Semiconductors and Science (CHIPS) Act, there is a compelling case that UASs should be a next sector for similar action.”

  • Montana first U.S. state to ban TikTok

    Starting next year, Montana will prohibit app stores from offering the video-sharing platform to users. The state’s governor said the ban protects people from Chinese surveillance.

  • PEGA Committee Votes on Spyware Recommendations

    In July 2021, the Pegasus Project—a consortium of 80 journalists from 17 media organizations in 10 countries—broke the story that several governments were using the Israel-made Pegasus spyware against journalists, activists, politicians, academics, and even heads of state. Responding to the public backlash, the European Parliament set up a committee of inquiry (PEGA committee) to investigate the allegations concerning misuse of spyware on the continent.

  • DOJ: Charges Related to Efforts by Russia, China, Iran to Steal American Technology

    DOJ announced five criminal cases exposing the relentless efforts by Russia, China and Iran to steal sensitive U.S. technologies. The cases were brought by a new “strike force” created earlier this year to deter foreign adversaries from obtaining advanced U.S. innovation.

  • Pentagon Leak of U.S. Intelligence on Ukraine and Other Allies Shows Failure to Learn from Chelsea Manning Affair

    To ask how someone so young as Jack Teixeira had access to secrets is to ask the wrong questions. It is perfectly reasonable for someone of his age to be security cleared and have access to classified material, but only if they need to know the information. But it is not immediately clear why the Massachusetts Air National Guard needs top-secret intelligence about Ukraine. More baffling is why there were not greater controls in place.

  • Intelligence Agencies Have Used AI Since the Cold War – but Now Face New Security Challenges

    Intelligence agencies, including the CIA and the NSA, have been using earlier forms of AI since the start of the cold war. Today, budgetary constraints, human limitations and increasing levels of information were making it impossible for intelligence agencies to produce analysis fast enough for policy makers. The increasing use of AI aims to help intelligence agencies cope with such challenges, but AI creates both opportunities and challenges for these agencies.

  • CCP’s Increasingly Sophisticated Cyber-enabled Influence Operation

    Last week DOJ announced police officers from China’s Ministry of Public Security (MPS) created thousands of fake online personas on social media sites to target Chinese dissidents through online harassment and threats. The announcement marked the first definitive public attribution to a specific Chinese government agency of covert malign activities on social media. The MPS, however, is one of many party-controlled organizations that analysts have long suspected of conducting covert and coercive operations to influence users on social media.

  • U.S.-China Tech Competition Expands to AI Regulations

    Competition between the U.S. and China in artificial intelligence has expanded into a race to design and implement comprehensive AI regulations. The efforts to come up with rules to ensure AI’s trustworthiness, safety, and transparency come at a time when governments around the world are exploring the impact of the technology on national security and education.