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Sophisticated espionage platform covertly extracts encrypted government communications
Kaspersky Lab announced the other day that its researchers have discovered what they described as a “nation-state threat actor” — named ProjectSauron — who was targeting state organizations. “The cost, complexity, persistence, and ultimate goal of the operation, stealing confidential and secret information from state-sensitive organizations, suggest the involvement or support of a nation state,” Kaspersky Lab says. ProjectSauron “gives the impression of being an experienced and traditional actor who has put considerable effort into learning from other extremely advanced actors,” and “ adopting some of their most innovative techniques and improving on their tactics in order to remain undiscovered.”
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Food crisis in northeast Nigeria drives youth to radicalize, join Boko Haram: UN
Urgent action is needed to provide farming and livelihood support to 385,000 people in parts of Nigeria’s northeast where food insecurity is rampant, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said. The UN agency noted that more than three million people are affected by acute food insecurity in Borno, Yobe, and Adamawa States. Failure to rebuild the rural economy will translate into lack of employment opportunities with possible harmful consequences including youth radicalization and enrolment into armed groups, resulting in continued civil unrest.
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Android apps can secretly track users’ whereabouts
Three years ago, the FTC dimmed hopes for the Brightest Flashlight app for Android, slapping its developer with charges of consumer deception, because the app was transmitting users’ locations and device IDs to third parties without telling the users or getting their permission. Permissions, though, are only a small part of the Android-app privacy story. New research shows that Android apps can be manipulated to reach inside your mobile phone to track your whereabouts and traffic patterns, all without your knowledge or consent.
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Protecting privacy in genomic databases
Genome-wide association studies, which try to find correlations between particular genetic variations and disease diagnoses, are a staple of modern medical research. But because they depend on databases that contain people’s medical histories, they carry privacy risks. An attacker armed with genetic information about someone — from, say, a skin sample — could query a database for that person’s medical data. Researchers describe a new system that permits database queries for genome-wide association studies but reduces the chances of privacy compromises to almost zero.
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French girl, 16, to face charges for plotting a terrorist attack
A judge in France has agreed with the prosecution that a 16-year-old French girl should face preliminary terrorism charges for supporting ISIS and trying to plot a terrorist attack. The Paris prosecutor’s office said on Monday that the girl was using an encrypted social media app to spread calls by ISIS to the organization’s followers in France to commit violent acts.
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Swedish charismatic church to drop Bibles from drones over ISIS-controlled areas in Iraq
A Sweden-based evangelical church has announced it would airdrop thousands of copies of the Bible onto areas of Iraq controlled by the Islamist ISIS. The church said it was part of an effort to “pass the hope and love of the Christian gospel” to people living under ISIS control. The church said the air drops were not a provocation, but was rather motivated by “unfailing and never-ending love” for all people.
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Ahmadinejad demands Obama stop terror victims from collecting $2 billion court settlement
Former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad sent a letter to President Barack Obama telling him to “quickly fix” a Supreme Court ruling allowing terror victims to collect $2 billion from frozen Iranian assets. The Supreme Court ruled 6–2 in April that 1,300 American victims of Iranian terror and their families were entitled to collect $2 billion in frozen funds, which are currently held in trust pending the final disposition of the lawsuits.
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Former Bangladesh MP sentenced to death over 1971 war crimes
Sakhawat Hossain, a former member of parliament from the Islamist Jamaat-e-Islami party, was earlier today (Wednesday) sentenced to death by a special tribunal for commanding a paramilitary Islamist unit which killed, raped, and tortured unarmed civilians during the 1971 civil war in Bangladesh – then called East Pakistan. Jamaat-e-Islami, East Pakistan’s largest Islamist party, openly opposed secession from Pakistan and campaigned for continued Pakistani rule over East Pakistan. A few thousands members of Jamaat-e-Islami formed armed militias – trained and equipped by the Pakistani military – and fought along the Pakistani soldiers against fellow East Pakistanis.
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Expert: Hezbollah’s storage of missiles in civilian areas will make next war “catastrophic”
The next war between Israel and Hezbollah “will be catastrophic” because the Iran-backed terror organization has stationed its military assets inside “built-up population centers in cities, towns and villages” in Lebanon, says an expert. In 2006 Hezbollah only had around 12,000 rockets and missiles at its disposal. It is now believed to have more than 110,000. Some analysts estimate that Hezbollah’s rocket and missile arsenal is greater than that of all twenty-seven non-U.S. NATO nations combined.
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Brother-in-law of Charlie Hebdo killer arrested for trying to join ISIS
The brother-in-law of one of the gunmen who attacked the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo in Paris in January 2015 has been detailed in Turkey, and deported to Bulgaria, on suspicion that he was trying to join ISIS in Syria. Mourad Hamyd was first arrested in January 2015 on suspicion that he was the getaway driver for the Kouachi brothers, who carried out the attack.
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French Muslims propose tax on halal food to fund mosques, fight radicalization
Anouar Kbibech, president of the French Council of the Muslim Faith (CFCM), an influential group representing French Muslims, has proposed a tax on halal food to fund mosques and fight radicalization in France. The proposal was part of a broader counter-radicalization plan by French Muslims, a plan which also calls for the establishment of a new foundation which would help reduce the dependence of French mosques on foreign benefactors.
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28-page section of the 9/11 Commission Report reveals “indirect link” to Saudi ambassador to U.S.
The 28-page section of the 9/11 Commission’s report, the only portion of the report not to have been made public, was finally released in July by the Obama administration (the section was, in fact, 29-page long). The heavily redacted version released to the public found an “indirect link” between a Colorado-based company associated with Prince Bandar bin Sultan, a key member of the Saudi royal family, who, for many years, wielded influence as the Saudi ambassador to the United States, and phone numbers held by an al-Qaeda member held over the 9/11 terror attacks. Money from a charity run by Bandar’s wife found its way to a Saudi man who helped two of the 9/11 hijackers settle in San Diego.
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Indonesian police thwarts rocket attack on neighboring Singapore
Indonesia’s counter-terror police say they have thwarted a rocket attack on Singapore by arresting six suspected militants on Friday morning on Indonesia’s Batam island, about fifteen miles south-east of Singapore, a police spokesman said. Islamist terrorism in Indonesia, the world’s most populous Muslim nation, captured the headlines in 2002, when members of the Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) militant network killed 202 people, most of them foreign tourists, in Bali bombings. Since then, Islamist terrorist carried out smaller and less deadly attacks which targeted government agencies, mainly police and anti-terrorism forces.
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Joy Karega, Oberlin professor who claimed Israel was behind 9/11, put on leave
Oberlin College professor Joy Karega, who was heavily criticized after she had posted Facebook status claiming that Israel was behind the rise of ISIS and the 9/11 and Charlie Hebdo terror attacks, has been put on leave and will be barred from teaching on campus while her case is reviewed, the school’s president said in a statement on Wednesday.
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In dirty bomb prevention, Texas fails a crucial test
The clandestine group’s goal was clear: Obtain the building blocks of a radioactive “dirty bomb” — capable of poisoning a major city for a year or more — by openly purchasing the raw ingredients from authorized sellers inside the United States. It should have been hard. The purchase of lethal radioactive materials — even modestly dangerous ones — requires a license from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, a measure meant to keep them away from terrorists. But a team of undercover bureaucrats with the investigative arm of Congress discovered that getting a license and then ordering enough materials to make a dirty bomb was strikingly simple.
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More headlines
The long view
Preventing Another 'Jan. 6' Starts by Changing How Elections Are Certified, Experts Say
By Sara Savat
The 2024 presidential election may be a rematch between President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump, but preventing a repeat of Jan. 6, 2021 — when false claims of a stolen election promoted by Donald Trump and his allies led to an insurrection at the U.S. Capitol —will be top of mind this election year. Research finds broad support among public for nonpartisan certification commissions.
States Rush to Combat AI Threat to Elections
By Zachary Roth
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.
European Arms Imports Nearly Double, U.S. and French Exports Rise, and Russian Exports Fall Sharply
States in Europe almost doubled their imports of major arms (+94 per cent) between 2014–18 and 2019–23. The United States increased its arms exports by 17 per cent between 2014–18 and 2019–23, while Russia’s arms exports halved. Russia was for the first time the third largest arms exporter, falling just behind France.
LNG Exports Have Had No Impact on Domestic Energy Costs: Analysis
U.S. liquified natural gas (LNG) exports have not had any sustained and significant direct impact on U.S. natural gas prices and have, in fact, spurred production and productivity gains, which contribute to downward pressure on domestic prices.
Don’t Buy Moscow’s Shameless Campaign Tying Biden to Its Terrorist Attack
Russia has offered many different explanations to the ISIS-K’s 22 March 2024 terrorist attack at the Crocus City Hall in Moscow, but the most recent explanation offered by Russia is the most audacious yet: Russia now charges that the Ukrainian energy company Burisma financed the attack. Burisma is at the center of an effort by a congressional committee to impeach President Biden, but the case has all but collapsed. Hunter Stoll writes that Russia’s disinformation and propaganda apparatus appears to be searching for ways to keep Burisma in the news ahead of the U.S. presidential election.