• 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.

  • Kremlin Influencing Anti-War Coalition in Germany: Report

    Documents reviewed by the Washington Post show how Russia has attempted to forge a coalition between Germany’s far-left and the far-right to oppose support for Ukraine.

  • The U.S. Is About to Blow Up a Fake Warship in the South China Sea – but Naval Rivalry with Beijing Is Very Real and Growing

    As part of a joint military exercise with the Philippines, the U.S. Navy is slated to sink a mock warship on April 26, 2023, in the South China Sea. For its part, China is holding its own staged military event involving actual warships and fighter jets deployed around Taiwan. More than a century after President Theodore Roosevelt made the United States the preeminent maritime power in the Pacific, that position is under threat. China is seeking to displace it. The next time a warship is blown up in the South China Sea, it may not be just a drill.

  • Russian Intelligence Sought to Interfere in U.S. Elections, Again

    A federal grand jury in Tampa, Florida, returned a superseding indictment charging four U.S. citizens and three Russian nationals with working on behalf of the Russian government and in conjunction with the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) to conduct a multi-year foreign malign influence campaign in the United States.

  • The 2020 Election Saw Fewer People Clicking on Misinformation Websites: Study

    Stanford scholars find a smaller percentage of Americans visited unreliable websites in the run-up to the 2020 U.S. election than in 2016 – which suggests mitigation and education efforts to identify misinformation are working.

  • Officers of China’s National Police Charged in Transnational Repression Schemes Targeting U.S. Residents

    Forty defendants accused of Creating fake social media accounts to harass PRC dissidents, and Working with employees of a U.S. telecommunications company to remove dissidents from company’s platform.

  • Two Arrested for Operating Illegal Overseas Police Station of the Chinese Government

    Defendants Aare New York City residents who allegedly operated the police station in lower Manhattan and destroyed evidence when confronted by the FBI. The defendants and their co-conspirators helped the Chinese intelligence service locate Chinese dissidents living in the United States.

  • Banning TikTok Could Weaken Personal Cybersecurity

    TikTok is not be the first app to be scrutinized over the potential exposure of U.S. user data, but it is the first widely used app that the U.S. government has proposed banning over privacy and security concerns. As a cybersecurity researcher, I see potential risks if the U.S. attempts to ban TikTok. The type of risk depends on the type of ban.

  • The Vexed Relationship Between James Bond and Real-World Intelligence Work

    James Bond first appeared 70 years ago today, playing roulette at three o’clock in the morning, in former British naval intelligence officer Ian Fleming’s debut novel, “Casino Royale.” Fleming’s creation defines espionage in popular culture but, at the same time, he is disavowed by actual intelligence agency heads who insist that there is no resemblance between the dashing, debonair 007 and his rakish style and the stealthy, grinding, and unglamorous existence of real-world intelligence agents.

  • The Teixeira Disclosures and Systemic Problems in the U.S. Intelligence Community

    The unauthorized disclosure points to broader systemic failures in the safeguarding of U.S. intelligence information, as well as new insider threats which pose thorny legal and policy challenges. “As intelligence and law enforcement leaders assess the damage, Congress should be asking tough questions to hold the executive branch accountable and prevent future leaks,” Brianna Rosen writes.