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Hardware ProtectionProtecting Hardware from Software Attacks
In order to break the endless cycle of software patch-and-pray, DARPA’s System Security Integration Through Hardware and firmware (SSITH) program aims to develop ASIC hardware with novel protections proven in mitigating against software attacks on hardware.
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ExtremismCriticism Mount of U.K. Counter-Extremism Programs
There is a “fundamental mismatch” between the threat posed by Islamist terrorism and the attention afforded to it by Prevent, the U.K. government’s counter-extremism program, according to a new report.The report finds that despite the finding of the government’s independent reviewer that the United Kingdom faces the greatest terroristic threat from Islamists, far more resources are being devoted to other forms of extremism.
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Hate CrimesFBI Works to Increase Hate Crimes Awareness
The United States recorded nearly 7,500 hate crimes in 2020, the highest level in more than a decade. As eye-popping as the yearly total may be, researchers note the vast majority of hate crimes are never reported to police. In October, the FBI launched a nationwide awareness campaign to encourage victims and witnesses to report hate crimes to law enforcement.
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Military TechnologyThe Drivers of Invention of Military Technologies
Researchers tested competing theories about what drove the evolution of war machines throughout world history.
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Energy SecurityFrance Sets to Invest in Small Modular Nuclear Reactors
France plans to invest in small modular nuclear reactors (SMRs). Some experts question whether this is ecologically and economically sensible, but it may be that France’s interests in SMRs is as much about geopolitical strategy as it is about energy.
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Energy SecurityIncreasing Hydrogen Energy Requires All Technologies to Be Pushed Forward
No single hydrogen technology should be prioritized, says a new study, and the production, distribution, and use of hydrogen needs to be optimized.
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DisastersExtreme Rain Heads for California’s Burn Scars, Raising the Risk of Mudslides – This Is What Cascading Climate Disasters Look Like
Wildfires strip away vegetation and leave the soil less able to absorb water. A downpour on these vulnerable landscapes can quickly erode the ground as fast-moving water carries debris and mud with it. Wildfires strip away vegetation and leave the soil less able to absorb water. A downpour on these vulnerable landscapes can quickly erode the ground as fast-moving water carries debris and mud with it. Such consecutive events lead to human disasters. Studies show climate change is raising the risk of multiple compound disasters.
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Our picksSecurity Threats Posed by CRISPR | Computer Security for Nuclear Security | What Will Determine Whether China Overtakes U.S. in Tech, and more
· From CRISPR Babies to Super Soldiers: Challenges and Security Threats Posed by CRISPR
· Surveillance of Laboratory Exposures to Human Pathogens and Toxins, Canada 2020
· Scarred By Mass Shooting, Britain to Check Social Media, Medical Records of Gun License Applicants
· Far-Right ‘Berserker Clan’ Accused of Prepping for Armed Uprising in Germany
· Computer Security for Nuclear Security
· Officials Warn 5 Key Tech Sectors Will Determine Whether China Overtakes U.S.
· September Saw Fewer Unaccompanied Children Crossing into U.S.
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Climate & National SecurityBiden Administration Places Climate Change at the Center of U.S. Security Planning
The administration on Thursday has released a series of reports addressing the increasingly severe impact of climate change on U.S. national security – an impact which is only going to grow in severity and scope. Taken together, the reports signal a new stage in U.S. policy, one which places climate change at the center of the U.S. security planning.
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ANALYSIS: Gathering StormRising Temperatures Reshaping, Exacerbating Global Security Landscape
More than just altering the environment, climate change is threatening to permanently and dangerously reshape the global security landscape. These are the conclusions of a series of new assessments by U.S. military, intelligence, and security officials. “As climate change converges with other drivers — especially geostrategic competition, emerging technology and global-demographic trends — it is reshaping the risk landscape,” DHS said in its assessment. “The corrosive impact of these trends will make nations increasingly vulnerable to domestic instability, with sweeping implications for regional and border security and core national security interests.”.
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GunsU.S. Gun Violence Increased 30 Percent During COVID-19 Pandemic
Gun violence increased by more than 30 percent in the United States during the COVID-19 pandemic. Researchers said that stress, domestic violence, lack of social interactions and greater access to firearms might have contributed to the increase.
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Weapons DetectionWeapons-Detection Algorithm Studied at Las Vegas International Airport
This summer, DHS S&T demonstrated a new advanced algorithm to better detect non-explosive weapons like guns, knives, and other items that are prohibited on commercial aircraft in a real-world setting at Las Vegas’ McCarran International Airport.
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Infrastructure ProtectionUrbanites Face Heightened Flood Risk as a Result of Forest Loss
The devastating impact of flooding in Queensland’s north, exacerbated by forest loss, is badly affecting urban areas. Researchers found that deforestation near urban areas exposes these areas to much larger amounts of water flowing on the soil surface soon after a rainfall.
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Climate ChallengesCanals Can Help the U.K. Cope with the Climate Problems
The presence of canal water can cool urban areas by up to 1.6°C during heatwaves in a 100-metre-wide corridor along the waterway. Research shows that the U.K.’s 200-year-old canals offer huge ‘blue’ opportunities to help Britain tackle the climate change crisis by helping cool homes and businesses, mitigating floods, and generating electricity through hydro generators.
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Our picksCybersecurity Training in Rural Communities | Russian Corruption Ransomware | Authoritarian Regimes & Hacking Tools, and more
· Bill Named for N.J. Man Killed by Rental Truck Used in 2017 NYC Terror Attack Passes U.S. House
· Terrorism Threat to UK Lawmakers Substantial After Colleague Murder -Patel
· Luján Introduces Bill to Hold Tech Platforms Accountable for Algorithmic Promotion of Extremist Content
· Bipartisan Antiterrorism Bill Introduced
· Bringing Cybersecurity Training to Rural Communities
· Russian Corruption Makes It Harder to Crack Down on Ransomware
· U.S. Govt to Ban Export of Hacking Tools to Authoritarian Regimes
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PandemicsTargeted Interventions: Containing Pandemics, Minimizing Societal Disruption
COVID has so far infected 21 million people, with more than 4.5 of them dying. Nonpharmaceutical interventions (NPIs), such as case isolation, quarantining contacts, and the complete lockdown of entire countries, often come at the expense of economic disruption, harm to social and mental well-being, and require costly administration costs to ensure compliance.
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MisinformationMisinformation on Stem Cell Treatments for COVID-19 Linked to Overhyped Science: Researchers
Researchers call for stronger regulations to deter the sale of unproven cell-based products, and more responsible and accurate science communication.
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Influence OperationsWhy Do the Russian and Chinese Governments Want Americans to Dislike Immigrants?
The Internet Research Agency (IRA), the Kremlin’s propaganda and disinformation arm, employs fake social media accounts, media properties, memes, and bots to conduct what the Russians call “active measures” campaign to influence U.S. public opinion. The IRA’s goal is to intensify political opinions on every issue, and one of the IRA’s prime targets is to deepen nativist sentiments among Americans.
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ARGUMENT: Unabomber RevivalWhy Right-Wing Extremists Love the Unabomber
Ted Kaczynski, better known as the Unabomber, was an American domestic terrorist whose 17-year bombing campaign killed three people and injured 23 others. Seeking to protect wilderness and destroy technology, he targeted scientists and businessmen. Kiernan Christ writes “Kaczynski’s contemporary influence, however, is not strongest among environmental activists. Rather, his manifesto and ideology have found a home on far-right websites, where Kaczynski is cited as a key radicalizing influence and thought leader in spaces generally extremely hostile to modern environmentalism.”
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Climate ChallengesCities Worldwide Aren’t Adapting to Climate Change Quickly Enough
Climate change is magnifying threats such as flooding, wildfires, tropical storms and drought. cities are quickly becoming more vulnerable to extreme weather events and permanent shifts in their climate zones. The problem is that the pace of climate change is accelerating much more rapidly than urban areas are taking steps to adapt to it.
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Disaster PreparednessCost-Effective Disaster Preparedness
With hurricanes, floods, wildfires, earthquakes, the COVID-19 pandemic and more, the world has seen a multitude of disasters recently. Research on disaster preparedness aims to offer cost-effective solutions, reduce suffering.
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Food SecurityNuclear War's Smoke Would Cause Climate Change, Threatening Global Food Supplies
Nuclear war would cause many immediate fatalities, but smoke and soot from the resulting fires would also cause climate change lasting up to fifteen years, threatening worldwide food production and human health, according to a new study.
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More headlines
The long view
ARGUMENT: Deterring BioattacksA Deterrence by Denial Strategy for Addressing Biological Weapons
The U.S. political failures have loomed large in coverage of the COVID-19 crisis. Christine Parthemore and Andy Weber write that, what is more, a number of analysts have warned that, after watching these failures play out, hostile powers might take a new interest in using biological weapons to target the United States. “This risk is real. Fortunately, the pandemic has also brought into use cutting-edge technologies that can help counter it,” they write.
ARGUMENT: Unprepared We’re Already Barreling Toward the Next Pandemic
America’s frustrating inability to learn from the recent past shouldn’t be surprising to anyone familiar with the history of public health. Ed Yong writes that many public-health experts, historians, and legal scholars worry that the U.S. is lapsing into neglect, that the temporary wave of investments isn’t being channeled into the right areas, and that COVID-19 might actually leave the U.S. weaker against whatever emerges next.
BIG PICTURE: Ideological OverreachLiberalism’s Graveyard: Afghanistan Is Where Ideologies Go to Die
It used to be said the Afghanistan is the “graveyard of empires.” Sumantra Maitra writes that the U.S. failed 20-year war in Afghanistan will go down as one of the more consequential wars –a “paradigm-shifting event” — because Afghanistan proved to be the graveyard of ideologies as well: “Evangelical Marxism failed in Afghanistan, as did evangelical liberalism.”
Radiation detectionRadSecure 100 Radiological Security Initiative Launched in 100 U.S. Cities
The RadSecure 100 Initiative focuses on removing radioactive material from facilities where feasible and improving security at the remaining facilities located in 100 metropolitan areas throughout the United States. Partnerships with local medical facilities, industrial firms, and law enforcement will be key to the project.
BIG PICTURE: “A grasp of history”Afghanistan Always Defeats the West
William Dalrymple, a Scottish historian and author of Return of a King: the Battle for Afghanistan 1839-42, writes that the West’s 20-year failed effort in Afghanistan was as inevitable as it was predictable for anyone with “a grasp of history”: In Afghanistan, there had been only the briefest of “moments of anything approaching a unified political system. Afghanistan has always been less a state than a kaleidoscope of competing tribal principalities governed through maliks or vakils, in each of which allegiance was entirely personal, to be negotiated and won over rather than taken for granted.”
ARGUMENT: Afghanistan rapid collapseHow the Taliban Exploited Afghanistan’s Human Geography
The Taliban managed to seize power so quickly because it used Afghanistan’s human geography to exploit that state’s fragility: The country’s low population density empowers fast-moving and cohesive attackers, for which the poorly trained, disorganized, corrupt, and unmotivated Afghani army was no match. Alec Worsnop writes that, still, the evacuation could have been made safer and more orderly if a small Western contingent with air support would have been left behind to hold the Taliban at bay for a few more weeks — but this would only have delayed the inevitable: “Leaving a limited outside force in place, without significant reinforcement, could not have prevented an inevitable Taliban takeover within a matter of months,” he writes. “There were few prospects for long-term stability without a notably larger foreign troop presence.”
PERSPECTIVE: Aborted plotThe Tel Aviv Plot
Recently declassified information from the first-ever interrogation of someone presumed to be a senior al-Qaeda operative captured after 9/11 provides new insights into Osama bin Laden’s plans for a follow-up attack to Sept. 11. Bruce Riedel writes that, specifically, bin Laden was plotting a major attack in Israel. The attack was thwarted at the last minute, but information about it has been classified until now.
ARGUMENT: Nuclear threshold stateIrreversible: Iran’s Nukes
In 2018 the Trump administration withdrew from the nuclear deal with Iran, which the Obama administration had signed in 2015. David Albright and Sarah Burkhard of Institute for Science and International Security write that Iran’s nuclear capabilities now greatly exceed their status in early 2016, when the nuclear deal was implemented. Iran’s breakout time, namely the time needed to produce enough weapon-grade uranium for a single nuclear weapon or explosive device, is on order of one month, which was Iran’s breakout time in late 2014, before the nuclear deal was signed.
Social networksUsing Social Network Analysis to disarticulate criminal networks
Finding the broken link in the criminal networks that bind economies and societies is a gigantic task that often leads the investigative actions of the police and judiciary up a blind alley. the advancements in the field of information technology and data analysis may be used to effectively deal with organized crime, terrorist groups, and street gangs.
Hurricane IdaA Preview of What’s to Come: Climate Change Helped Intensify Hurricane Ida
Hurricane Ida started as a disturbance in the Atlantic Ocean quickly grew to what could be the worst hurricane to hit Louisiana since Hurricane Katrina in 2005. While scientists are uncertain whether climate change will increase the frequency of hurricanes, one thing is clear: Climate change is here, and it’s making these storms stronger and more destructive.
Radiation detectionRedesigning Radiation Monitors at U.S. Ports of Entry
Every day at ports of entry around the country, hundreds of thousands of vehicles and containers cross into the country. Since 9/11, all incoming vehicles and containers at land crossings, rail crossings, mail facilities, and shipping terminals are scanned by Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers to detect potential threats, including radiation. The time has come to replace and upgrade the aging radiation detection systems.
Vulcanic eruptionsThreat of Catastrophic Supervolcano Eruptions Ever-Present
Supervolcanoes remain active and hazardous for thousands of years after a super-eruption, prompting the need for a rethink of how these potentially catastrophic events are predicted.
ResilienceImproving Florida’s Hurricane Resilience: Alternative Fuel Vehicles, Infrastructure
When events like tropical storms or other unforeseen crises disrupt a state’s primary supply of gasoline and diesel, emergency fleet efforts can become hampered as access to fuel is restricted or completely unavailable.
Planetary securityHitting a Bullseye with Closed Eyes
Recently NASA updated its forecast of the chances that the asteroid Bennu, one of the two most hazardous known objects in our solar system, will hit Earth in the next 300 years. New calculations put the odds at 1 in 1,750, a figure slightly higher than previously thought. Two statisticians put into perspective the chances of asteroid Bennu striking Earth in next 300 years.
DronesDetecting, Identifying Small Drones in Urban Environment
DHS has awarded $750K to a Texas company to develop a detection and tracking sensor system that can identify nefarious small unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) in an urban environment.
FloodsScience’s Answers to Flood Disaster
On 14 July 2021, between 60 and 180 mm of rain fell in the Eifel region in just 22 hours - an amount that would otherwise have fallen in several months and which led to catastrophic flooding. The events were far more destructive than existing models had predicted.
