-
Energy SecurityIs Russia Using Energy as a Weapon Again?
Europe is experiencing energy turmoil, with spot prices for natural gas surging in the past month to levels five times those of a year ago. Putin and Gazprom didn’t create Europe’s new gas crisis, but they are happy to exploit it.
-
-
CybersecurityHackers-for-Hire Drive Evolution of Threat Landscape
Cybersecurity threats are on the rise. The new edition of the ENISA Threat Landscape (ETL) highlights the surge in cybercriminality motivated by monetization using ransomware or cryptojacking. Supply-chains attacks also rank highly among prime threats because of the significant potential they have in inducing catastrophic cascading effects.
-
-
2021 State of ClimateExtreme Events and Major Impacts
In a sobering new report, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) says that record atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations and associated accumulated heat have propelled the planet into uncharted territory, with far-reaching repercussions for current and future generations
-
-
Climate & SecurityDHS Strategic Framework for Addressing Climate Change
Two weeks ago, the Biden administration released four reports, by DHS, the intelligence community, the Department of Defense, and the National Security Council, on how climate change-driven developments — among them: worsening conflict within and between nations; increased dislocation and migration as people flee climate-fueled instability; heightened military tension and uncertainty; infrastructure destruction; worsening public health; food and water shortages; financial hazards, and more – are posing an increasingly more serious challenge to global stability and to U.S. national security.
-
-
Truth DecayThe Three Horsemen of Cyber Risks: Misinformation, Disinformation, and Fake News
The risks associated with misleading information can have a profoundly negative impact – from eroding trust in democracy to threatening public health by spreading anti-science conspiracies. But how do organizations prepare against such threats? A new study aims to provide recommendations on responding to the new digital age challenges.
-
-
PandemicsModeling Improvements Promise Increased Accuracy of Epidemic Forecasting
Accurate forecasting of epidemic scenarios is critical to implementing effective public health intervention policies. Much progress has been made in predicting the general magnitude and timing of epidemics, but there is still room for improvement in forecasting peak times.
-
-
TornadosUsing Overpasses as Shelter from Tornado Is Unsafe
Contrary to popular belief, waiting out a tornado under an overpass is not safe. Experts say that doing so could actually increase the risk of death, in part because the wind from a tornado is thought to accelerate as it flows under the overpass, in what’s known as the wind tunnel effect.
-
-
Planetary SecurityWaste of Space: A Proactive Approach to Removing Space Junk
There are more than 27,000 pieces of space debris bigger than the size of a softball currently orbiting Earth, and they are traveling at speeds of up to 17,500 mph, fast enough for a small chunk to damage a satellite or spacecraft like an intergalactic cannonball. Cleaning up this space junk will be an important task if agencies are to shoot more rockets and satellites into orbit.
-
-
Our Picks5G Cloud Infrastructures Security | Supply Chain Crisis | Migrant Protection Protocols, and more
· The International Order Isn’t Ready for the Climate Crisis
· NSA and CISA Provide Cybersecurity Guidance for 5G Cloud Infrastructures
· Termination of the Migrant Protection Protocols
· Josh Hawley Wants to Make the Supply Chain Crisis Permanent
· Left Behind After U.S. Withdrawal, Some Former Afghan Spies and Soldiers Turn to Islamic State
· ‘There Will Be a Next Time’: Anti-Hate Groups Warn More Radicals Like Patrik Mathews Are Out There
· Police Warn of Threat of Pre-Christmas Terror Attacks in London
· CISA Wants to Identify the Most Vulnerable Critical Infrastructure
-
-
Border SecurityOfficial Reject Claims of Terrorists Infiltrating U.S. From Mexico
DHS Counterterrorism Coordinator said that fears the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan could reinvigorate terror groups like al-Qaida and Islamic State, and lead to a surge of attempted infiltrations along the southern U.S. border, have not been realized. “It is just factually inaccurate to frame the southern border as a place where we are seeing a significant number of al-Qaida or ISIS-related terrorists or foreign terrorists,” he said.
-
-
VaccinesLess than a Third of U.S. Parents Eager to Vaccinate Young Kids Against COVID-19
The latest poll from the Kaiser Family Foundation found that only 27 percent of parents said they were eager to get their young children vaccinated against COVID-19. Thirty percent said they would definitely not get their child vaccinated, and 33 percent said they would take a wait-and-see approach.
-
-
BiosecurityImproving Safety in Labs Dealing with Lethal Viruses
Biosafety-Level (BSL) 4 laboratories undertake hazardous research into lethal viruses to improve our understanding of diseases such as Ebola and Lassa Fever and to better prepare the world against new and emerging diseases. But these activities pose significant risks. Surges in the number of labs and an expansion in the high-risk research carried out within them have exacerbated safety and security risks.
-
-
BiosecurityPromise and Peril: Dual-Use Research in the Life Sciences
Advances in the life sciences and technology are making important contributions to improving global health. Transformative developments in many fields, however, can also pose risks to global health. It is thus only prudent to assess the potential adverse consequences of choosing particular technological pathways and potentially deleterious applications of technologies.
-
-
RansomwareTargeted: Masterminds of Global Ransomware Attacks Against Critical Infrastructure
Twelve individuals who were wreaking havoc across the world with ransomware attacks against critical infrastructure have been targeted as the result of a law enforcement and judicial operation involving eight countries.
-
-
Quantum TechnologyCommercial and Military Applications for Quantum Technology
Most of the quantum technologies are still in the laboratory, but we may see quantum-based applications within the next few years. China currently leads the world in the development of quantum communication, while the United States leads in the development of quantum computing.
-
-
Water SecurityManaging Water Resources in a Low-to-No-Snow Future
With mountain snowpacks shrinking in the western U.S., a new Lab study analyzes when a low-to-no-snow future might arrive and implications for water management.
-
-
Our PicksChinese Military to Surpass US, Russia | Encryption and Online Safety | No Time to Die, and more
· U.S. Lawmakers Vote to Tighten Restrictions on Huawei, ZTE
· Chinese Military on Target to Surpass US, Russia
· No Time to Die: An In-Depth Analysis of James Bond’s Exposure to Infectious Agents
· 2 Neo-Nazi Group Members Sentenced to 9 Years in Prison
· Senators Examine How Social Media Amplifies Extremism
· Why Encryption and Online Safety Go Hand-in-Hand
· New Activity from Russian Actor Nobelium
· State Department to Form New Cyber Office to Face Proliferating Global Challenges
· FBI, Others Crush REvil Using Ransomware Gang’s Favorite Tactic Against It
· Britain Wants to Use Its New Cyber Command to ‘Hunt’ Ransomware Gangs
-
-
Hypersonic WeaponsChina Hypersonic Test “Has All of Our Attention”: Gen. Milley
A July test by China of a hypersonic weapons system is an indication that China’s efforts to surpass the United States as the world’s foremost military power are making significant progress, military experts say. The test took U.S. intelligence officials by surprise.
-
-
Hypersonic WeaponsCan U.S. Missile-Defense Systems Handle China’s New Missiles?
A hypersonic glide vehicle, possibly with a fractional orbital bombardment system (FOBS), would enable the Chinese to circumvent existing and likely planned U.S. missile-defense and early warning systems. They would go through the back door, rather than try to bash down the defended and watched front door.
-
-
BiosecurityExamining the Practically Nonfunctional Federal Biowatch Program
The Bipartisan Commission on Biodefense’s new report addresses inadequacies of BioWatch, the DHS environmental biodetection program. The report, released on the 20th anniversary of the anthrax attacks, shows that BioWatch system remains ineffective after nearly two decades of operation.
-
-
Border SecurityNorthern Skies Provide the Backdrop for Testing Border Security Tech
The purpose of demonstrations and tests recently conducted in Montana North Dakota was to evaluate specialized air domain awareness technologies such as radar systems; electro-optical and infrared cameras; radio frequency detection systems; and acoustic devices to see how effectively each can monitor, safeguard, and secure the various terrains and airspace that surround the northern border between the U.S. and Canada.
-
-
WildfiresHarnessing Science and Technology for Battling Wildfires
Catastrophic wildfires in Europe have become a far too common headline and this year has been no exception as the world once again bore witness to parts of the continent burning. While southern Europe is no stranger to the devastation and loss they leave in their wake, countries in central and northern Europe – areas that were previously not prone to wildfires – are now also experiencing them. Harnessing science and technology, researchers are proving that there is more than one way to fight and respond to fire.
-
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.
