Disrupting Terror Groups | Sinking D.C. Landmarks | Overhaul Zoning for a Changing Climate, and more

Not only must chief information security officers secure an increasingly distributed workforce, but they now must also be wary of software code coming from reputable vendors, including the very patches designed to protect them against cyberattacks. Organizations are increasingly prioritizing zero-trust approaches, including simplified identity access management, better endpoint protection and cloud security. And while leading solutions in these sectors are gaining momentum, traditional legacy offerings are being managed down from a spending perspective.

Overhaul Zoning for a Changing Climate  (Laurie Schoeman, New York Daily News)
New York City’s floodplain is home to 55,000 rent-regulated homes, a figure that’s likely to double, if not triple, by 2050 as sea levels rise and the floodplain increases. Housing in the floodplain includes affordable housing for workforce, seniors, and families and is the foundation for community resilience and preservation.

Flooding Problems at Washington, D.C., Landmarks Likely to Get Worse  (Yale Climate Connections)
Global warming is driving intensifying rainstorms and rising seas.

Dealing with the Future Threat of Rising Seas  (Brunswick News)
When it comes to bracing for rising seas in Georgia, move Tybee Island to the head of the class. It’s wasting no time putting up defenses, and its saving property owners a bundle in the process.
“We believe our sea level rise adaptation plan was the first sea level rise study in all of Georgia,” Alan Roberson with Coastal Resiliency said. “We implemented most if not all of the recommendations.”
Tybee Island has had a sea level rise adaptation plan in place since 2016, Roberson said.

Yellen Warns ‘Misuse’ of Cryptocurrencies in Terrorism a ‘Growing Problem’  (Megan Henney, Fox News)
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen warned about an “explosion of risk” from digital markets, including the misuse of cryptocurrencies that can be used to launder to profits of online drug traffickers and to finance terrorism. “We’re living amidst an explosion of risk related to fraud, money laundering, terrorist financing, and data privacy,” Yellen said in opening remarks at the Treasury’s innovation policy roundtable released on Wednesday evening. “As the pandemic has moved more of life online, crime has moved with it. We’re seeing more – and more sophisticated – cyberattacks aimed at institutions that hold up our society: hospitals, schools, banks, and even our government.” While the former Federal Reserve chairwoman said there’s promise in the technology, she also called the “misuse of cryptocurrencies” a “growing problem.” “I also see the reality: cryptocurrencies have been used to launder the profits of online drug traffickers; they’ve been a tool to finance terrorism,” she said. “From my time at the Fed, I know the crucial role your institutions play in combating crimes like these. The private sector invests enormous resources, finding ways to stop bad actors from misusing existing technologies. You also develop new ones.

The Powers Being Used to Disrupt a Terror Group  (Daniel De Simone, BBC)
Two members of the banned group al-Muhajiroun have lost an appeal against counter terrorism measures used by the government to limit their activities. The BBC has investigated how the measures are being employed to disrupt the organisation’s leadership. At the High Court, listening to evidence about a notorious terrorist organisation, you don’t expect to hear about Legoland. But the efforts to control leading members of the banned group al-Muhajiroun (ALM), revealed during hearings at the Court of Appeal, were occasionally surreal. The hearing was told that one man’s request to visit the theme park with his children was refused as he might have used the “trip to Legoland as cover” to meet other extremists. Home Office officials, taking advice from MI5, concluded being at Legoland could have enabled the man to “engage in terrorism-related activity by promoting ALM’s extremist ideology and encouraging others to engage in terrorism-related activity”. Details of the decision were contained in evidence seen by BBC News that reveals how Britain’s security services are combating the leadership of ALM, a group which has been linked to multiple attacks and plots in the UK and abroad.

Violent Propaganda an ‘Enormous Challenge’ for Security Agencies amid Rising Rightwing Threat – Report  (Daniel Hurst, Guardian)
The use of social media to spread propaganda that glorifies indiscriminate violence poses an “enormous ongoing challenge” for Australia’s security agencies, amid a rapid expansion of extreme rightwing material, a new report says. The Independent National Security Legislation Monitor’s annual report has provided an insight into the “evolving” threat of terrorism in Australia, noting that both Islamist and rightwing extremists have increased their propagandising efforts during the Covid-19 pandemic. The report flagged a forthcoming review of Australia’s espionage and foreign interference laws and said the independent security monitor was wrestling with complicated questions of how to investigate concerns about secrecy in national security-related court cases. Grant Donaldson SC, a former solicitor general of Western Australia who was appointed to the independent monitoring role last year, noted the terrorist threat level remained at “probable” but the nature of the challenge continued to change. Donaldson informed parliament, in the report tabled late on Thursday, that Australian security agencies continued to pursue a large number of high-priority investigations, mainly concerning Islamist extremists.

YouTube Continues to Push Dangerous Videos to Users Susceptible to Extremism, White Supremacy, Report Finds  (Will Carless and Jessica Guynn, USA Today)
Google’s YouTube is still recommending extremist and white supremacist videos to viewers already susceptible to racial hatred, a new report found. Though the nation’s most popular social media platform has removed large amounts of extremist content under political pressure, exposure to harmful videos is still common, and users who view extremist videos are still being recommended new clips in the same vein, according to a national study from the  Anti-Defamation League  (ADL) released Friday, an advance copy of which was shared exclusively with USA TODAY. One in 10 study participants viewed at least one video from an extremist channel, and 2 in 10 viewed at least one video from an “alternative” channel, according to the study, which examined the viewing habits of 915 respondents. The study’s authors defined extremist and alternative by drawing from published research on online radicalization.  The mainculprit? YouTube’s recommendation algorithm. When users watched these videos, they were more likely to see and follow recommendations to similar videos, the study found.