History of China’s Biohazard Accidents | Autonomous Drones Kill Soldiers | Space as Critical Infrastructure, and more

‘They Are Hair on Fire’: Biden Administration Mulls Cyberattacks against Russian Hackers  (Ken Dilanian, NBC News)
The Biden administration is moving to treat ransomware attacks as a national security threat, using intelligence agencies to spy on foreign criminals and contemplating offensive cyber operations against hackers inside Russia, U.S. officials and other sources familiar with the matter said. Although using the military to take action against criminals wouldn’t be without precedent, it’s controversial in legal circles, and any American cyber action against targets in Russia would risk retaliation. But officials say criminal ransomware attacks from abroad, once a nuisance, have become a major source of economic damage, as the disruption of gasoline and meat supplies in recent weeks has illustrated. “Right now, they are hair on fire,” a former government official said of the Biden administration. In an example of the new approach, the White House was unusually quick to point the finger at Russia for harboring the attackers, just one day after officials learned of the ransomware strike on the meat processor JBS. It’s extremely unusual for a White House to publicly call out a foreign adversary over a single ransomware attack.

U.S. Announces Bounty on Al Qaeda Chief in North Africa  (Bryan Harris, The National)
The US on Wednesday placed a bounty of up to $7 million on the leader of Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, the organization’s North Africa branch. The State Department’s Rewards for Justice program announced that it would offer the money “for information leading to the location or identification of Abu Ubaydah Yusef Al Anabi”. Mr Al Anabi, an Algerian citizen, previously led Aqim’s media and propaganda operations but became the leader of the group last year after French troops killed his predecessor, Abdelmalek Droukdel, in Mali.  While most of the group’s fighters are engaged in ground combat in Mali, he and many of the organization’s leaders are thought to be based in Algeria. Washington first designated Aqim’s predecessor organization, the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat, a terrorist entity in 2001. The group rebranded and pledged allegiance to Al Qaeda’s global network in 2006.

House Bill Would Designate Space as Critical Infrastructure  (Jeff Foust, Space News)
A new House bill would classify space as a critical infrastructure and require the federal government to establish guidelines to protect it.
The Space Infrastructure Act, to be introduced June 4 by Reps. Ted Lieu (D-Calif.) and Ken Calvert (R-Calif.), would add space systems to the 16 sectors currently classified as critical infrastructure by the Department of Homeland Security. The bill would direct the department and other agencies to develop guidance on how to protect it.
Under the bill, space infrastructure would include spacecraft and launch vehicles, space-related terrestrial systems and launch infrastructure, related production facilities and information technology systems.

A Short History of China’s Biohazard Accidents — before COVID-19  (Jim Geraghty, National Review)
With suspicions growing over a possible lab leak tied to the coronavirus pandemic, China’s startling lab-safety record merits close examination.

Germany Sees Increase of Hezbollah Supporters and Members – Intel  (Benjamin Weinthal, Jerusalem Post)
The Office for the Protection of the Constitution, the domestic intelligence agency for the German state of Lower Saxony, revealed on Thursday in its new report a dramatic increase of the number of members and supporters of the Lebanese terrorist organization Hezbollah. According to the German language intelligence report reviewed by The Jerusalem Post, the number of supporters and members rose from 1,050 in 2019 to 1,250 in 2020. There are about 180 Hezbollah members and supporters in the state of Lower Saxony, an increase of 20 members from 160 in 2019. Lower Saxony’s Office for the Protection of the Constitution, the formal name for its domestic intelligence agency, wrote that “Hezbollah denies the right of the state of Israel to exist and fights it with terrorist means. In Germany the followers of Hezbollah maintain organizational and ideological cohesion, among other things, in local mosque associations, which are primarily financed by donations.” The report added that “For the Shi’ite community, ‘Hezbollah,’ founded with the help of the Islamic Republic of Iran, demands the application of the Islamic legal system of Sharia.

London Bridge Attack: U.K. Should Tackle Radicalization Seriously  (Dhaka Tribune)
The Counter Extremism Project has asked the UK government to take the risk of extremists seriously and to tackle radicalization both online and on the ground. A New York-based non-profit non-governmental organization that combats extremist groups, the CEP made the statement on Thursday on the fourth anniversary of the London Bridge attack. On June 3, 2017, three Islamist terrorists drove a van into pedestrians on London Bridge and proceeded to stab people in the nearby area, taking the lives of eight and injuring almost 50 others.  The suspected ringleader, Khuram Butt, was a member of the banned extremist group al-Muhajiroun, then led by the internationally-designated Islamist cleric and convicted ISIS supporter, Anjem Choudary. According to a friend, Butt was radicalized by watching YouTube videos posted by US hate preacher Ahmad Musa Jibril, who produced online lectures that praised jihad and reportedly influenced many Westerners to fight in the Syrian conflict. Butt had twice been cautioned by the police and had been investigated by MI5 for his extremist connections. David Ibsen, executive director of the CEP, said: “The anniversary of this attack comes as the inquest of Usman Khan, the terrorist responsible for the 2019 London Bridge attack, has reached its final conclusions.

Can Rockets Deliver Supplies to War Zones? Space Force, Air Force Aim to Find Out  (Tara Copp, Defense One)

A research lab will see whether reusable boosters can deliver up to a C-17s’ worth of cargo to terrestrial destinations.

Government, Industry Scramble to Prioritize Ransomware amid Fallout from Pipeline, JBS Breaches  (Tim Starks, Cyberscoop)
Three weeks ago, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce — the most powerful business lobby in the country — called on the federal government to take several steps to combat ransomware.
This week, the White House’s deputy national security adviser penned a letter to industry … urging them to take several steps to combat ransomware.
Those are two of the latest moves in a long dance between the feds and private sector over cybersecurity, with a tempo that has hastened considerably since the Colonial Pipeline ransomware attack. Even as both sides say the respective calls for action on ransomware in the oft-hailed “public-private partnership” are well-received, they’re redoubling their messages to each other. As the ransomware challenge looms increasingly large and has proven difficult to wrestle, two of the largest players are trying to find their footing.

How to Negotiate with Ransomware Hackers  (Rachel Monroe, New Yorker)
Kurtis Minder finds the cat-and-mouse energy of outsmarting criminal syndicates deeply satisfying.

Autonomous Drone Attacked Soldiers in Libya All on Its Own  (Daniel Van Boom, C|net)
The fear of killer robots is as old as robots themselves — thinkers like Elon Musk and Sam Harris have long argued that AI poses a serious threat to human civilization. But if you’re at all panicked about AI or robots, a new UN report may add to your anxiety, as it explains that a drone attacked (and possibly killed) soldiers all on its own.