Our picksDHS Twenty Years after 9/11 | Ttribalism & Domestic Terrorism | Hardening the Grid, and more

Congress Is Warning That the Federal Government Remains Vulnerable to Cyberattacks  (Dan Lipps, Lawfare)
Over the past year, Russia and the People’s Republic of China conducted successful cyber espionage campaigns against federal agencies, compromising some of the United States’ most sensitive information.
The American public may wonder why federal networks remain vulnerable to serious data breaches despite the government spending billions on cybersecurity programs. But new reports from key congressional committees reveal lawmakers’ apparent concerns that the Department of Homeland Security’s key cybersecurity technologies are insufficient to guard against nation-state attacks.

Hyper-Ttribalism and the U.S. Domestic Terrorism Threat  (Christopher P. Costa, Atlantic Council)
After the January 6, 2021, breach of the US Capitol, the consequences of polarization, disinformation, and hyper-tribalism make domestic political violence the most pressing terrorism challenge facing US counterterrorism practitioners in the near term. Just as the United States absorbed the lessons from the September 11, 2001, attacks by foreign terrorists, it must now implement a strategic approach to an emerging domestic terrorism threat. Politicizing this threat risks the unintended consequences of needlessly alienating or even radicalizing more Americans. In the months and years ahead, counterterrorism practitioners and policy makers will need to confront domestic terrorism—which is fundamentally political, as is all terrorism by definition—but must do so with an approach that is fundamentally apolitical. The newly published National Strategy for Countering Domestic Terrorism is a good start, but only as a point of departure. 

DHS Twenty Years after 9/11: Looking Back and Looking Ahead  (Joseph I. Liberman, Brookings Institution)
Twenty years after the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, the establishment of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) looks like one of the most important and effective government responses to the traumatic events of that day. While DHS has faced its share of challenges over the past two decades, the United States is much more secure today because it is there. We have not had another terrorist attack on our homeland as large and deadly as 9/11, and most smaller attempts have been stopped.

The Department of Homeland Security’s Creators Promised Efficiency. They Delivered Disaster.  (Christian Britschagi, Reason)
The consolidation of numerous unrelated government agencies within a single department has led to decades of waste, mismanagement, and terrible abuses of authority.

DHS Makes Awards in $3 Billion Financial Systems Software BPA  (Adam Mazmanian, FCW)
The Department of Homeland Security named three contractors to a $3 billion blanket purchase agreement to supply financial management software across the highly federated agency in an effort to unify its disparate financial systems.

Boundless Report Details How 9/11 Changed the U.S. Immigration System, Travel, and American Sentiment  (Boundless)
Comprehensive data looks at immigration policy before 9/11 and the impact on education, refugees, North American border crossings and visa programs 20 years later

A Weapons of Mass Destruction Strategy for the 21st Century - War on the Rocks  (Al Mauroni et al., War on the Rocks)
The last time the U.S. government published a national strategy for countering weapons of mass destruction (WMD), Saddam Hussein was still ruling Iraq, North Korea’s Kim Jong-un was a teenager, and Xi Jinping was governing a Chinese province. The White House and the Kremlin were also talking about “acting as partners and friends in meeting the new challenges of the 21st century.” The world has changed greatly over the past twenty years, and ideally, so should national security strategies.

Hardening the Grid  (Lorraine Woellert, Politico)
The infrastructure bill now before Congress includes $73 billion to improve the grid. But riskier wildfires, floods and storms mean that building resilience into the electrical system is pricier than ever and the money might not be enough.