The Cyber Monoculture Risk | Rethinking DHS | Risk of Declining China, and more

One such contributor is the author of The Movementarian Menace, Vincent Snyder, whose real name, the American Futurist notes, is John Cameron Denton. Denton, himself the former leader of Atomwaffen Division, was sentenced to 41 months in prison in May for taking part in a conspiracy that involved hate crimes targeting a historic African American church, an Islamic Center, and various other minority groups across the United States. American Futurist states that all proceeds from the sale of Denton’s book on Amazon will go to his “prison commissary fund.” As Amazon has already purchased the books as part of its inventory, the company has already contributed directly to Denton.

U.S. Plans to Keep Al-Qaeda in Check in Afghanistan with Air Strikes  (Sylvie Lanrteaume, Yahoo News)
The Pentagon plans to rely on air strikes to prevent a resurgence of Al-Qaeda now that US troops have left Afghanistan, but experts and some lawmakers are skeptical about the effectiveness of the so-called “over-the-horizon” strategy. Announcing the complete withdrawal of US troops in April, President Joe Biden vowed he would not allow a comeback of Al-Qaeda in Afghanistan, where Osama bin Laden hatched the September 11, 2001, attacks on New York and Washington. Since then, the Pentagon has repeatedly claimed it is capable of keeping Al-Qaeda and Islamic State (IS) militants in Afghanistan in check through “over-the-horizon” strikes from US bases or aircraft carriers. “Over-the-horizon operations are difficult but absolutely possible,” Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin told the House Armed Services Committee on Wednesday. “And intelligence that supports them comes from a variety of sources, and not just US boots on the ground.” Austin’s remarks came about two weeks after the Pentagon chief was forced to apologize to the relatives of civilians killed in an August 29 drone strike in Kabul. The target of the drone strike was suspected IS militants but it ended up killing 10 civilians, including seven children, in what Austin called a “horrible mistake.

U.S. Military Concedes It’s Unready to Fight Terrorism From ‘Over the Horizon’  (Michael Hirsh, Foreign Policy)
Centcom will be flying blind for years in Afghanistan—and likely missing terrorists while killing innocents, experts say.

DHS Releases Priority-Based Immigration Enforcement Guidelines  (Priscilla Alvarez and Geneva Sands, CNN)
The Department of Homeland Security on Thursday released guidelines about who is to be prioritized for immigration enforcement, following up on a set of interim guidance released early in the Biden administration.
The department is returning to Obama-era immigration enforcement measures based on a priority system instead of the more aggressive approach taken under the Trump administration. That approach, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas argues, takes into account the department’s limited resources and the fact that a “removable noncitizen should not alone be the basis of an enforcement action against them.”

Hackers Posed as Amnesty International, Promising Anti-Spyware Tool that Actually Collects Passwords  (Tonya Riley, Cyberscoop)
Fraudsters are posing as human rights group Amnesty International to trick individuals into downloading malicious software, researchers at Cisco’s threat intelligence unit Talos report.

Oath Keepers Panicked That the Left Would ‘Decapitate’ Them After Failed Capitol Putsch  (Kelly Weill, Daily Beast)
Emails from Oath Keepers leader Stuart Rhodes show extreme paranoia after the Capitol riot, including fears that Joe Biden would cut the U.S. power grid.

The Cyber Monoculture Risk  (Paul Rosenzweig, Lawfare)
Monoculture risk is manageable for most systems, but that isn’t the case for government systems. For these systems, monoculture vulnerability is a national security risk.