BioWatch Should Be Replaced | US Cybersecurity Has a Metrics Problem | Far-Right Extremists Training in Ukraine, and more

HSBC Refutes Terror-Financing Claim at D.C. Circuit Hearing  (Mike Scarcella, Reiters)
A federal appeals court in Washington, D.C., on Monday weighed whether to uphold the dismissal of a lawsuit that claimed HSBC Holdings Plc indirectly helped finance terror activity that killed two American contractors at a military institution in Afghanistan in 2009. The three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit at times sounded skeptical about the viability of the claim that HSBC could be held liable for certain financial transactions with Iranian banks that allegedly are connected to terror groups. “There’s a difference between alleging that there are all of these links between these entities and al Qaeda, and we can accept that,” D.C. Circuit Judge Robert Wilkins said at the hearing. “But that’s different than alleging that the defendants here knew or should have known of those particular links.” The plaintiffs’ lawyer, Randy Singer of the Virginia Beach, Virginia-based firm Singer Davis, did not immediately return a message seeking comment. The firm sued Iran and HSBC on behalf of representatives of two people killed in the suicide bombing, former Green Beret Dane Paresi and Jeremy Wise, a former Navy SEAL.

Trump’s Pentagon Chief Quashed Idea to Send 250,000 Troops to the Border  (David E. Sanger, Michael D. Shear, and Eric Schmitt, New York Times)
Top national security aides to former President Trump also talked him out of launching military raids against drug cartels inside Mexico.

Senate FY2022 Approps Bill Targets 30 Percent CISA Funding Bump  (Lamar Johnson, MeriTalk)
The Senate Appropriations Committee released nine appropriations bills for fiscal year (FY) 2022 on October 18 including a Homeland Security funding bill that would give the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) a 30 percent budget increase over FY2021 levels, to $2.638 billion.
That funding total is $218 million more than appropriated in the House of Representatives FY2022 Homeland Security appropriations bill, $504 million more than requested in President Biden’s budget, and $613 million more than appropriated for FY2021.

This Is How Russia Is Pulling Off a Free-for-All Murderous Rampage  (Philip Obaji Jr., Daily Beast)
Russia has turned the Central African Republic into a place where private mercenaries can run wild—assassinating one critic after another with no fear of accountability.

US Cybersecurity Has a Metrics Problem. Here’s How to Fix It.  (Natalie Thompson and Tasha Jhangiani, Just Security)
One of the biggest debates surrounding managing cybersecurity risks focuses on what is the best way to measure success. In other words, how do the federal government and private sector determine what works and what doesn’t when it comes to resolving cybersecurity weaknesses? While lawmakers have taken critical steps this year, it’s hard to say whether the nation’s cybersecurity is actually improving.
This speaks to a broader problem in understanding how effective cyber policy is. How do we know, for example, that the money and resources requested for departments and agencies in the wake of the SolarWinds, Microsoft Exchange, or Colonial Pipeline attacks is cost-effective? The United States has a poor understanding of the nation’s baseline cybersecurity, and little way of informing policymaking with evidence or data that demonstrates how proposed reforms would contribute to the nation’s overall level of cybersecurity. A potential Bureau of Cybersecurity Statistics (BCS) would help remedy that gap.