OUR PICKS THIS WEEKNew Age of Bioterror | Managing Cyber Risk | The Case for the Nuclear Deterrent, and more

Published 1 May 2022

Extremism & Terrorism

·  Mayorkas Promises Congress Data on Cases of Terror Watchlist Individuals Arrested at Border

·  A New Age of Bioterror: Anticipating Exploitation of Tunable Viral Agents

·  Islamic State ‘Beatle’ Sentenced to Life for Murdering US Hostages

·  Documents Reveal Bin Laden’s Bid for American Support

·  UK Neo-Nazi, 19, Sentenced for Inciting Terrorism Against Jews

·  Canadian Military Not Doing Enough to Detect, Prevent Extremism in the Ranks: Report

·  Peekskill Man Who Identifies as an “Incel” or “Involuntary Celibate” Is Sentenced to 30 Months in Prison for Stalking, Threatening, and Harassing Multiple Victims

·  Pacific Northwest Environmental Extremist and Arsonist Pleads Guilty

·  Peace Tribunal Identifies 4,600 Killings of Colombian Leftists

·  U.S. Is Taking “a Close Look” at Whether to Label Russia a State Sponsor of Terrorism

More Picks

·  The Backlash to DHS’s Anti-Disinformation Board Shows How U.S. Law Is Falling Behind the Problem

·  The Uproar over Homeland Security’s Disinformation Governance Board

·  The Case for the Nuclear Deterrent Is Clearer than Ever

·  What Have US Special Operators Learned from the Ukraine War?

·  Feared Russian Cyberattacks Against U.S. Have Yet to Materialize

·  5 Ways to Better Protect Vulnerable Mass Transit

·  The Army Wants to Change How It Manages Cyber Risk

·  Feds Seek Nearly $3M from Manafort Over Undisclosed Accounts

·  Threat of Russian Chemical Weapons is ‘Wake-up Call’ on WMDs

·  The Urgent Need for an Overhaul of Global Biorisk Management

·  Biosecurity in an Age of Open Science

·  China’s Biomedical Data Hacking Threat: Applying Big Data Isn’t as Easy as It Seems

·  War amid a Pandemic: The Public Health Consequences of Russia’s Invasion of Ukraine

·  AI Drug Discovery Systems Might Be Repurposed to Make Chemical Weapons, Researchers Warn

·  How Many Nuclear Weapons Does Russia Have in 2022?

·  Four Unanswered Questions About the Intersection of War and Nuclear Power

·  How Emerging Technology Is Breaking Arms Control

·  Ransomware Attacks on Agricultural Cooperatives Potentially Timed to Critical Seasons

·  US Supreme Court Weighs Policy for Migrants to Wait in Mexico

·  “Hack DHS” Program Successfully Concludes First Bug Bounty Program

·  AI Is Already Learning from Russia’s War in Ukraine, DOD Says

·  How Facial Recognition Software Is Changing the War in Ukraine

·  Countering Weapons of Mass Destruction: DHS Could Improve Its Acquisition of Key Technology and Coordination with Partners

·  The Next Cybersecurity Crisis: Poisoned AI

Extremism & Terrorism

Mayorkas Promises Congress Data on Cases of Terror Watchlist Individuals Arrested at Border (Bridget Johnson, HSToday)
This fiscal year, OFO has reported 35 TSDB encounters at the southwest border and 96 at the northern border; Border Patrol reported 27 encounters in the south.

A New Age of Bioterror: Anticipating Exploitation of Tunable Viral Agents  (Stephen Hummel et al., CTC Sentinel)
Advances in technology, particularly biotechnology, over the past decade have dramatically changed the world. Scientists are employing gene editing tools to cure genetic diseases, reduce the effects of climate change, and generate sustainable food sources. These same tools, however, can be used to modify pathogens to develop and deploy novel biological weapons. The nature of these tools and our understanding of specific viral genomes makes this process tunable. Components of a disease such as transmissibility, lethality, and the infectious window can potentially be modified for desired tactical, operational, or strategic effects. While this capability is currently beyond the skills and knowledge of the biology enthusiast, a trained individual would possess such skills and knowledge, though they may lack the necessary material and infrastructure support. Hence, it is necessary to develop and maintain capabilities that can respond to a variety of pathogens and possible effects.

Islamic State ‘Beatle’ Sentenced to Life for Murdering US Hostages  (Reuters / VOA News)
A U.S. judge on Friday imposed a lifetime prison sentence on a member of an Islamic State militant group nicknamed “The Beatles” that beheaded American hostages, at a hearing where one victim’s mother told the defendant, “I will not hate you.”
U.S. District Judge T.S. Ellis in Alexandria, Virginia, held an emotionally charged sentencing hearing for London-born Alexanda Kotey, 38, who pleaded guilty to murdering U.S. journalists James Foley and Steven Sotloff and aid workers Kayla Mueller and Peter Kassig.