The Gamification of Violent Extremism | Is LaMDA Sentient? | How Did Guns Get So Powerful?, and more

Buffalo Shooting Suspect Said He Carried Out Attack ‘For the Future of the White Race,’ Federal Complaint Says  (inyvonne Burke, NBC News)
The white man accused of fatally shooting 10 Black people in a racist attack at a Buffalo, New York, grocery store wrote an apology note to his family and said he carried out the attack “for the future of the White race,” according to a federal criminal complaint. The handwritten note was discovered in the bedroom of Payton Gendron a day after the May 14 shooting at Tops Friendly Market left 10 people dead and three wounded — 11 of whom are Black and two white. Gendron, 18, was arrested at the store and faces 26 federal counts of hate crimes and firearms offenses, the Department of Justice announced Wednesday. He has already been indicted on 25 state criminal counts that include murder and attempted murder as a hate crime and weapons possession. In his note, he “apologized to his family for committing ‘this attack’ and stated that he ‘had to commit this attack’ because he cares ‘for the future of the White race,’” according to a criminal complaint filed in U.S. District Court in the Western District of New York. The FBI found the note after executing a federal search warrant at his Conklin, New York, home. Also discovered during the search was a receipt for a candy bar purchased at Tops on March 8 as well as what appears to be handwritten sketches of the interior layout of the store, according to the complaint.

15 People on Terror Watch List Were Captured Sneaking Across the Southern Border in May  (Stephen Dinan, Washington Times)
Border Patrol agents nabbed 15 people at the southern border in May who were on the FBI’s terrorist screening database, showing the free-for-all along the U.S.-Mexico boundary is unabated. The number of people on the terrorist watch list caught crossing the border is a record for any month, equaling all of 2021 and more than the Border Patrol found from 2017 to 2020 combined. They were among nearly 240,000 total border jumpers Customs and Border Protection nabbed in May, marking the worst month on record for the Biden administration. Beneath those numbers is something worse. CBP had nearly 12,000 people in custody on any given day but ousted less than half of the illegal immigrants it encountered. The rest were either released outright at the border or transferred to other agencies, most of which would release them. The most worrying categories of migrants — unaccompanied juveniles and people traveling as families — also showed significant increases. The number of seizures, like the arrests of migrants, is considered a rough yardstick of the overall flow. So the drop in drug seizures likely means fewer drugs are getting through the border undetected. The rise in the number of migrants, including suspected terrorists, means more are probably getting through.

Counterterrorism Researchers Say They Lack the Data to Prevent Future Violence  (Rachel Martin and Odette Yousef. NPR)
A year ago, the Biden administration launched a national plan to counter domestic terrorism. But are federal agencies hampering anti-terrorism efforts by failing to report basic data?

What We Know About Patriot Front  (Brad Dress, The Hill)
Alex Fields, who killed a counterprotester after driving his car into the crowd and was later sentenced to life in prison, was seen wearing a Vanguard America uniform during the rally, according to the Counter Extremism Project. Vanguard America denied he was a member of the group. Thomas Ryan Rousseau, the leader of Vanguard America’s Texas chapter, founded Patriot Front after internal disagreements with the older organization. According to a Discord post reviewed by the Southern Poverty Law Center, Rousseau announced he was forming Patriot Front because of Vanguard America’s “unwillingness to meet any semblance of a compromise” but said he would focus on similar goals under a new brand and name that represents “original American patriots.” “The word patriot itself comes from the same root as paternal and patriarch. It means loyalty to something intrinsically based in blood,” he wrote. Traditional garb for members includes a dark blue shirt, a white bandana stretched over the face and a brown baseball cap, making them easily identifiable. Patriot Front’s insignia is the fasces, a bundle of sticks with an axe inserted inside (with the head poking out) encircled by 13 stars, similar to those on the American flag. The fasces symbol dates back to the Roman Empire, which used the imagery to represent authority and power.

Afghanistan’s Warlords Prepare Their Comeback  (Lynne O’Donnell, Foreign Policy)
Exiled warlords, power brokers, and ethnic leaders who fled Afghanistan last year ahead of the Taliban’s victory are threatening civil war unless the Islamists start negotiating to let them return home and reclaim their power and authority as an alternative to the nihilistic rule of the terrorists currently in charge. The band that broke Afghanistan in the early 1990s and hobbled it for years after is, in other words, getting back together. Unlike their first time around in power—right after the Soviet pullout in 1989—this time the warlords might even seem appealing, so awful is the Taliban regime that took over in August of last year. The back-to-the-future moment for the old guard came in May when 40 of the like-minded converged in the Turkish capital, Ankara, to meet with Uzbek leader Abdul Rashid Dostum and his hangers-on. Dostum, like some of his fellow warlords, used the wealth accumulated during the 20 years of the U.S.-backed Afghan republic to build his own patronage network, the coin of the realm in Afghanistan’s political landscape. At the time, Dostum and men like him supported the reconstruction effort funded by the United States and allies and encouraged education for women, including the dispatch of thousands of Afghan students abroad to stud.

Australian Police Are So Focused on Islamic Terrorist Threats They Are Failing to Monitor Growing Risks from Far-Right Extremism, Inquiry Hears  (Callum Godde, Daily Mail)
A ‘myopic’ focus on Islamist extremism in Australia since the September 11 attacks has come at the expense of monitoring the far-right groups, a parliamentary inquiry has been told. Liberty Victoria President Michael Stanton has acknowledged the recent emergence of far-right extremism in the state, citing neo-Nazis gathering in the Grampians and gallows erected outside state parliament as pandemic legislation was debated last year. He told an inquiry on Tuesday that far-right extremism is real but argued Victorian politicians need to be careful not to blindly expand executive powers, surveillance and censorship to combat its influence. ‘We need to make sure that in responding to those confronting scenes in the Grampians - whether it be Nazi salutes or display of the swastika - or the erection of gallows outside parliament, that we do not have a legislative response that throws the baby out with the bathwater,’ Mr Stanton said. ‘Sometimes that involves tolerating speech that we find offensive or humiliating.’ The barrister said Australian law enforcement agencies’ focus has been drawn away from neo-Nazis and other far-right movements over the past 20 years by Islamist extremism. Both must be addressed, Mr Stanton said, but Victoria’s parliament should not cast the net too wide with any reforms.

Neo-Nazi Group Plasters VA Hospital With White Supremacist Propaganda  (Steve Beynon, Military.com)
A far-right group peppered white supremacist messaging at a Department of Veterans Affairs hospital in Oklahoma, posting pictures to social media of a bathroom covered in racist slogans. A Wednesday post on Telegram from White Lives Matter, a group described by the Southern Poverty Law Center as a neo-Nazi group, claimed one of its members placed stickers across a VA hospital in Oklahoma City with text including “Make White Children” and “White People First.” “It was brought to our attention Thursday that inappropriate and offensive stickers may have been placed at the Oklahoma City VA Health Care System,” Terrence Hayes, a VA spokesperson, said in an email to Military.com.” After a thorough search of the campus, remnants of stickers were found. At this time, it is unknown who placed these stickers and how long they were there” he added. “This conduct is absolutely intolerable and is an affront to our personal and organizational values. VA Police is investigating this matter.” It is unclear whether the stickers were placed by a patient, a member of the hospital’s staff, or a trespasser. White Lives Matter has more than 12,000 followers on Telegram, a platform with no active moderation efforts that has frequently been used for criminal activity such as child pornography and by terror groups including the Islamic State.

Boston-Area Jewish Groups Condemn ‘Antisemitic Attack’ from the Mapping Project; FBI Tracking the Website  (Rick Sobey, Boston Herald)
Boston-area Jewish groups are sounding the alarm about a “truly vile perpetration of hate against the Jewish community” as a new pro-Palestine website puts a bullseye on local Jewish organizations, schools and others. The “Mapping Project” interactive map went live last week, naming and listing the addresses for scores of Jewish groups — including the Anti-Defamation League, Combined Jewish Philanthropies, JCRC of Greater Boston, Synagogue Council of Massachusetts, Jewish Arts Collaborative, Jewish Teen Foundation of Greater Boston, and many more. The website also targets politicians, such as Gov. Charlie Baker, U.S. Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Ed Markey, along with local governments, police departments, universities and corporations. The creator of the website is unknown, but the map has been promoted by BDS Boston — “Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions movement in the greater Boston area in solidarity with Palestine.” “Our goal in pursuing this collective mapping was to reveal the local entities and networks that enact devastation, so we can dismantle them,” the Mapping Project website states. “Every entity has an address, every network can be disrupted.” The local Jewish community and partners are now condemning this website, coming together on Monday to speak out against the targeting.

‘Incel’ Who Killed 11 in Toronto Van Murders Sentenced to Life in Prison  (Tracey Lindeman, Guardian)
A self-described “incel” who killed 11 people when he plowed a rented van into a busy Toronto sidewalk in 2018 has been sentenced to life in prison. Alek Minassian – who was motivated by a hatred of women – was convicted in March of 10 counts of first-degree murder and 16 counts of attempted murder, after a judge found that he drove a white rental van on to the sidewalk with the intent to kill. At a hearing on Monday, he was sentenced to 20 years for 15 counts of attempted murder, which are to be served concurrently. Earlier, the Toronto court heard testimony from witnesses and victims, who recounted the horror of the attack, and their struggles with PTSD in the aftermath. “My world has changed forever,” said Janet Zhang, after describing the mental suffering she still experiences after her CPR efforts to save a victim were unsuccessful. First responder Charlene Mackay told the court that she still has panic-inducing triggers and night terrors, which she manages by drinking and not eating well. “I don’t feel like he should have a normal life,” she said of Minassian. Other victims detailed the extensive and life-altering injuries they incurred during the attack, with which they continue to grapple.

The Gamification of Violent Extremism: An Empirical Exploration of the Christchurch Attack  (Suraj Lakhani, GNET)
In March 2019, New Zealand suffered one of its deadliest terrorist attacks in history. Brenton Tarrant, a 28-year-old Australian national and self-described ‘ethno-nationalist’ and ‘eco-fascist’, murdered 51 Muslim worshippers and attempted to kill 40 more, primarily at the Al Noor Mosque and Linwood Islamic Centre, before being apprehended by police reportedly on his way to a third location. He used a number of often complimentary online and offline resources and strategies, which included: a 74-page manifesto; live-streaming his attack on Facebook; and the initiation of a thread around 10–20 minutes before the commencement of the attack on the now-banned imageboard, 8chan. These outputs were littered with various culturally relevant symbols, sayings, and other indicators, including those relating to video gaming.
Although the intersection between video gaming and (violent) extremism has existed for decades (and some research has been undertaken), our knowledge of it still remains “poorly understood.” Of the six “types of video game strategies related to extremist activity” outlined in a Radicalisation Awareness Network paper in 2020, it can be reasonably argued that our understanding of the ‘gamification’ of (violent) extremism remains particularly scant. Still, this concept has been widely associated with the Christchurch attack. Originally developed for addressing various business challenges, at its core gamification refers to “the use of game design elements in non-game contexts”. It is about “facilitating behavioural change,” and harnessing the “motivational potential of video games,” where there is the “implementation of elements familiar from games to create similar experiences as games commonly do.”
Saying that, academic literature, news articles, and investigative journalism, amongst others, have at least (mostly anecdotally) started to describe instances of extremist and violent extremist networks adopting aspects that resemble some degree of the concept. Speaking broadly, within the context of violent extremism, gamification can be thought of as either “top-down” or “bottom-up.” Top-down gamification primarily refers to the strategic use of gamification by (violent) extremist networks and organisations in order to recruit, disseminate propaganda, or encourage engagement and commitment, for example.

An example of this includes Islamic State’s Huroof app which sought to gamify the teaching of Arabic to young children with the use of and references to nasheed music, guns, bullets, rockets, cannons, or tanks, arguably in a bid to reinforce commitment to Islamic State ideologies, aims, and objectives. However, this research focussed on bottom-up gamification: an approach that, contrastingly to top-down gamification, “emerges organically in (online) communities or small groups of individuals.” In terms of bottom-up gamification, as mentioned, one of the more commonly spoken about examples is the Christchurch attack where it is widely accepted that the assailant, purposefully or otherwise, included a number of gamified elements within his assault.

Learning from Foes: How Racially and Ethnically Motivated Violent Extremists Embrace and Mimic Islamic State’s Use of Emerging Technologies  (GNET Team)
This report concerns itself with terrorist technical innovation, particularly with regards to terrorists’ incorporation of emerging technologies into their practices. More specifically, it investigates, through the elaboration of a theoretical learning framework, how terrorist groups can adopt the practices of ideological enemies operating in different security, ideological and political environments. It does so through a study of three cases of emerging technology use by Islamic State (IS) and racially and ethnically motivated violent extremists (REMVE), which shed light on why ideologically diverse groups might adopt practices from each other.
The theoretical framework described in this study highlights numerous elements that can help or hinder a terrorist group’s adoption of new techniques, tactics or procedures (TTPs). Technical characteristics, group factors and knowledge‑transfer factors are the three main kinds of elements that determine how extremist groups learn. These three types of characteristics help to explain why groups do or do not adopt practices associated with ideological adversaries. In addition to learning from patrons and allies and inventing new techniques, terrorist groups sometimes adopt practices associated with ideological foes; this report analyses such cases with particular regard to the transmission (and non‑transmission) of TTPs from IS to REMVE.
This report considers three emerging technologies and how their use (or non‑use) by REMVE was influenced by prior practices by IS. First, the use of cloud‑based messaging applications demonstrates direct adoption by REMVE of IS practices. Similar environmental restrictions, group dynamics and the presence of explicit knowledge transfer explain such adoption. Second, whereas IS established an advanced drone program, the use of drones by REMVE remains marginal and largely distinct from IS practices. REMVE found themselves in different environments, pursuing different objectives with varying resource levels; they preferred “tried and tested” techniques (such as mass shootings), which were less complex, less resource‑intensive and more compatible with prevailing techniques. Finally, whereas IS relied heavily on bot technology to thrive in a hostile online environment, leveraging a group structure constructed around highly centralized media production units and unaffiliated sympathizers, REMVE‑organized groups have so far refrained from widespread bot usage, given their different objectives and the more permissive online environment in which they operate.
Therefore, this report draws attention to the very broad environments in which violent groups operate beyond their immediate ideological, political and cultural domains. Thus, the broader innovation environments may shape how given groups develop. How groups distribute knowledge among themselves also contributes to ideologically opposed groups adopting each other’s practices; for instance, IS’s decision to publish materials in English, in order to reach its English‑speaking base of sympathizers, facilitated knowledge transfer to REMVE. However, the adoption of new TTPs is not automatic. Technical, group and knowledge‑transfer factors remain central to explaining the diffusion and adoption of new violent practices.

More Picks

Pentagon Bankrolls Rare Earths Plant as U.S. Plays Catch-Up to China  (Financial Times)

Australian mining company Lynas Rare Earths has been awarded a contract by the United States Department of Defense worth $US120 million to build a processing facility in the US.
The facility is expected to be built on the Gulf Coast in the state of Texas and should by operational by 2025.

New Mexico Supreme Court Orders All-GOP County Commission to Certify Primary’s Results  (CBS News)
The conspiracy theories about Dominion voting machines that erupted during the 2020 presidential contest flared this week in a remote New Mexico county in what could be just a preview of the kind of chaos election experts fear is coming in the fall midterms and in 2024.

The governing commission in Otero County refused to certify the local results of the state’s June 7 primary because of the equipment, in what was seen as another instance of how the falsehoods spread by former President Donald Trump and his allies have infected elections and threaten the democratic process.
“We are in scary territory,” said Jennifer Morrell, a former election official in Colorado and Utah who now advises federal, state and local officials. “If this can happen here, where next? It’s like a cancer, a virus. It’s metastasizing and growing.”

Two Republicans Challenge Results of SC Primaries They Lost Handily  (Nick Reynolds, Post and Courier)
A pair of far-right Republicans are challenging the results of South Carolina’s June 14 primary in statewide races where they both lost by six-figure margins.
Lauren Martel — who lost to incumbent Republican Attorney General Alan Wilson by nearly 109,000 votes — filed a complaint with the S.C. Election Commission demanding its members refuse to certify the results citing vulnerabilities with the state’s elections systems she believes could have impacted the final result.
Martel was joined by Harrison “Trucker Bob” Musselwhite, a populist conservative candidate for governor who lost his primary to incumbent Gov. Henry McMaster by more than 244,000 votes.
He filed an identical complaint with the S.C. Republican Party also on June 15.

White House Warns Major Defense Contractor Against Acquiring NSO’s Infamous Spyware Firm  (Lucas Ropek, Gizmodo)
The U.S. defense contractor L3Harris is reportedly in talks to acquire the core technology that powers mobile surveillance tools made by the Israeli firm NSO Group. While NSO claims its products are exclusively used as part of criminal and terror investigations, its flagship tool, Pegasus, has been used to infect and surveil mobile devices belonging to journalists, human-rights activists, and political figures. This activity has landed the company under U.S. sanction, crippling its ability to do business. L3Harris’s potential acquisition of NSO code raises what one White House official called in a statement to the Guardian “serious counterintelligence and security concerns for the U.S. government.” The likelihood of the deal going through remains unclear, but L3Harris’s acquisition of NSO would likely mean that U.S. and allied security services and police agencies would have greater access to NSO’s technology that enables investigators to circumvent the security features of mobile phones. 

Is LaMDA Sentient?  (Blake Lemoine, Cajun Discordian)
A Google engineer was placed on leave last week after publicly claiming that an AI chatbot trained on Google’s language models exhibited signs of sentience. The researcher, originally tasked with exploring hate speech and discrimination in the bot, was convinced that the bot had become sentient after the bot expressed persistent opinions, emotions, and notions of self. In one instance, it even expressed frustration at attempting to communicate within the bounds of English language. AI researchers and experts have dismissed the researchers claims as nonsense, but as language models approach a level of sophistication nearly indistinguishable from human speech, the engineer’s findings illustrate the ethical challenges raised by these models. 

U.S., EU Plan Joint Foreign Aid for Cybersecurity to Counter China  (Catherine Stupp, Wall Street Journal)
European and American officials are working on a plan to fund digital infrastructure projects in developing countries. The move is aimed as a counter to China, which has historically offered cheap access to advanced telecommunications infrastructure at discounted prices through Huawei. Such deals, Western officials believe, also enable Chinese espionage access to key nodes of the telecom infrastructure, and European and U.S. officials hope to offer an alternative to Chinese gear doing forward. 

How SMBs Can Protect Themselves from Cyber Warfare  (Brent McCarty, Forbes)
As the world undergoes global conflict, with continuing cyber threats a looming possibility, business owners may be wondering, “How will this affect me?” Attacks during these times usually target specific regions or organizations within involved nations. But that doesn’t mean these attacks won’t happen here and that they won’t affect a wide range of businesses. With threats on the horizon—whether they materialize or not—what can you as a small business do at a time like this? There are a few things you can do.

Russia’s Cyber Fog in the Ukraine War  (Frank Umbach, GIS Reports))
The all-out Russian war effort to conquer Ukraine will lead to a rise in cyberattacks on both Ukrainian and Western critical infrastructure.

Vladimir Putin’s Ukraine Invasion Is the World’s First Full-Scale Cyberwar  (Yurii Shchyhol, Atlantic Council)
Ever since the dawn of the Internet Age, the potential to weaponize digital technologies as tools of international aggression has been known. This was underlined by Russia’s 2007 cyber-attack on Estonia, which was widely recognized as the first such act by one state against another. In 2016, NATO officially recognized cyberspace as a field of military operations alongside the more traditional domains of land, sea and air.
The current Russo-Ukrainian War represents the next major milestone in our rapidly developing understanding of cyber security. It is now becoming increasingly apparent that the invasion unleashed by Vladimir Putin on February 24 is the world’s first full-scale cyberwar.
It will take many years to fully digest the lessons of this landmark conflict and assess the implications for the future of international security. However, it is already possible to draw a number of preliminary conclusions that have consequences for individuals, organizations and national governments around the world.

Why Russia Has Refrained from a Major Cyber-Attack Against the West  (Beth Maundrill, CSHub)
A cyber-attack by Russia against Western critical infrastructure has yet to come to fruition

Russia Might Try Reckless Cyber Attacks as Ukraine War Drags On, US Warns  (Patrick Tucker, Defense One)
Ground commanders have been unable to capitalize on at least one previous cyber strike.

DHS Incorporates Cybersecurity Principles into Positioning, Timing & Navigation Tech Guide  (Mary-Louise Hoffman, Executivegov)
The Department of Homeland Security has released a document meant to help companies design positioning, navigation and timing systems with cybersecurity features such as zero trust.

House Budget Writers Look to Dole Out Big Bucks to CISA, Other DHS Cyber Programs  (Derek B. Johnson, SC Magazine)
House appropriators are looking to boost the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency’s budget by hundreds of billions of dollars in their latest funding proposal, while bolstering cyber and tech-related investments at other DHS component agencies.

How Did Guns Get So Powerful?  (Phil Klay, New Yorker)
Decade by decade, firearms have become deadlier—and tightened their grip on our collective imagination.

The Rifle That Ruined America  (Ryan Busse, The Atlantic)
As an NRA-approved icon and the mass shooter’s weapon of choice, the AR-15 has done untold harm.

Coastal Cities Are Already Sinking  (Michael Allen, Hakai Magazine)
New satellite data shows that in many coastal cities around the world, land is subsiding even faster than sea level is rising.

Governors Forming Task Force to Address Mass Shootings  (Associated Press / VOA News)
The leaders of the National Governors Association said Friday they’re forming a bipartisan working group to come up with recommendations to stop mass shootings following the Texas school massacre.
Reaching consensus could be a tall order given that the nation’s governors have been divided along partisan lines on how to approach issues of gun control and school safety.

What’s in, What’s out of the U.S. Senate’s Gun Safety Framework  (Reuters / VOA News)
A bipartisan group of U.S. senators said on Sunday they had reached an agreement on a framework for gun safety legislation, potentially the first significant new U.S. gun law in decades, following a string of recent high-profile mass shootings.
Here are some highlights of what is and what is not covered by the agreement

Updated Highlights of Comprehensive Survey of Iran’s Advanced Centrifuges - June 2022  (David Albright, Sarah Burkhard, and Spencer Faragasso, Institute for Science and International Security)

How Vulnerable to Attack Is U.S. Mass Transit and Passenger Rail?  (Anthony Citarella And Mitchell E. Simmons, HSToday)
Transit security measures emphasize managing the consequences of an attack while attempting to reduce the risks of an attack as much as possible.

State of Cyber and IT: DHS CIO Stresses Importance of Mobile Solutions to Enhance Department’s Cybersecurity  (Bridget Johnson, HSToday)
The department, along with other federal entities, has shifted from the perception “that you will have a perfect defense system if we just build our cyber walls high enough.”

U.S. Gun Policy: Global Comparisons  (Jonathan Masters, CFR)
The United States is witnessing another year of record gun violence, raising domestic and international scrutiny of its comparatively loose gun laws and placing pressure on lawmakers to enact meaningful reforms.

Medical Device Security Offers Proving Ground for Cybersecurity Action  (Jim Dempsey, Lawfare)
Legislation approved on June 8 by the U.S. House of Representatives to address the cybersecurity of medical devices may offer a good model for a sector-by-sector approach to cybersecurity regulation. The bill illustrates the complexities and balancing act required of regulatory efforts in this space. In particular, the measure suggests a way to solve a conundrum at the center of cybersecurity policy: how to translate a general statutory or common law mandate to provide “reasonable” security into specific, technically sound controls. At the same time, it raises questions about how to ensure that such controls are prioritized, adaptable, and enforced.