OUR PICKSStop Passing the Buck on Cybersecurity | DHS & Radicalization | Chinese Espionage on the Great Plains, and more

Published 2 February 2023

··  Did the FBI’s Charles McGonigal Help Throw the 2016 Election to Trump?
Trump, thoroughly compromised by Russia, was a grave threat to national security

··  Bias and Human Error Played Parts in FBI’s Jan. 6 Failure, Documents Suggest
The FBI wasblinded by a narrow focus on “lone wolf” offenders and a misguided belief that the threat from the far left was as great as that from the far right

··  Stop Passing the Buck on Cybersecurity
Why companies must build safety into tech products

··  Preparing for Strategic Competition: The Need for Irregular Warfare Professional Military Education
The U.S. lacks the operational level and campaign planning necessary for irregular warfare above the tactical level

··  USCIS Strategic Plan Takes Three-Pronged Approach to Building a More Resilient, Efficient Agency
Improving efficiency while pulling the agency out of its recent history of crippling backlogs

··  Homeland Security Intel Chief Describes Revamp of Department Amid Radicalization in the U.S.

The U.S. must navigate a period of heightened polarization and radicalization

··  Air Force Opposes Chinese-Owned Corn Plant for North Dakota
Chinese plans to build a wet corn milling plant near an Air Force a “significant threat to national security”

Did the FBI’s Charles McGonigal Help Throw the 2016 Election to Trump?  (Craig Unger, New Republic)
The shocking indictments against the former head of counterintelligence for the FBI in New York raise many dark questions.

Bias and Human Error Played Parts in FBI’s Jan. 6 Failure, Documents Suggest  (Adam Goldman and Alan Feuer, New York Times)
The F.B.I. appeared to be blinded by a lack of imagination, a narrow focus on “lone wolf” offenders and a misguided belief that the threat from the far left was as great as that from the far right, new congressional documents show.

Stop Passing the Buck on Cybersecurity  (Jen Easterly and Eric Goldstein, Foreign Affairs)
Despite a global multibillion-dollar cybersecurity industry, the threat from malicious cyber-activity, from both criminal and state actors, continues to grow. While many cyber incidents are never reported by their victims, Verizon’s 2022 Data Breach Investigations Report noted that ransomware attacks rose 13 percent that year—more than the past five years combined. These breaches included attacks that threatened public health and safety, with several hospitals across the United States forced to cancel surgeries and divert patients because they were locked out of their systems.
Over the past decade, adversaries of the United States have developed increasingly sophisticated offensive cyber-capabilities. As cybersecurity expert Dmitri Alperovitch has argued, “We don’t have a cyber problem. We have a Russia, China, Iran, North Korea problem.” Although the focus on malicious actors—whether nation-states or criminals—is important, cyber-intrusions are a symptom rather than a cause of the continued vulnerability of U.S. technology.
What the United States faces is less a cyber problem than a broader technology and culture problem. The incentives for developing and selling technology have eclipsed customer safety in importance—a trend that is not unique to software and hardware industries but one that has particularly pernicious effects because of the ubiquity of these technologies. As Americans have integrated technology into nearly every facet of their lives, they have unwittingly come to accept that it is normal for new software and devices to be indefensible by design. They accept products that are released to market with dozens, hundreds, or even thousands of defects. They accept that the cybersecurity burden falls disproportionately on consumers and small organizations, which are often least aware of the threat and least capable of protecting themselves.

Preparing for Strategic Competition: The Need for Irregular Warfare Professional Military Education  (Charles T. Cleveland, Daniel Egel, David Maxwell, and Hy Rothstein, The Hill)
The Department of Defense (DOD) does not provide the irregular warfare (IWprofessional military education necessary for success in competition and conflict in the 21st century. This is a not a new problem, but it is one that may deserve new attention from the Congress and the Pentagon.
More than 30 years ago, the late Ambassador Michael Sheehan, who also served as the assistant secretary of defense responsible for irregular warfare, observed that IW had “lost its significance (PDF) as a separate type of conflict that requires different doctrine and training.” Sheehan concluded that a consequence was that the United States lacked the “operational level and campaign planning (PDF)” necessary for irregular warfare above the tactical level.
This highly diffuse approach for irregular warfare is in sharp contrast to that currently being deployed by the Space Force. Developing an “independent” professional military education for the Space Force was a priority of the first Chief of Space Operations, General John W. Raymond, and it reflected a recognition that the “Space Force works in a radically different domain in terms of physics, size, and legal regime” than the rest of the Air Force.

USCIS Strategic Plan Takes Three-Pronged Approach to Building a More Resilient, Efficient Agency  (Bridget Johnson, HSToday)
The new strategy is centered around the main goals of strengthening the immigration system, investing in the agency’s workforce, and sound financial stewardship.

Homeland Security Intel Chief Describes Revamp of Department Amid Radicalization in the U.S.  (Geneva Sands, CNN)
The Department of Homeland Security is reviewing the structure and mission of its intelligence division as the US navigates a period of heightened polarization and radicalization, the agency’s intel chief said in an interview with CNN.

Air Force Opposes Chinese-Owned Corn Plant for North Dakota  (Steve Karnowski, AP / ABC News)
The U.S. Air Force is telling North Dakota leaders it believes a Chinese company’s plan to build a wet corn milling plant near the Grand Forks Air Force Base poses a national security threat