The Thomas Crooks Conspiracy Theories Aren’t Going Anywhere | The ACLU Fights for Your Constitutional Right to Make Deepfakes | Defining Cyberterrorism, and more

The ACLU Fights for Your Constitutional Right to Make Deepfakes  (Arthur Holland Michel, Wired)
You wake up on Election Day and unlock your phone to a shaky video of your state capitol. In the hectic footage, smoke billows from the statehouse. In other clips posted alongside it, gunshots ring out in the distance. You think to yourself: Maybe better to skip the polling booth today. Only later do you learn that the videos were AI forgeries.
A friend calls you, distraught. An anonymous acquaintance has put her in a series of pornographic deepfakes, and now the videos are spreading from site to site. The police told her to contact a lawyer, but the cease-and-desist letters aren’t working.
You are a famous actor. A major tech company wants you to be the voice of its newest AI assistant. You decline. Months later, the chatbot is released and people say it sounds just like you. You never consented to such mimicry, and now someone else is monetizing your voice.

Defining Cyberterrorism: How Different Approaches Shape Data Collection  (Mahmut Cengiz, HSToday)
Amidst rising cyberattacks, there is a growing debate on whether these attacks should be deemed cyberterrorism. Following the 2021 Colonial Pipeline cyberattack, which caused gas shortages across the United States, there was considerable controversy over its classification. Some politicians criticized the Biden administration for categorizing it as a mere criminal act, arguing instead that it constituted cyberterrorism and necessitated a more forceful response. Each cyberattack and cyberterrorism incident typically follows a predictable pattern, with proponents emphasizing their impact while critics question the underlying political motivations. The decision to label a cyberattack as cyberterrorism carries significant implications.
The discourse surrounding cyberterrorism emerged in the late 1990s following multiple terrorist attacks aimed at the United States. In 1997, the U.S. Department of Defense conducted its first cybersecurity exercise to evaluate its systems. During the same year, the March Commission Report highlighted and incorporated the cyber threat landscape into the nation’s policy framework. A 2024 Gallup study identified cyberterrorism as the foremost threat to the U.S., ranking it higher than concerns regarding nuclear threats from Iran and North Korea, international terrorism, and the influx of illegal immigrants into the United States.

National Security Threats Loom Over American Wheat Power  (Ajit Maan, HSToday)
Targeting of the U.S. wheat industry – intellectual property, production, and export – would have devastating effects not only on our ability to engage in international trade but could also destabilize our own food security in the homeland.  
What is our resiliency to food disruption in the context of strategic competition with great powers below the threshold of armed conflict? 
Great Power competitors of the United States view the production and export of grains, wheat in particular, as a part of their national security strategy. And while President Biden’s U.S. National Security Strategy points to food security as one of the top five shared global challenges, there is much more we, the United States, can do to contribute to our own food security and at the same time elevate our global diplomatic position.