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TikTok Bots, MAGA Outrage and the Very Online Fight for Romania’s Future  (Nicholas Casey, New York Times)
It started with a Russian influence campaign and a canceled vote. Then the American right showed up.

Spyware Maker Cuts Ties with Italy After Government Refused Audit into Hack of Journalist’s Phone  (Suzanne Smalley, The Register)
The spyware manufacturer Paragon said Monday that it has ended its contract with Italy because a special government committee investigating alleged abuses there declined to let the company independently verify that Italian authorities did not hack into the phone of a well-known journalist.
“The company offered both the Italian government and parliament a way to determine whether its system had been used against the journalist,” Paragon said in a statement issued to the Israeli publication Haaretz. Because Italian authorities “chose not to proceed with this solution, Paragon terminated its contracts in Italy,” the company said.

Drones and the Hamas-led Attack of 7 October 2023: Innovation and Implications  (James M. Page, Perspective on Terrorism)
The Hamas-led attack against Israel on 7 October 2023 marked an important watershed in non-state actor/terrorist capability with its sophisticated and integral use of innovated drones in concert with related technologies as part of a combined arms assault. Although combined arms are typically associated with conventional forces, closer attention to Hamas-led forces’ combined arms use demonstrates that terrorist groups are increasingly able to employ them to considerable effect. Hamas-led forces’ combined arms use differs from ISIS’ preceding use in important respects, including drones’ central and integral role, the drone-related innovations demonstrated, and its particularly devastating effects. Hamas-led forces demonstrated two key drone innovations: (1) the use by a non-state actor of small drones to precisely strike sensitive, high-value defenses with a novel drone-delivered munition (featuring smoke-emission/target marking and delayed detonation); (2) the use of drones as a central part of a combined-arms assault by a non-state actor. A further possible innovation is the first use of a particular modification to (small commercial) drones by a non-state actor to help enable them to evade electronic countermeasures. Hitherto, important details about Hamas’ drone-related innovations, and the significant implications arising from them, have remained substantially unaddressed. (Cont.)