• Furious Extremists Call for More Violence Around Inauguration Day

    In the immediate aftermath of the November 2020 presidential election, pro-Trump and other extremists announced their initial plans to protest President-Elect Joe Biden’s inauguration in Washington D.C. While it is impossible for anyone to predict with certainty how the events of the next week may unfold, recent history has shown that we cannot ignore potential threats from political and other right-wing extremists.

  • U.S. Hits Back at Russian Election Disinformation Ring

    The United States is taking steps to punish members of a Russian-backed influence operation that sought to interfere with November’s election and damage the campaign of President-elect Joe Biden. The Treasury Department on Monday announced sanctions against seven people and four companies, all connected to Ukrainian politician Andrii Derkach, previously identified by U.S. officials as a long-time Russian agent. Derkach fed Rudi Giuliani, Donald Trump’s personal lawyer, Russia-fabricated derogatory misinformation on Joe Biden, and Giuliani’s role in the plot was to disseminate it on pro-Trump news outlets like One America Network.

  • Stopping the Deluge of Disinformation Flooding the Internet, Social Media

    The use and spread of disinformation — false or misleading information intended to deceive people — is being amplified and accelerated at an alarming rate on the internet via social media. Within the U.S., this has quickly eroded trust in institutions that serve as the bedrocks of our society, such as science, the media, and government, to the point that we can’t even agree on basic facts.

  • Extremists React to Pro-Trump Siege on Capitol

    On Wednesday, January 6, 2021, pro-Trump extremists, including some identified right-wing extremists, stormed the U.S. Capitol building, interrupting the Congressional session affirming the election results and forcing a partial evacuation. In chatrooms and other extremist forums, many people cheered the actions of those at the Capitol, praising the trespassers as patriots who were willing to “stand up” to politicians and the government. many users shared their belief that war is coming, and some encouraged people to be prepared for further action.

  • Capitol Hill Riots Prompt Germany to Revisit Online Hate Speech Law

    Numerous social networks were quick to impose bans President Donald Trump, preventing him from continuing to disseminate lies on their platforms, and, more importantly, blocking him from using his social media accounts to incite violence. For many critics, these restrictions came four years too late. The assault on the U.S. Capitol by Trump supporters has led to fresh calls in Germany for more restrictions on extremist speech in Germany, too.

  • Cybersecurity and the Occupation of the Capitol

    On 6 January, a large number of pro-Trump rioters occupied portions of the U.S. Capitol building to protest and disrupt the counting and certification of electoral votes from the November 2020 election. Herb Lin writes that the significance of this event for American democracy, the rule of law, and the depths of extremism in the U.S. populace will be addressed by others, “but I am compelled to point out this siege has created potentially serious cyber risks for Congress and other affected offices.”

  • Israel, Cyberattacks and International Law

    Recently, several cyberattacks have hit Israeli companies. While Israel has not yet publicly attributed the attacks to any foreign state, media outlets report that Israeli cybersecurity experts have tied the operations of the main hacker groups behind these attacks—BlackShadow and Pay2Kitten—to Iran. Tal Mimran and Yuval Shany write that in response, Israel seems to be increasingly turning toward international law to guide its approach to hostile activities in cyberspace

  • Israel, Cyberattacks and International Law

    Recently, several cyberattacks have hit Israeli companies. While Israel has not yet publicly attributed the attacks to any foreign state, media outlets report that Israeli cybersecurity experts have tied the operations of the main hacker groups behind these attacks—BlackShadow and Pay2Kitten—to Iran. Tal Mimran and Yuval Shany write that in response, Israel seems to be increasingly turning toward international law to guide its approach to hostile activities in cyberspace

  • Racist, Extremist, Anti-Semitic Conspiracies Surround Coronavirus Vaccine Rollout

    Since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, extremists across the ideological spectrum have used the virus as a platform for elaborate and alarming conspiracy theories. Purveyors of these theories suggest that the vaccine is a new form of population control or elevate debunked fears about the vaccine’s side effects. Some are peddling anti-Semitic tropes about Jewish control of the virus and vaccine, while arguing that Black Americans should be used to test the vaccine’s safety.

  • The Sunburst Hack Was Massive and Devastating – 5 Observations from a Cybersecurity Expert

    So much remains unknown about what is now being called the Sunburst hack, the cyberattack against U.S. government agencies and corporations. U.S. officials widely believe that Russian state-sponsored hackers are responsible. The attack gave the perpetrators access to numerous key American business and government organizations. The immediate effects will be difficult to judge, and a complete accounting of the damage is unlikely. However, the nature of the affected organizations alone makes it clear that this is perhaps the most consequential cyberattack against the U.S. to date.

  • Revelations of Cyberattacks on U.S. Likely Just “Tip of the Iceberg”

    Russian government hackers have infiltrated the computer networks of some of the nation’s biggest corporations, leading defense contractors, and top U.S. government agencies, including those in national security branches, in what security analysts believe is a “very significant” breach. The Russian espionage campaign was “sustained, targeted, far-reaching,” analysts say.

  • Election security It’s Official: The Election Was Secure

    Election officials and election security experts have long been clear: voter fraud is extraordinarily rare and the U.S. system has strong checks in place to protect the integrity of our voting process. “These are the facts,” says the Brennan Center for Justice. “But the facts have not stopped bad actors from trotting out baseless claims of ‘systemic voter fraud’ to suppress votes and undermine trust in our democracy for political gain.” Government officials, judges, and elected leaders, overwhelmingly Republican —and, in the executive branch and the judiciary, mostly Trump appointees — have publicly acknowledged confidence in the November election.

  • Online Users Manipulated into Sharing Private Information Online

    Online users are more likely to reveal private information based on how website forms are structured to elicit data, BGU researchers have determined.

  • The Strategic Implications of SolarWinds

    Recent reports of a broad Russian cyber infiltration across U.S. government networks are a sign of how great-power competition will play out in the twenty-first century. Benjamin Jensen, Brandon Valeriano, and Mark Montgomery write that the SolarWinds operation demonstrates that U.S. Cyber Command’s vision of persistent engagement, which calls for preventively imposing costs as adversaries to shape competition in cyberspace, appears not to have worked as expected. “In the future, what is required is a deeper focus on denial-based approaches: How can the U.S. limit the attack surfaces available to the opposition and harden targets to ensure resilience?” they write.

  • Memory Card May Be Used to Steal Data

    Researchers have published new research detailing a technique to convert a RAM card [a memory module that is plugged into a computer’s motherboard that stores the data being used by the computer] into an impromptu wireless emitter and transmit sensitive data from inside a non-networked air-gapped computer that has no Wi-Fi card.