• This Year’s CyberForce Competition to Be Held Virtually

    Last week the Department of Energy (DOE) opened registration for the 2020 CyberForce Competition, the sixth iteration of the Department’s collegiate-level cyber defense competition designed to inspire and develop the next generation of energy sector cybersecurity professionals. Because of the pandemic, the 2020 CyberForce Competition will be held on 14 November completely in a virtual environment, with individual competitors rather than teams representing their respective academic institutions.

  • Blueprint for Quantum Internet Unveiled

    Around the world, consensus is building that a system to communicate using quantum mechanics represents one of the most important technological frontiers of the twenty-first century. Scientists now believe that the construction of a prototype will be within reach over the next decade.

  • Post-Quantum Cryptography Program Enters “Selection Round”

    The race to protect sensitive electronic information against the threat of quantum computers has entered the home stretch. NIST has winnowed the 69 submissions it initially received down to a final group of 15, and the chosen algorithms will become part of first standard devised to counter quantum decryption threat.

  • China Working to “Develop, Export, and Institutionalize” Digital Authoritarianism: Report

    The Senate Foreign Relations Committee Minority Staff on Tuesday published a new report on China’s digital authoritarianism. “[T]the report is the culmination of a comprehensive Committee investigation into China’s efforts to develop, export, and institutionalize a new, authoritarian governance model for the digital domain,” the report’s authors say. “China is seeking to exploit new and emerging technologies to cultivate digital authoritarianism along multiple paths,” Senator Bob Menendez (D-New Jersey) said. “If successful, China – and not the United States and other like-minded nations – will be writing the future of cyberspace.”

  • MI5 Did Nothing to Stop Russia’s “Nihilistic” Campaign to Undermine, Corrupt British Democracy

    On Tuesday, the U.K. government released a long-awaited report by the British Parliament’s Intelligence Committee on Russian meddling in British politics. The report says that Russia has mounted a prolonged, sophisticated campaign to undermine Britain’s democracy and corrupt British politics. The committee’s account characterized Russia as a reckless country bent on recapturing its status as a “great power,” primarily by destabilizing those in the West. “The security threat posed by Russia is difficult for the West to manage as, in our view and that of many others, it appears fundamentally nihilistic,” the authors said. The report, in many ways, is harder on British officials than the Russians. It is unsparing in the answer it gives to the question who is protecting British democracy: “No one is,” the report warns.

  • Disinformation Campaigns Are Murky Blends of Truth, Lies, and Sincere Beliefs – Lessons from the Pandemic

    The COVID-19 pandemic has spawned an infodemic, a vast and complicated mix of information, misinformation and disinformation. The notion of disinformation often brings to mind easy-to-spot propaganda peddled by totalitarian states, but the reality is much more complex. Though disinformation does serve an agenda, it is often camouflaged in facts and advanced by innocent and often well-meaning individuals. This mix of information types makes it difficult for people, including those who build and run online platforms, to distinguish an organic rumor from an organized disinformation campaign.

  • A Growing Online Black Market

    As instances of online identity theft continue to rise over the course of the coronavirus pandemic, new research helps shed light on the shady world of cybercriminals and how it operates. “The cybercrime marketplace, like most e-commerce, has continued to expand and carding forums are the most widespread formats in the West for exchanging illicit goods,” said a researcher.

  • Chinese Government Hackers Charged with IP, COVID-19 Research Theft

    U.S. DOJ accused China on Tuesday of sponsoring criminal hackers to target biotech firms around the world working on coronavirus vaccines and treatments, as the FBI said the Chinese government was acting like “an organized criminal syndicate.”

  • Tracking Misinformation Campaigns in Real-Time is Possible: Study

    A research team has developed a technique for tracking online foreign misinformation campaigns in real time, which could help mitigate outside interference in the 2020 American election. The researchers developed a method for using machine learning to identify malicious Internet accounts, or trolls, based on their past behavior. The model investigated past misinformation campaigns from China, Russia, and Venezuela that were waged against the United States before and after the 2016 election.

  • People “Fly to Quality” News When Faced with Uncertainty

    When information becomes a matter of life or death or is key to navigating economic uncertainty, as it has during the COVID-19 pandemic, it appears people turn to tried and true sources of information rather than iffy sites that have become increasingly part of the social media news diet in recent years.

  • U.K. Government, Intel. Took "Eye Off the Ball” Regarding Russia’s Direct Threat to U.K.: Report

    A report on Russian interference in British politics concluded on Tuesday that the Kremlin tried to influence the outcome of the 2016 Brexit referendum and the British government’s ignorance of potential meddling was “astonishing.” The report also found similar evidence for Russian interference in the Scottish independence referendum of 2014.

  • Russia Report: Intelligence Expert Explains How U.K. Ignored Growing Threat

    The new report on Russia from parliament’s Intelligence and Security Committee (ISC) is damning. The document certainly isn’t a page-turner, and nor does it provide all the answers some had expected. But contrary to most ISC reports, it’s striking and blunt, and the message couldn’t be clearer: Russia’s intelligence agencies pose a direct threat to the U.K., but successive governments and the U.K. agencies have taken their eye off the ball.

  • Farrakhan Remains Most Popular Anti-Semite in America

    Anti-Semitism has stained the speeches and statements of Nation of Islam (NOI) leader Louis Farrakhan for decades. This past 4 July was no different, as Farrakhan delivered an address replete with anti-Semitic lies and stereotypes, and calls for his listeners to speak out against Jews. Farrakhan’s speech has been viewed over 1.2 million times (as of 15 July) on numerous YouTube channels.

  • DHS, NSA Name Binghamton a Cyber Research Center

    In June, the National Security Agency and the Department of Homeland Security named Binghamton a National Center of Academic Excellence in Cyber Research (CAE-R) through 2025. “The main goals,” said Professor Ping Yang, who is the director of the Center for Information Assurance and Cybersecurity (CIAC), “are to reduce the vulnerability in the information infrastructure of the United States by promoting higher education and research in cyber-defense and producing professionals with cyber-defense expertise.”

  • U.K. to Examine Effectiveness of Existing Legislation in Dealing with Hateful Extremism

    As is the case in other countries, the U.K. is facing a sharp rise in activity extremist groups. The U.K. Commission for Countering Extremism (CCE) has launched a legal review to examine the effectiveness of existing U.K. legislation in dealing with hateful extremism. The CCE’s recommendations will be submitted to the Home Secretary.