-
Emergency Management Puts Itself to the Test
Each year, Sandia holds a comprehensive exercise to evaluate the Labs’ ability to respond to a wide range of emergencies. These exercises play a pivotal role in ensuring protection of Sandia’s national security mission.
-
-
What You Need to Know About the Venezuelan Gang That Texas Is Targeting
Gov. Greg Abbott has declared the Venezuelan gang a foreign terrorist organization and asked the Department of Public Safety to create a strike team targeting them.
-
-
Neo-Nazi Telegram Users Panic Amid Crackdown and Arrest of Alleged Leaders of Online Extremist Group
An analysis by ProPublica and FRONTLINE shows a surge in activity on Telegram channels aligned with the Terrorgram Collective, as allies tried to rally support for their comrades in custody and sought to oust users they believed to be federal agents.
-
-
FBI Data Shows Violent Crime Down for a Second Consecutive Year
Violent crime in the United States is down for a second consecutive year, with law enforcement agencies reporting significant declines in murder and rapes, according to a just-released report from the FBI.
-
-
Gun Violence in Philadelphia Plummeted in 2024 − Researchers Aren’t Sure Why, but Here Are 3 Factors at Play
Recent data shows a notable decline in homicides and shootings in Philadelphia over the past two years. we know that there is no single explanation for the drop in gun violence. Rather, many factors at both the local and national levels could be playing a role.
-
-
Online Extremist Threats: A View from the Trenches
Threats posed by online extremism are evolving— extremists are younger, using operational security, and adhering to non-traditional ideologies. Understanding these trends is imperative for the professionals charged with mitigating them.
-
-
SARCOP: One Team. One Mission. One Map.
The Search and Rescue Common Operating Platform (SARCOP) aggregates multiple emergency management applications and advanced geospatial analytics into a single dashboard, giving response agencies enhanced situational awareness when every second counts.
-
-
What We've Learned About the Hungarian, Bulgarian, and Norwegian Links To Hezbollah's Pagers
A Bulgarian company with Norwegian links has surfaced in the supply chain of the pagers that detonated in Lebanon this week, killing 37 people and injuring several thousand others. The pagers, which were being used by members of Hezbollah, Iran’s most powerful proxy in the Middle East and designated as a terrorist organization by the United States, exploded simultaneously across Lebanon on September 17.
-
-
Pagers and Walkie-talkies Over Cellphones – a Security Expert Explains Why Hezbollah Went Low-Tech for Communications
In general, I believe the adversary in an asymmetric conflict using low-tech techniques, tactics and technology will almost always be able to operate successfully against a more powerful and well-funded opponent. But from a cybersecurity perspective, Israel’s attack on Hezbollah’s pagers shows that any device in your life can be tampered with by an adversary at points along the supply chain – long before you even receive it.
-
-
Safe Storage and Minimum Age Gun Laws Would Curb Violence, Study Says
A new report found that minimum age requirements for purchasing firearms appear to reduce suicides among young people. Additionally, it indicated that laws aimed at reducing children’s access to stored guns may also lower rates of firearm suicides, unintentional shootings and firearm homicides among youth. Layering a variety of firearm policies might work best to prevent deaths, researchers say.
-
-
Planning for Impacts of Floods and Clouds on Power
On the heels of a Northeastern rainstorm that flooded towns on Long Island and claimed at least two lives in Connecticut, teams of scientists, engineers, and representatives of local power and transportation utilities met to discuss the increasing frequency of severe weather and its impacts on crucial infrastructure.
-
-
Trump’s Second Assassination Attempt Is Shocking, but Attempts on Presidents’ Lives Are Not Rare in U.S. History
There have been 45 men elected president since the country’s founding. And 40% of them have experienced known attempts on their lives. Four presidents – Abraham Lincoln, James A. Garfield, William McKinley and John F. Kennedy – have been assassinated.
-
-
North Korea Explained: What Americans Need to Know
The Korean Peninsula, with its intricate web of historical tensions, nuclear threats, and geopolitical dynamics, will demand a nuanced and strategic approach from the incoming administration.
-
-
Study: AI Could Lead to Inconsistent Outcomes in Home Surveillance
Researchers find large language models make inconsistent decisions about whether to call the police when analyzing surveillance videos.
-
-
Supreme Court Ruling Threatens Gun Charges Filed in Trump’s Alleged Assassination Attempt
A Trace review of federal court cases found that several defendants have had similar charges tossed out since the Supreme Court’s Bruen decision dramatically expanded Second Amendment protections.
-
The long view
Are We Ready for a ‘DeepSeek for Bioweapons’?
Anthropic’s Claude 4 is a warning sign: AI that can help build bioweapons is coming, and could be widely available soon. Steven Adler writes that we need to be prepared for the consequences: “like a freely downloadable ‘DeepSeek for bioweapons,’ available across the internet, loadable to the computer of any amateur scientist who wishes to cause mass harm. With Anthropic’s Claude Opus 4 having finally triggered this level of safety risk, the clock is now ticking.”
“The Federal Government Is Gone”: Under Trump, the Fight Against Extremist Violence Is Left Up to the States
As President Donald Trump guts the main federal office dedicated to preventing terrorism, states say they’re left to take the lead in spotlighting threats. Some state efforts are robust, others are fledgling, and yet other states are still formalizing strategies for addressing extremism. With the federal government largely retreating from focusing on extremist dangers, prevention advocates say the threat of violent extremism is likely to increase.
Luigi Mangione and the Making of a ‘Terrorist’
Discretion is crucial to the American tradition of criminal law, Jacob Ware and Ania Zolyniak write, noting that “lawmakers enact broader statutes to empower prosecutors to pursue justice while entrusting that they will stay within the confines of their authority and screen out the inevitable “absurd” cases that may arise.” Discretion is also vital to maintaining the legitimacy of the legal system. In the prosecution’s case against Luigi Mangione, they charge, “That discretion was abused.”
Autonomous Weapon Systems: No Human-in-the-Loop Required, and Other Myths Dispelled
“The United States has a strong policy on autonomy in weapon systems that simultaneously enables their development and deployment and ensures they could be used in an effective manner, meaning the systems work as intended, with the same minimal risk of accidents or errors that all weapon systems have,” Michael Horowitz writes.
Ukraine Drone Strikes on Russian Airbase Reveal Any Country Is Vulnerable to the Same Kind of Attack
Air defense systems are built on the assumption that threats come from above and from beyond national borders. But Ukraine’s coordinated drone strike on 1 June on five airbases deep inside Russian territory exposed what happens when states are attacked from below and from within. In low-level airspace, visibility drops, responsibility fragments, and detection tools lose their edge. Drones arrive unannounced, response times lag, coordination breaks.
Shots to the Dome—Why We Can’t Model US Missile Defense on Israel’s “Iron Dome”
Starting an arms race where the costs are stacked against you at a time when debt-to-GDP is approaching an all-time high seems reckless. All in all, the idea behind Golden Dome is still quite undercooked.