• CHINA WATCHTech War: Is Huawei's New Chip a Threat?

    By Yuchen Li

    The US-China chip war is heating up after Huawei launched a new phone featuring technology that Washington was hoping to keep out of China’s reach: China’s largest chipmaker SMIC has surprised the West by creating a homegrown 7nm chip. Will the United States respond with more sanctions?

  • NIJJAR AFFAIRWhat Might We Learn from the Nijjar Affair and the Breakdown in Canada–India Relations?

    By Ian Hall

    Khalistani activism overseas—not just in Canada, but also in the United Kingdom, United States and Australia—is a major concern for New Delhi, not a marginal one, as some governments might think. And whatever has occurred in this particular case, India has long since shed its earlier adherence to “strategic restraint”: it is clear that India is willing to use force and take risks to defend its interests. Moreover, this muscularity is popular within India and segments of the Indian diaspora overseas.

  • NIJJAR AFFAIRCanada-India Tensions Over Killing of Sikh Separatist: What to Know

    By Manjari Chatterjee Miller

    Canada’s stunning allegations of an India-directed plot to kill Sikh separatist Hardeep Singh Nijjar has stirred frictions between two major democracies and raised questions about India’s global actions to protect its interests.  

  • CYBERCRIMEIncrease in Chinese-Language Malware Could “Challenge” Russian Dominance of Cybercrime: Report

    By Masood Farivar

    For decades, Russian and eastern European hackers have dominated the cybercrime underworld. These days they may face a challenge from a new contender: China. Researchers have detected an increase in the spread of Chinese language malware through email campaigns since early 2023, signaling a surge in Chinese cybercrime activity and a new trend in the global threat landscape.

  • AIWalking the Artificial Intelligence and National Security Tightrope

    By Jack Goldsmith

    Artificial intelligence (AI) presents nations’ security as many challenges as it does opportunities. While it could create mass-produced malware, lethal autonomous weapons systems, or engineered pathogens, AI solutions could also prove the counter to these threats. Regulating AI to maximize national security capabilities and minimize the risks presented to them will require focus, caution and intent.

  • DEEPFAKESDeepfake Threats Advisory from NSA, U.S. Federal Agencies

    The National Security Agency (NSA) and U.S. federal agency partners have issued new advice on a synthetic media threat known as deepfakes. This emerging threat could present a cybersecurity challenge for National Security Systems (NSS), the Department of Defense (DoD), and DIB organizations.

  • SURVEILLANCEApple and Google Are Introducing New Ways to Defeat Cell Site Simulators, But Is it Enough?

    By Cooper Quintin

    Cell-site simulators (CSS)—also known as IMSI Catchers and Stingrays—are a tool that law enforcement and governments use to track the location of phones, intercept or disrupt communications, spy on foreign governments, or even install malware.

  • INVESTMENTS & SECURITY Do Gulf States Investments in the West Pose a Threat?

    By Nik Martin

    From football clubs to phone companies, Gulf Arab states are on an investment binge in the West, thanks to high oil prices. Several analysts have warned that the pervasiveness of Chinese snooping technology in the Middle East will likely pose additional security concerns for the West.

  • ARGUMENT: REGULATING COMMERCIAL SPYWAREThe Scourge of Commercial Spyware—and How to Stop It

    Years of public revelations have spotlighted a shadowy set of spyware companies selling and servicing deeply intrusive surveillance technologies that are used against journalists, activists, lawyers, politicians, diplomats, and others. Democratic nations (thus far) lag behind the United States in executing spyware-related policy commitments.

  • THE RUSSIA CONNECTIONWho Killed Yevgeny Prigozhin?

    By Stephen Sestanovich

    Numerous competing theories are likely to surface about the demise of the Russian paramilitary commander—all of which help explain Vladimir Putin’s Russia.

  • THE RUSSIA CONNECTIONYevgeny Prigozhin: Wagner Group Boss Joins Long List of Those Who Challenged Vladimir Putin and Paid the Price

    By Stefan Wolff

    It is unlikely that we will ever know for sure how, why and on whose orders Prigozhin might have been killed, but it is far less difficult to imagine that he finally paid the price for his march on Moscow at the head of a column of his Wagner Group troops at the end of June 2023. Though abrupt, his death is not unexpected. Under Putin, a former KGB operative himself, Russia has carried out several high-profile assassinations and assassination attempts to go after alleged traitors and Putin critics.

  • THE RUSSIA CONNECTION Putin’s Victims: A Long List Getting Longer

    Vladimir Putin’s intelligence operatives have killed many critics of the regime, both in Russia and abroad — among them opposition politicians, journalists, academics, artists, former spies, oligarchs, and businesspeople. Russian intelligence operatives, however, have also killed Russians who were not outspoken critics of the regime, leading Russia experts to speculate that Putin has adopted a milder version of Stalin’s tactics of random killings in order to instill a generalized sense of fear and insecurity among members of the Russian elite. The article offers a list of 175 dead Russians — 30 businesspeople; 23 politicians, diplomats, academics, and senior military officers; and 122 journalists —  who were killed, or who died under mysterious, often exceedingly implausible, circumstances, since Putin came to power.

  • THE RUSSIA CONNECTIONPoisoning Critics: The Kremlin's Preferred Method of Dealing with Dissidents By Monir Ghaedi

    By Monir Ghaedi

    A recent report indicates the Kremlin might be responsible for the poisoning of Russian journalists in exile. The cases appear to fit into a broader pattern of targeting dissidents: these recent poisonings are but the latest in a series of poisonings targeting Kremlin opponents and critics. Poison has long been a weapon used by security services in Russia to silence prominent political dissidents.

  • DEMOCRACY WATCHCyber-Attacks Against the U.K. Electoral Commission Reveal an Ongoing Threat to Democracy

    By Joe Burton

    The revelations this month that data on 40 million UK voters had been exposed to hackers came as no surprise to many cybersecurity experts, who have long pointed out the vulnerability of democracies to malicious online interference. The attack reflects the serious and ongoing threat to democracies posed by cyber-interference from foreign nations and criminal organizations.

  • AREA 51What Is Most Likely Going on in Area 51? A National Security Historian Explains Why You Won’t Find Aliens There

    By Christopher Nichols

    One of the reasons people can never be entirely sure about what is going on at Area 51 is that it is a highly classified secret military facility. It was not until 2013 that the U.S. government even acknowledged the existence and name “Area 51.” As a national security historian, I know there’s a long history of secrets at Area 51. I also know that none of those secrets have anything to do with space aliens.