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Not the X-Files: Where Are Unidentified Aerial Phenomena Sightings in the United States?
The February 2023 Chinese surveillance balloon incident raised questions about the degree to which the U.S. government knows who is flying what over its skies. Public reporting of unidentified aerial phenomena may help officials identify potential threats.
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How an “AI-tocracy” Emerges
Many scholars, analysts, and other observers have suggested that resistance to innovation is an Achilles’ heel of authoritarian regimes. But in China, the use of AI-driven facial recognition helps the regime repress dissent while enhancing the technology, researchers report.
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Chinese Intelligence-Linked Hackers Targeted U.S. Government Agencies in Microsoft Hack
Hackers linked to China’s intelligence agencies, are behind a monthlong campaign that breached some unclassified U.S. email systems, allowing them to access to a small number of accounts at the U.S. State Department and a handful of other organizations.
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Outlaw Alliance: How China and Chinese Mafias Overseas Protect Each Other’s Interests
The rise of Chinese organized crime in Europe highlights its ties to the Chinese state, national security officials say. Recent cases show the suspected role of mobsters in Beijing’s campaign to repress diaspora communities and amass influence.
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Maryland Think Tank Co-Director Charged for Acting as an Agent for China, Iran
Gal Luft, a dual U.S.-Israeli citizen, allegedly evaded FARA registration while working to advance the interests of China in the United States and seeking to broker the illicit sales of Chinese-manufactured weapons to several countries, and the sale of Iranian oil to China.
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Winning the 21st-Century Intelligence Contest
The conduct of intelligence activities is inherently a strategic dynamic between rival actors simultaneously playing offence and defense. Analogies with war, sporting contests and competition abound. The prize for a nation’s leadership? Holding an advantage in decision-making and action.
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China’s Ties to Cuba and Growing Presence in Latin America Raise Security Concerns in Washington, Even as Leaders Try to Ease Tensions
There have been news reports that China made deals with Cuba to set up an electronic eavesdropping station on the island nation, just 90 miles from Florida and build a military training facility there. The China-Cuba connection is just one example of how the Chinese government and Chinese companies have been expanding their influence on America’s doorstep for decades. Not just through trade and investment, but also through espionage, military, law enforcement and drug activities. Such activities will greatly affect U.S. national security for years to come.
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How U.S. Colleges, Universities Can Mitigate Risks Related to Foreign-Funded Language and Culture Institutes
A new report from the National Academies recommends steps that U.S. colleges and universities can take to identify and mitigate risks associated with foreign-funded language and culture institutes on campuses. The report follows one released in January that examined Confucius Institutes — Chinese government-funded language and culture centers.
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Recent Chinese Cyber Intrusions Signal a Strategic Shift
On 25 May, Australia and its partners in the Five Eyes intelligence-sharing network—Canada, New Zealand, the UK and the US—made a coordinated disclosure on a state-sponsored cyber hacking group dubbed ‘Volt Typhoon’. The group has been detected intruding on critical infrastructure since 2021, but the nature of recent intelligence on its behavior hints at worrying developments in the Chinese cyber establishment.
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U.S. Agencies Buy Vast Quantities of Personal Information on the Open Market – a Legal Scholar Explains Why and What It Means for Privacy in the Age of AI
The issues pf the protection of personal information in the digital age is increasingly urgent. Today’s commercially available information, coupled with the now-ubiquitous decision-making artificial intelligence and generative AI like ChatGPT, significantly increases the threat to privacy and civil liberties by giving the government access to sensitive personal information beyond even what it could collect through court-authorized surveillance.
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China’s Plans for Cuba May Go Beyond Spy Base: Analysts
Top U.S. lawmakers are calling on the Biden administration to brief Congress on the spy station China is building in Cuba, but American analysts fear that China’s plans for America’s backyard may go beyond intelligence gathering.
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Germany Restricts Influence of China's Confucius Institute
Germany’s education minister has called for “clear limits” to be imposed on the Confucius Institute, which promotes Chinese language and culture. There are currently 19 Confucius Institutes in Germany.
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As Cybercrime Evolves, Organizational Resilience Demands a Mindset Shift
Facing the threat of state-sponsored cyberattack groups, the financial motivations of organized cybercrime gangs and the reckless ambitions of loosely knit hacktivist collectives, organizations are fighting a cybersecurity battle on multiple fronts.
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From Wadham to GCHQ and Back: Robert Hannigan on Cybercrime, Spying and the AI Tsunami Coming Our Way
Is the much-vaunted cyber-Armageddon likely or even possible? One experts says that “‘State cyber threats do get overplayed. They can’t do everything and countries over-estimate their cyber capabilities – just as they over estimate their military capability.” The expert insists, however, that “The challenges are ‘moving very fast’, as potential attackers learn fast.”
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That Was the Coup That Was
This was a mutiny more than a coup or an insurrection, but possibly to Prigozhin’s surprise and certainly Putin’s alarm, it almost turned into something more. Putin faces a cruel dilemma: He cares about his survival, whether from Covid or coups. The unintended consequences of the Ukraine war are now threatening his regime. Any suggestion that he wants to get out of the war will aggravate the image of weakness; sticking with the war regardless of losses will aggravate his actual weaknesses.
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The long view
Kinetic Operations Bring Authoritarian Violence to Democratic Streets
Foreign interference in democracies has a multifaceted toolkit. In addition to information manipulation, the tactical tools authoritarian actors use to undermine democracy include cyber operations, economic coercion, malign finance, and civil society subversion.