• France Fights Disinformation as Olympics, Elections Loom

    With the Paris Olympics and Paralympics approaching — not to mention the European elections in June — France is ramping up its fight against information manipulation. EU officials are also on guard.

  • Memo: The Reported Destruction of Secret Workshop in 2020

    On March 24, 2024, Iran International reported that an “industrial production workshop […] belonging to the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) was deliberately set on fire” in the summer of 2020. 1 The incident was not reported publicly at the time, and Iran International cites judicial and intelligence documents provided by a hacking group as their source. Iran alleged that the Israeli intelligence service, Mossad, hired a group of nine Iranians to destroy the facility.

  • Biden to Xi: Stay Out of U.S. Elections

    President Joe Biden again warned Chinese President Xi Jinping against meddling in the November U.S. presidential election during the two leaders’ phone call Tuesday. Covert Chinese accounts are masquerading online as American supporters of former President Donald Trump, promoting conspiracy theories, stoking domestic divisions, and attacking President Biden ahead of the election in November, according to researchers and government officials.

  • Canada’s Biosecurity Scandal: The Risks of Foreign Interference in Life Sciences

    In July 2019, world-renowned biological researchers Xiangguo Qiu and Keding Cheng were quietly walked out of the Canadian government’s National Microbiology Lab (NML). The original allegation against them was that Qiu had authorized a shipment to China of some of the deadliest viruses on the planet, including Ebola and Nipah. Then the story seemed to go away—until now.

  • U.S. Unpersuaded by Report Blaming Russia for ‘Havana Syndrome’

    The United States is backing a year-old intelligence assessment that health problems affecting, and in some cases incapacitating, hundreds of American personnel around the world are not the result of a weapon wielded by a U.S. adversary. The White House, the Pentagon and the State Department Monday stood by a March 2023 report by the National Intelligence Council that concluded it is “very unlikely” the adverse symptoms known as Havana Syndrome were caused by enemy operatives.

  • What Is Volt Typhoon? A Cybersecurity Expert Explains the Chinese Hackers Targeting U.S. Critical Infrastructure

    Volt Typhoon is a Chinese state-sponsored hacker group. The United States government and its primary global intelligence partners, known as the Five Eyes, issued a warning on March 19, 2024, about the group’s activity targeting critical infrastructure. The warning echoes analyses by the cybersecurity community about Chinese state-sponsored hacking in recent years.

  • States Rush to Combat AI Threat to Elections

    This year’s presidential election will be the first since generative AI became widely available. That’s raising fears that millions of voters could be deceived by a barrage of political deepfakes. Congress has done little to address the issue, but states are moving aggressively to respond — though questions remain about how effective any new measures to combat AI-created disinformation will be.

  • Chinese Government Hackers Targeted Critics of China, U.S. Businesses and Politicians

    An indictment was unsealed Monday charging seven nationals of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) with conspiracy to commit computer intrusions and conspiracy to commit wire fraud for their involvement in a PRC-based hacking group that spent approximately 14 years targeting U.S. and foreign critics, businesses, and political officials in furtherance of the PRC’s economic espionage and foreign intelligence objectives.

  • Moscow Attack: Why Intelligence Agencies Share Information

    Intelligence agencies are secretive, gathering information to bolster national security or help their governments make political decisions. But at times they share information with the intelligence services of an adversary, and when it comes to fighting terrorism, intelligence agencies are surprisingly generous about sharing information. The U.S. said it warned Russia of a potential attack like the one that took place in Moscow on March 22.

  • U.S. Election: Turning Off TikTok Is a Big Risk for the Democrats

    Popular social media platform TikTok stands accused of holding US data in China, fostering censorship, and spreading disinformation. Its popularity poses a dilemma for US politicians, but especially Democrats who have heavily relied on the app to reach its core base of young voters.

  • Owners of China-Based Company Charged with Conspiracy to Send Trade Secrets Belonging to Leading U.S.-Based Electric Vehicle Company

    Defendants allegedly conspired to send millions of dollars-worth of trade secrets to undercover law enforcement officers posing as potential customers.

  • Russia Steps Up Spy War on West

    Russia has successfully relaunched its spy operations against the West after hundreds of its operatives were ejected following Moscow’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine, according to analysts. They warn that the Kremlin is using a network of proxies to infiltrate European nations and carry out a range of intelligence operations.

  • Artificial Intelligence Is Game Changer for Election Interference: FBI

    U.S. security officials are bracing for an onslaught of fast-paced influence operations, from a wide range of adversaries, aimed at impacting the country’s coming presidential election. FBI Director Christopher Wray issued the latest warning in a meeting with security professional Thursday, saying that technologies such as artificial intelligence are already altering the threat landscape.

  • Last of the ‘True Believers’ or Harbinger? Ana Montes and the Future of Espionage Against the West

    Ana Montes was U.S. Intelligence’s ‘Queen of Cuba’. The Defense Intelligence Agency’s leading Central America analyst; go-to voice on Cuban intentions and capabilities; eldest daughter of a family dedicated to U.S. government service. She was also a Cuban spy her entire professional life. She was a ’True Believer’ –motivated not by material rewards but by commitment to Castro’s revolution and opposition to U.S. policy in Latin America.

  • Research Espionage Is a Real Threat – but a Drastic Crackdown Could Stifle Vital International Collaboration

    In 2024, China is a peer of the US in research and knowledge creation. We must be clear-eyed about threats to “research security”. But a one-eyed focus on China, and adopting a simplistic and heavy-handed approach to managing these threats, will only leave us worse off.