• China Seeks to Harvest User Data from Global Apps to Boost Propaganda Efforts

    In the global discussion around data privacy and security, much attention has been rightfully placed on the Chinese-owned platform TikTok, with concerns that the user data it collects is accessible to Chinese authorities. But the issue of data collection on behalf of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), and its integration into propaganda efforts, extends far beyond a single app.

  • U.S. Sanctions on Iranian Hackers Highlight Growing Concern About the Islamic Republic’s Cyberwarriors

    A feature of the simmering tensions between the US, Israel and Iran has been not just the tit-for-tat missile and drone strikes and assassinations, but accusations of cyberwarfare waged by Iran.

  • Russia Accuses Ukrainian Energy Company Linked to Hunter Biden of Financing Terror

    Russia’s top investigative body said it had opened a probe into a Ukrainian company that formerly had ties to the son of U.S. President Joe Biden, in what likely is an effort to spread disinformation in the midst of the heated U.S. presidential election campaign.

  • Don’t Buy Moscow’s Shameless Campaign Tying Biden to Its Terrorist Attack

    Russia has offered many different explanations to the ISIS-K’s 22 March 2024 terrorist attack at the Crocus City Hall in Moscow, but the most recent explanation offered by Russia is the most audacious yet: Russia now charges that the Ukrainian energy company Burisma financed the attack. Burisma is at the center of an effort by a congressional committee to impeach President Biden, but the case has all but collapsed. Hunter Stoll writes that Russia’s disinformation and propaganda apparatus appears to be searching for ways to keep Burisma in the news ahead of the U.S. presidential election.

  • Is the EU Ready to Ward Off Spies and Foreign-Influence Peddlers?

    After a spate of foreign influence scandals at the European Parliament and in national capitals, EU officials are scrambling to get a handle on suspected Russian and Chinese espionage ahead of the June elections.

  • AfD's EU Election Ticket Unchanged Despite China’s Spying Scandal

    Maximilian Krah, the candidate of the far-right, populist AfD in June’s European elections, will stay on as candidate even though, on Tuesday, his senior aide was charged with spying for China. As is the case with other European far-right populist parties, the AfD is critical of NATO and the EU, and supports many of the policies of Russia and China.

  • Chinese Government Poses 'Bold and Unrelenting' Threat to U.S. Critical Infrastructure: FBI

    FBI Director Christopher Wray on 18 April warned that risks the government of China poses to U.S. national and economic security are “upon us now”—and that U.S. critical infrastructure is a prime target. He said that partnerships, joint operations, and private sector vigilance can help us fight back.

  • Spyware as Service: What the i-Soon Files Reveal About China’s Targeting of the Tibetan Diaspora

    Governments are increasingly incorporating cyber operations into the arsenal of statecraft. This sophisticated integration combines open-source intelligence, geospatial intelligence, human intelligence, and cyber espionage with artificial intelligence, allowing for the gathering and analysis of ever-expanding data sets. Increasingly, such operations are being outsourced.

  • Security Agencies Warn Election Officials to Brace for Attacks on U.S. Presidential Race

    U.S. intelligence and security agencies are trying to prepare election officials across the United States for a wave of new attacks aiming to destroy voter confidence in November’s presidential election, just as a series of reports warn that familiar adversaries – Russia, China, and Iran — are starting to ramp up their efforts.

  • Chinese Nationalist Trolls Pretend to Be Trump Supporters Ahead of U.S. Elections

    Chinese nationalist trolls have been posing as American supporters of former President Donald Trump on X to try to exploit domestic divisions ahead of the U.S. election. China’s so-called Spamouflage troll network mimics Russia’s playbook during the 2016 U.S. presidential election, when Moscow used information warfare to damage the Clinton campaign, boost Trump’s chances and sow distrust in American democracy.

  • Russia's Disinformation Campaign Seeps into U.S. Views

    The Washington Post recently published an investigation into an extensive and coordinated Russian campaign to influence U.S. public opinion to deny Ukraine the aid. The investigation exposed a Kremlin-linked campaign in which “political strategists and trolls have written thousands of fabricated news articles, social media posts and comments that promote American isolationism, stir fear over the United States’ border security and attempt to amplify U.S. economic and racial tensions,” the Post reported.

  • 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.