• Biden to Quadruple Refugee Cap

    U.S. President Joe Biden, who initially decided to keep intact his predecessor’s historically low number of annual refugee admissions, Monday announced he is quadrupling this year’s total. Two weeks ago, the White House announced that the cap for the current fiscal year would be kept at 15,000, the level set by former President Donald Trump. That announcement came despite Biden’s promise that after his inauguration in January he would significantly expand the program.

  • Russia's Secret Services Betray Their Weakness

    Spying, attacks, murder: Moscow’s secret services have shown they are capable of striking even in the heart of the West. Intelligence experts, however, say they are marked by failure and limited means.

  • New AI tool Tracks Evolution of COVID-19 Conspiracy Theories on Social Media

    A new machine-learning program accurately identifies COVID-19-related conspiracy theories on social media and models how they evolved over time—a tool that could someday help public health officials combat misinformation online.

  • Mapping Local Earthquake Risks from Eagle Ford Fracking

    Scientists simulated the local risk of damaging or nuisance-level shaking caused by hydraulic fracturing across the Eagle Ford shale formation in Texas. The results could inform a new approach to managing human-caused earthquakes.

  • Superspreaders of Malign and Subversive Information on COVID-19

    The global spread of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) created a fertile ground for attempts to influence and destabilize different populations and countries. Both Russia and China have employed information manipulation during the COVID-19 pandemic to tarnish the reputation of the United States by emphasizing challenges with its pandemic response and characterizing U.S. systems as inadequate, and both countries falsely accused the United States of developing and intentionally spreading the virus.

  • How a Norwegian Government Report Shows the Limits of CFIUS Data Reviews

    Amid growing attention to data and national security threats from China, a recent Norwegian government report sheds light on the limits of a U.S. government process for tackling them: the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS). Kamran Kara-Pabani and Justin Sherman write that “CFIUS is still a useful and important mechanism for addressing the national security risks associated with direct foreign access to sensitive U.S. citizen data,” but that “policymakers must recognize that CFIUS must be complemented with other measures outside of the body’s scope.”

  • China's Disappeared Uyghurs: What Satellite Images Reveal

    One million Uyghurs and other ethnic minorities, maybe more, have vanished into a sprawling network of camps and prisons in China’s far west. Chinese officials at first denied the camps even existed. Then they claimed they were for training workers, or for re-educating potential radicals. Then they said it didn’t matter—everyone had graduated and was free to go. Satellite data reviewed by RAND tell a different story.

  • Next Major War Will Be “Very Different”: Def. Sec. Austin

    Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has warned of emerging cyber and space threats, along with the prospect of much bigger wars. “We can’t predict the future,” he added. “So what we need is the right mix of technology, operational concepts and capabilities — all woven together in a networked way that is so credible, so flexible and so formidable that it will give any adversary pause.” His remarks come amid concerns over China’s growing military assertiveness.

  • Displaced Conflict: Russia’s Qualified Success in Combatting Insurgency

    In both Syria and the North Caucasus, Russia claims success in fighting insurgency and terrorism, offering itself as a model of best practice. Closer examination, however, shows that this “success” carries major caveats and is more illusory than it first appears.

  • Unreliable Witness Testimony Biggest Cause of Miscarriages of Justice

    Unreliable witness testimony has been the biggest cause of miscarriages of justice over the past half century, a major new study suggests. The research also suggests that regulations governing the powers of police have been effective in reducing wrongful convictions caused by unreliable confessions.

  • The SolarWinds Hack Was All but Inevitable – Why National Cyber Defense Is a “Wicked” Problem and What Can Be Done about It

    Software supply chains are vulnerable to hackers: Many U.S. companies outsource software development because of a talent shortage, and some of that outsourcing goes to companies in Eastern Europe that are vulnerable to Russian operatives. One problem is that U.S. national cyber defense is split between the Department of Defense and the Department of Homeland Security, which leaves gaps in authority. There are no easy solutions to shoring up U.S. national cyber defenses.

  • Punitive Response to SolarWinds Would Be Misplaced, But Cyber Deterrence Still Matters

    Some analysts argue that the United States should respond to the SolarWinds breach by focusing on improving defenses, rather than on conducting a retaliatory response such as some government officials have been advocating. Apunitive response to SolarWinds may be unwise because the available evidence indicates that the objective of the operation was national security espionage. However, this does not mean that the pursuit of deterrence strategies to address other types of malicious behavior in cyberspace, beyond espionage, is a fool’s errand. Deterrence is not a one-size-fits-all concept in cyberspace—or in any other domain.

  • In the Wake of SolarWinds: Making and Breaking a Rules-Based Global Cyber Order

    We should recognize that the need to make careful distinctions between different categories of cyber operations, and shun the use of emotive and misleading language about “attacks,” should also be extended to the field of political influence via the internet. Using cyberspace to spread propaganda, influence political outcomes and reveal or invent damaging information is an extension of tactics that have been used in different ways for millennia—including by the U.S. Actually trying to rig U.S. elections by tampering with the count online would be completely different and vastly more serious.

  • Georgia State’s Designated National Center of Academic Excellence in Cyber Defense Research, Education

    The National Security Agency (NSA) and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) have designated Georgia State University as a National Center of Academic Excellence in Cyber Defense Research and a National Center of Academic Excellence in Cyber Defense Education through 2025.

  • France Arrests Seven Former Red Brigades Members

    French police on Wednesday arrested seven Italian nationals who members of the leftist Red Brigades terrorist group which terrorized Italy in the 1970s and 1980s. One of the group’s more spectacular crimes was the kidnapping and murder of a former Italian prime minister Aldo Moro.