• New Border Patrol chief faces uphill battle to reform agency

    As the first outsider appointed to run the Border Patrol in its 92-year history, former FBI official Mark Morgan starts his new job this week as chief with a target on his back. The selection of Morgan, a career FBI official, to run the 20,000-strong force sends a clear message: The Border Patrol has a culture problem that needs to be fixed. But with just seven months left in the Obama administration, the question remains whether Morgan can right an agency in turmoil or whether his appointment is merely symbolic.

  • How to stay anonymous online

    Anonymity networks protect people living under repressive regimes from surveillance of their Internet use. But the recent discovery of vulnerabilities in the most popular of these networks — Tor — has prompted computer scientists to try to come up with more secure anonymity schemes. These scientists have developed a new anonymity scheme that provides strong security guarantees but uses bandwidth much more efficiently than its predecessors, making it possible for network to protect users’ anonymity if all but one of its servers are compromised.

  • U.S. terror victims file suit against Facebook for failing to block Palestinian incitement

    The families of five Americans recently killed or injured by Palestinian terrorists have filed a lawsuit against Facebook for allowing the terrorist group Hamas to incite violence on its network. The plaintiffs are seeking $1 billion in punitive damages under the Anti-Terrorism Act, which allows American citizens who are victims of overseas terrorist attacks to sue in U.S. federal courts.

  • ISIS's finances have been damaged, but U.K. can do more

    In their report on ISIS’s finances, MPs on the Foreign Affairs Subcommittee say ISIS faces an increasingly desperate struggle to raise money. The so-called “richest terrorist group” may have generated more money than any other terrorist organizations but it also incurs unprecedented costs.

  • Banning Muslim face veil at the work place not discriminatory: Austria’s Supreme Court

    Rejecting employees’ requests to wear a veil at work is not discriminating against them, Austria’s highest courts has ruled. In the landmark decision, Austria’s Supreme Court (OGH) ruled that if items of clothing prevent communication, an employer may legally ban them at the work place. The question of whether or not Muslim women should be allowed to wear the Islamic veil at the work place or public schools – or even at public — is the subject of intense debate in Europe, and many states have legislated against it.

  • Your smart watch and fitness tracker may give away your PIN

    Wearable devices — Fitbits, Jawbones, Nike+, Apple Watches, and the like — are white-hot. The tech segment is already producing an estimated $14 billion in sales worldwide, and expected to more than double within four years, climbing to north of $30 billion. But a new research report reveals those cool wearables just may leak information as you use them.

  • ISIS using drones with explosives, spy cameras: Pentagon

    The Pentagon says that ISIS fighters are have been posing a growing threat to U.S. and Iraqi forces by using small commercial drones to carry improvised explosives devices (IEDs) or surveillance cameras. These drones are especially threatening because they can evade detection. The growing threat led the Joint Improvised-Threat Defeat Agency, the Pentagon’s office charged with keeping tab on and countering IEDs, to ask Congress for permission to reallocate $20 million to provide money for a counter-drone program.

  • ISIS caliphate shrinks a further 12 percent in 2016

    Territory controlled by ISIS shrunk by 12 percent in the first six months of 2016. In 2015 the ISIS caliphate shrunk by 12,800 km2 to 78,000 km2, a net loss of 14 percent. In the first six months of 2016, that territory shrunk again by 12 percent. As of 4 July 2016, ISIS controls roughly 68,300 km2 in Iraq and Syria, which is roughly the size of Ireland or West Virginia.

  • ISIS uses Whatsapp, Telegram to sell girls and women as sex slaves

    ISIS has been using instant messenger apps Whatsapp and Telegram to advertise Yazidi women and girls as young as 12 for sale as sex slaves. These apps are also being used to share photos databases of women held by ISIS as sex slaves. ISIS uses the apps to distribute these of photographs to ISIS militants manning the group’s checkpoints so that these women can be identified if they try to escape ISIS-controlled territory. Telegram and Facebook-owned Whatsapp both use end-to-end encryption, preventing the two companies from accessing users’ communications.

  • Feds tight-lipped on weeding out corrupt border agents

    In a video message intended for the tens of thousands of men and women working to keep drugs and people from illegally entering the United States, then-Deputy Border Patrol Chief Ron Colburn wanted to leave little doubt about the consequences for those who betrayed their mission. But whether most — or even a significant fraction of — corrupt federal border agents really are caught and punished is an open question.

  • Five officers killed by a sniper in Dallas (updated)

    Five police officers were killed, and seven officers and two civilians injured, on Thursday by 25-year old Micha Xavier Johnson, who opened fire on the officers during a protest march in Dallas. During a 3-hour standoff with the police, Johnson said he was not associated with any group or organization, and that his only purpose was to kill White people – especially White police officers. It was the deadliest attack on law enforcement officers since the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

  • U.S. decision to dismantle Saddam’s army led to ISIS emergence: U.K. foreign secretary

    Philip Hammond, the British foreign secretary, said that the single most disastrous mistake relating to the U.S. 2003 invasion of Iraq was the mass removal of supporters of the Ba’ath party from the Iraqi army. Hammond said this decision led directly to the creation of ISIS.

  • DHS announces the Countering Violent Extremism grant program

    Secretary of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson on Wednesday announced the Fiscal Year (FY) 2016 Countering Violent Extremism (CVE) Grant Program, with $10 million in available funds. DHS snotes that this is the first federal assistance program devoted exclusively to providing local communities with the resources to counter violent extremism in the homeland.

  • DHS announces the Countering Violent Extremism grant program

    Secretary of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson on Wednesday announced the Fiscal Year (FY) 2016 Countering Violent Extremism (CVE) Grant Program, with $10 million in available funds. DHS snotes that this is the first federal assistance program devoted exclusively to providing local communities with the resources to counter violent extremism in the homeland.

  • Schengen agreement allows free movement of terrorists: French security panel

    A French parliamentary committee said on Tuesday that potential terrorists can move too freely in the Schengen open-border area, and that EU member-states should more systematically flag up suspects on a shared police database. The committee also called for reforming France’s six intelligence services and recommended merging them into a single counterterrorism agency. The committee’s 300-page report focused on the debilitating effects of poor coordination among French police and intelligence services, and among the twenty-six European countries which are members of the Schengen agreement.