• Cyber-Attacks Against the U.K. Electoral Commission Reveal an Ongoing Threat to Democracy

    The revelations this month that data on 40 million UK voters had been exposed to hackers came as no surprise to many cybersecurity experts, who have long pointed out the vulnerability of democracies to malicious online interference. The attack reflects the serious and ongoing threat to democracies posed by cyber-interference from foreign nations and criminal organizations.

  • Government Regulation Can Effectively Curb Social-Media Dangers

    Social media posts such as those that promote terrorism and hate; spread medical misinformation; encourage dangerous challenges that put teen lives at risk; or those that glamorize suicide, pose a significant threat to society. New EU rules require social media platforms to take down flagged posts within 24 hours – and modelling shows that’s fast enough to have a dramatic effect on the spread of harmful content.

  • Tech Breakthrough Could Increase States’ Use of Geothermal Power

    Lawmakers in some states have been laying the groundwork to add geothermal power to the electrical grid and pump underground heat into buildings. Now, a technological breakthrough could dramatically expand those ambitions — and perhaps unleash a new wave of policies to tap into geothermal sources. If the technology’s promise is fulfilled, geothermal could power as much as 20% of the U.S. grid.

  • What Is Most Likely Going on in Area 51? A National Security Historian Explains Why You Won’t Find Aliens There

    One of the reasons people can never be entirely sure about what is going on at Area 51 is that it is a highly classified secret military facility. It was not until 2013 that the U.S. government even acknowledged the existence and name “Area 51.” As a national security historian, I know there’s a long history of secrets at Area 51. I also know that none of those secrets have anything to do with space aliens.

  • Nuclear Engineer Uses Machine Learning on Weapons Testing Images to Understand Fallout

    After WWII, the U.S. wanted to better understand what happened after a nuclear weapon was detonated. Researchers conducted tests in the southwestern U.S. and the Pacific Ocean and recorded those experiments on film. Scientists used the original reel-to-reel films to manually measure data from the blasts. Today, nuclear forensic scientists combine modern computational techniques with the historical records of nuclear tests to obtain precious insights into the physics of these type of events, which are otherwise hard to study experimentally.

  • China Courts Germany's Far-Right Populist AfD, Now Polling at Above 20%

    As is the case with other far-right populist parties in Europe, the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party rejects a values-based foreign policy, just as much as it opposes NATO and the U.S. That approach has attracted the attention of Beijing.

  • How Reliable and Robust Is Human Ability to Recognize Suspicious Activity?

    Security procedures at large public venues and transportation hubs rely upon vigilant and engaged security officers who are tasked, in part, with timely and appropriate responses to suspicious behavior of potential hostile actors. But how capable are individuals at detecting suspicious behavior?

  • Study Confirms Link Between Concealed Carry Weapons and Gun Homicide Rates

    Concealed guns significantly impact homicide rates and public safety, according to a Rutgers study that found an increase in homicides based on the number of concealed carry weapons licenses issued.

  • Incels: The Ideology, the Threat, and a Way Forward

    Misogynist ideology, beyond individual criminal behavior, has fueled violence against women worldwide. A new report explores the phenomenon of ‘incels’ (a portmanteau of ‘involuntary’ and ‘celibate’) and the misogynistic ideology that underpins this global community of men that has become a thriving internet subculture.

  • Why Some Wisconsin Lawmakers and Local Officials Have Changed Their Minds About Letting Undocumented Immigrants Drive

    “If we suddenly kicked out all of the people here, the undocumented, our dairy farms would collapse,” one lawmaker said. “We have to come up with a solution.”

  • FEMA Maps Said They Weren’t in a Flood Zone. Then Came the Rain.

    The most common reference for flood risk are the flood insurance rate maps, also known as 100-year floodplain maps, that the Federal Emergency Management Agency, or FEMA, produces. They designate so-called special flood hazard areas that have a roughly 1 percent chance of inundation in any given year. Properties within those zones are subject to more stringent building codes and regulations that, among other things, require anyone with a government-backed mortgage to carry flood insurance. Flaws in federal flood maps leave millions unprepared. Some are trying to fix that.

  • The Impending Privacy Threat of Self-Driving Cars

    With innovations often come unintended consequences—one of which is the massive collection of data required for an autonomous vehicle to function. The sheer amount of visual and other information collected by a fleet of cars traveling down public streets conjures the threat of the possibility for peoples’ movements to be tracked, aggregated, and retained by companies, law enforcement, or bad actors—including vendor employees.

  • Anti-Zionism Mutates into Anti-Semitism on the Political Left

    Expressions of anti-Israel bias from left-leaning political organizations in several European democracies have devolved into anti-Semitism and even violent attacks against local Jewish communities.

  • Safeguarding U.S. Laws and Legal Information Against Cyberattacks and Malicious Actors

    NYU Tandon School of Engineering researchers will develop new technologies to secure the “digital legal supply chain” — the processes by which official laws and legal information are recorded, stored, updated and distributed electronically.

  • Changing State Perception of Nuclear Deterrence in Japan and South Korea

    Japan and South Korea face the combined threat of an increasingly assertive China and a progressively more destabilizing North Korea, not to mention a Russia which has resumed its role as a Pacific power. The US has enhanced its engagement with its East Asian partners in nuclear planning and consultation mechanisms. The prospects of indigenous nuclear weapons acquisition by Japan and South Korea, though, cannot be ruled out.