Drug trafficking

COVID-19 is costing drug cartels millions of dollars

The coronavirus pandemic has crippled cities and crushed businesses from coast to coast.

It’s also costing drug traffickers millions, multiple law enforcement officials told NBC News, because their methods of moving money have been compromised.

Since the start of the crisis, federal drug agents in major U.S. hubs have seized substantially more illicit cash than usual amid statewide lockdowns that have disrupted the way cartels do business, the officials said.

“Their activities are a lot more apparent than they were three months ago,” said Bill Bodner, special agent in charge of the Drug Enforcement Administration’s Los Angeles field office.

Bodner said California’s stay-at-home order has made it more difficult for traffickers to launder money and move around the city unseen.

Biosecurity

China tells U.S. to stop wasting time in coronavirus battle

The United States should stop wasting time in its fight against the coronavirus and work with China to combat it, rather than spreading lies and attacking the country, the Chinese government’s top diplomat Wang Yi said on Sunday.

Sino-U.S. ties have nosedived since the outbreak of the new coronavirus, with the administrations of President Donald Trump and President Xi Jinping repeatedly trading barbs over issues related to the pandemic, especially U.S. accusations of cover-ups and lack of transparency.

The two top economies have also clashed over Hong Kong, human rights, trade and U.S. support for Chinese-claimed Taiwan.

State Councillor Wang, speaking at his annual news conference on the sidelines of China’s parliament, expressed his deep sympathies to the United States for the pandemic, where the death toll is expected to surpass 100,000 in the coming days, the highest number of any country.

Electronic surveillance


Inside the NSA’s Secret Tool for Mapping Your Social Network

IN THE SUMMER of 2013, I spent my days sifting through the most extensive archive of top-secret files that had ever reached the hands of an American journalist. In a spectacular act of transgression against the National Security Agency, where he worked as a contractor, Edward Snowden had transmitted tens of thousands of classified documents to me, the columnist Glenn Greenwald, and the documentary filmmaker Laura Poitras.

One of those documents, the first to be made public in June 2013, revealed that the NSA was tracking billions of telephone calls made by Americans inside the US. The program became notorious, but its full story has not been told.

The first accounts revealed only bare bones. If you placed a call, whether local or international, the NSA stored the number you dialed, as well as the date, time and duration of the call. It was domestic surveillance, plain and simple. When the story broke, the NSA discounted the intrusion on privacy. The agency collected “only metadata,” it said, not the content of telephone calls. Only on rare occasions, it said, did it search the records for links among terrorists.

Foreign trade security

US dependence on Chinese imports posing potential threat on national security, think tank says

A new report by a British think tank shows that the U.S. is strategically dependent on China for 414 categories of imports, of which 114 service its critical national infrastructure -- and in some cases, these could pose a national security risk.

China has steadily increased its share of many markets over the years under the increasingly authoritarian leadership of President Xi Jinping, who has made clear his ambitions for global dominance

Today, the U.S. is strategically dependent on China for antibiotics, including penicillin and chloramphenicol; essential batteries including lithium; rare earth metals and critical elements like tungsten; vitamin supplements and even shipping containers, as well as safety glass, laptops, cell phones, life jackets and anchors.

Strategic Dependency is defined here as when "[a] country is a net importer of a particular good; it imports more than 50 percent of its supplies from China, and China controls more than 30 percent of the global market of that particular good," according to the report.

As China continues to bully economies, Matthew Henderson -- director of the Asia Studies Center at the Henry Jackson Society, and one of the authors of the report -- said that to turn this around requires a "decoupling" of the U.S. and Chinese economy and the forming of new partnerships in the Indo-Pacific region.

Health security

High blood pressure: Two helpings of this food a day could lower risk of the condition

High blood pressure, diabetes and obesity all fall under the medical term metallic syndrome (MetS) and are associated with greater risk of heart disease. But research carried out by scientists at McMaster University in Canada has suggested how these could be avoided - by eating full fat milk and cheese.

Previous advice from experts has urged adults to avoid full fat dairy products in order to stay healthy.

But the new study now suggests theses foods could be good for you.

The study involved 140,000 people from 21 countries and was conducted over nine years.

Questionnaires were used to assess participants’ diets over the duration of a year.

A serving of milk or cup of yoghurt was considered 244g, a slice of cheese 15g and butter 5g.

The researchers wrote in a BMJ journal: “Higher intake of whole fat (but not low fat) dairy was associated with a lower prevalence of MetS.”

They also hope their findings will help inform worldwide health initiatives to combat serious health problems.

Study author Balaji Bhavadharini said: “We report that intake of dairy products, especially whole fat products, is associated with lower prevalence of metabolic syndrome and its individual components at baseline, and a lower risk of hypertension and diabetes during follow-up.

Conspiracy theory

Over 40% of Republicans think Bill Gates will use COVID-19 vaccine to implant microchips, survey says

Fighting misinformation and conspiracy theories about the novel coronavirus has almost been as hard as battling the pandemic itself. And a new survey has found that one conspiracy theory about Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates is taking hold.

A conspiracy theory that Gates is planning to use a future COVID-19 vaccine to implant microchips in billions of people in order to monitor their movements has gained supporters particularly among Fox News viewers and Republicans, the survey found.

The representative survey of 1,640 US adults by YouGov for Yahoo News found that half of respondent Americans who say Fox News is their primary television news source believe the conspiracy theory. It's the largest group responding this way, followed by self-described Republicans and "Voted for Donald Trump in 2016" -- 44% of both those groups said they believed the conspiracy theory was true. Twenty-six percent of respondent Republicans said it was false, and 31% said they weren't sure.

Representatives for Fox News, the Republican Party, the White House and the Trump 2020 campaign didn't immediately respond to requests for comment. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which the namesake founders use to fund medical research and vaccine programs around the world, also didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.

Communication security

US Government Moving Forward in Defense of 5G Towers

The US Department of Homeland Security is getting ready to advise the telecom industry about actions that can be taken to prevent 5G cell towers from getting attacked following a rash of incidents in Western Europe and in the US, fueled by the false claim that the technology spreads the pathogen causing covid-19. Dozens of arson attacks on 5G towers in Britain, the Netherlands and Belgium last month over this backdrop.

5G is a technology that has very fast connections that can power items like self-driving cars and smart cities. Large telecom providers such as Verizon and AT&T are rapidly expanding the number of 5G cell tower sites across the US, often using existing 4G towers.

An industry official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive matter, referred to attacks in the US, saying: “It’s pretty clear,” said the official, who added that some of the attacks may be by “eco-terrorists,” according to washingtonpost.com.

DHS’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency will issue the alert with advice on ways to reduce the risk of attack, including installing appropriate sensing and barriers, cyberintrusion detection systems, closed-circuit television and monitoring drone activity near towers.

Communication security

Development in Global Tactical Communication Market

Tactical communication is transporting information through commands or codes using various methods, including verbal, visual, written, and auditory, among others. Tactical communication is mobile and more comfortable to set up, and so is preferred over the legacy equipment. The various devices include Soldier Radio, Manpack, Vehicular Intercommunications Radio, High Capacity Data Radio, and others, 

According to a market forecast by Bizlytik Intelligence & Technologies, global tactical communication is expected to reach USD 12,408 million by the end of 2026.

Tactical communication with low earth orbiting satellites is becoming popular among military forces across the globe. 

The growing funding and investments made into the development of weapons and tactical communication systems on a global scale are poised to impact the growth prospects of the tactical communications market positively. 

The global military expenditure rose to $1780 billion in 2018, an increase of 3.01% in comparison to 2017, according to figures from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI). The developed and emerging economies such as China, India, and Japan continue to increase its spending on military operations in an attempt to prepare its armed forces against the emergence of new threats and conflicts. A significant amount of budget spending goes to the development of tactical communication systems and equipment, according to the report cited by openpr.com.

Criminal investigation

Law enforcement needs a search warrant just to look at the lock screen on your smartphone, Seattle judge rules as robbery suspect says FBI turned on his phone and viewed the screen

Law enforcement needs a search warrant just to look at the lock screen on a suspect's smartphone, according to a ruling by a Seattle judge. 

Judge John Coughenour made a shock ruling in the US District Court in Seattle Monday that the FBI violated a robbery suspect's constitutional rights when an agent turned on his phone and viewed the screen. 

Coughenour said that looking at an individual's lock screen is classed as a search meaning law enforcement cannot do this without a search warrant.

The decision means evidence gained by law enforcement from the cellphone screen belonging to Joseph Sam - who was arrested for robbery and assault in May 2019 - has now been thrown out.

Aerospace

Stop Calling The B-52 Bomber ‘Old’ — It’s More Youthful Than A B-2 Stealth Bomber

The U.S. Air Force has asked industry to pitch a new engines for the service’s 76 B-52 bombers. With new motors, the B-52s could keep flying into the 2050s.

Or longer. The youngest B-52 rolled off Boeing’s Wichita production line in 1962. But it’s not fair to call the B-52 a 59-year-old airplane. Very little of any B-52 actually dates to the 1960s. In many ways, a B-52 is “younger” than airplanes from the 1980s and ’90s.

It’s not for no reason that, in 2018, the Air Force announced it would retire its 62 ’80s-vintage B-1Bs bombers and 20 newer B-2 stealth bombers by the 2030s, while retaining the the updated B-52s alongside a fleet of at least 100 new B-21 stealth bombers.

Forensics

Glasses Equipped With Facial Recognition Are Coming

If police around the world start wearing AR glasses equipped with facial recognition, there’s a good chance they’ll be made by Vuzix.

The Rochester, New York-based company has been by far the most bullish on the technology, partnering with companies around the world, including the infamous Clearview AI, to integrate facial recognition algorithms into its headset computer.

The push started in 2019, when Vuzix announced that it was partnering with another tech company, NNTC, to bring facial recognition to its devices. The technology was pitched as a solution for police and security professionals, who could now identify blacklisted individuals in real time. Suddenly, facial recognition without infrastructure like CCTV cameras became possible.

Now, Vuzix seems dead set on bringing facial recognition to its AR glasses. In February, Gizmodo reported that Vuzix was working with Clearview AI to bring its billion-person facial recognition to Vuzix’s AR glasses. (Clearview said at the time that the app was just a prototype.)

Vuzix also recently announced that it was working with a company called TensorMark to bring facial recognition to the company’s headsets. Vuzix is pitching its product as a solution not just for security, but also border patrol, first responders, retail, hospitality, and banking.

Cybersecurity

Top 5 Must-Use Cybersecurity Tools

Nearly 60% of the world’s population has regular access to the Internet, a figure that jumps to more than 85% for developed nations in Europe and North America, while the introduction and widespread adoption of mobile devices and the Internet of Things (IoT) means that the Internet plays a greater and greater role in our daily lives. 

At the same time, fewer than 50% of respondents in a 2017 survey could correctly define basic terms like “ransomware” or determine the accuracy of statements like, “All email is encrypted by default,” or “all Wi-Fi traffic is encrypted by default on all wireless routers” (both of which are false). This lack of awareness makes it easier for cybercriminals to steal personal information and hack into businesses. 

If you’re like most people, you use the Internet in professional and personal settings every day: sending emails, sharing and editing documents, posting photos on social media, and managing your finances. 

Laser

The US successfully tested a laser weapon that can destroy aircraft mid-flight

A US Navy warship has successfully tested a new high-energy laser weapon that can destroy aircraft mid-flight, the Navy's Pacific Fleet said in a statement Friday.

Images and videos provided by the Navy show the amphibious transport dock ship USS Portland executing "the first system-level implementation of a high-energy class solid-state laser" to disable an aerial drone aircraft, the statement said.

The images show the laser emanating from the deck of the warship. Short video clips show what appears to be the drone burning.

The Navy did not give a specific location of the laser weapons system demonstrator (LWSD) test, saying only that it occurred in the Pacific on May 16.

Drug smuggling

Navy Makes Important Narco Submarine Capture

The narco-submarine may not have been expecting a guided missile destroyer to be bearing down on it. Until April this year, U.S. Navy warships were less often involved in drug submarine busts on the high seas. But the Trump administration’s new enhanced counter-narcotics operations has changed that, as a narco-sub found out on May 14. This may mark the start of a new age in narco-submarine interdiction.

Despite its inherent stealthiness the vessel was detected by a P-8 Poseidon from the VP-26 ‘Tridents’ squadron of the U.S. Navy. A destroyer, USS Pinckney, with a U.S. Coast Guard team aboard, then moved into position to intercept it. The destroyer’s SH-60 Sea Hawk helicopters and fast boats made the interdiction. This was the first reported narco-sub seizure since President Trump announced 'enhanced counter-narcotics operations' on April 1.

WWII history

Heinrich Himmler: How a fake stamp led to the Nazi SS leader's capture

A document vital to the capture of top Nazi Heinrich Himmler has been unearthed in the UK 75 years after his death. The items belonging to the SS leader, found in the possessions of a judge, are now due to go on display.

On 22 May 1945, a trio of odd-looking men were spotted by a patrol near a checkpoint in Bremervörde, northern Germany.

It was just a few weeks after World War Two had ended but many Nazis were still at large and there were fears some might try to regroup or escape.

Two of the men, wearing smart long green overcoats, were walking ahead of a third man. The trailing figure, sporting an eye patch, looked broken and dishevelled. The pair in front kept glancing back as if to make sure he was still there.

They were taken to a checkpoint where British soldiers asked to see their papers. They handed over the A4-sized identity document German soldiers were given at the end of the conflict which listed their name, rank, date of birth and other information. The third man's papers said he was a sergeant named Heinrich Hizinger.

Law & order

Justice Department moves to drop charges against Russians indicted in the Mueller probe

The Justice Department on Monday moved to drop its case against two Russian entities who were indicted as part of the former special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into Russia's interference in the 2016 US election.

In a court filing, prosecutors accused one of those companies, Concord Management and Consulting, LLC, of taking advantage of the US legal process and discovery to try to harm national security. All the while, the filing said, Concord refused to comply with its own legal obligations under the US judicial system.

That included complying with court-issued subpoenas, ignoring a court order to make available a corporate representative, and submitting a "misleading (at best) declaration from an incredible declarant, Yevgeniy Prigozhin, the Russian oligarch and co-defendant who controls Concord and is alleged in the indictment as having funded and directed the defendants' election interference campaign."

Climate security

Climate change has already made parts of the world too hot for humans

Global warming has already made parts of the world hotter than the human body can withstand, decades earlier than climate models expected.

Measurements at Jacobabad in Pakistan and Ras al Khaimah in the United Arab Emirates have both repeatedly spent at least 1 or 2 hours over a deadly threshold, an analysis of weather station data has found.

Wet bulb temperature (TW) is a measure of heat and humidity, taken from a thermometer covered in a water-soaked cloth. Beyond a TW threshold of 35°C, the body is unable to cool itself by sweating. Lower levels can also be deadly, as was seen in the 2003 European heatwave, which killed thousands of people without passing a TW of 28°C.

Tom Matthews at Loughborough University, UK, and his colleagues analysed weather station data from around the world, and found that the frequency of wet bulb temperatures exceeding a series of temperature intervals between 27°C and 35°C had all doubled since 1979.

Most frequency increases were in the Gulf, India, Pakistan, the US and Mexico. But at Jacobabad and Ras al Khaimah, a TW of 35°C appears to have been passed, the first time the breach has been reported in scientific literature.

Immigration security

Rights groups: Trump's 'exploiting a health crisis' to end asylum

The Trump administration on Tuesday indefinitely extended its policy of urgently expelling most migrants and asylum seekers crossing the border irregularly in a move rights groups said is an effort to "exploit a health crisis" to effectively end asylum at the US-Mexico border.

Robert Redfield, the director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), issued the extension of the order that authorises Customs and Border Protection (CBP) to immediately remove migrants and asylum seekers in an effort to stem the spread of the coronavirus while in custody.

President Donald Trump's administration issued the initial 30-day order in March, and it was extended for another month in April. The new version notably has no fixed end date, though it said the CDC will review public health data every 30 days to ensure it is still necessary.

Immigrant rights advocates said the order violates obligations the US has towards asylum seekers.

"These now indefinite restrictions have nothing to do with curbing the spread of COVID-19," said Andrea Flores, deputy director of immigration policy for the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).

War on terror

U.S. carried out strike on Pensacola shooter's al Qaeda contact in Yemen after the FBI broke through encryption on his iPhones

The US carried out a counter-terrorism operation targeting an al Qaeda operative in Yemen after cellphone evidence linked him the gunman who attacked a Florida naval base.   

Attorney General Bill Barr on Monday announced that the FBI had managed to break through the encryption protecting two iPhones used by Mohammed Alshamrani, the Saudi military trainee who killed three US sailors and injured eight others in the December shooting at the Naval Air Base Station in Pensacola. 

Barr said data stored on the devices led to a strike against one of Alshamrani's contacts with al Qaeda's branch in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP). 

'The information from the phones has already proven invaluable in protecting the American people,' he said. 'A counter-terrorism operation targeting AQAP operative Abdullah al-Maliki, one of Alshamrani's overseas associates, was recently conducted in Yemen. We will not hesitate to act against those who harm Americans.' 

He declined to say whether al-Maliki was killed in that operation, but said he was 'very pleased' with the outcome.  

Information security

Researchers Use a Beer App To Track the Military and CIA

A beer networking app with millions of followers inadvertently allowed security researchers to track military and intelligence personnel, including at a top secret CIA facility.

Researchers with the group Bellingcat discovered check-ins at places as diverse as the Pentagon, Germany, and Greenland. The researchers also discovered shared photos that included shots of government ID cards, documents, and military hardware. The data could be used to reconstruct travel and work habits of military and intelligence personnel, including precise locations.

The beer rating app Untappd has a big following in the U.S. and Europe, and is used by beer drinkers to discover new bars, breweries, and beers. Users rate beers, unlock badges, get directions to local events, and most importantly share that information with others. Untappd has 8 million users, including those in armed forces and intelligence agencies worldwide.

Foreign investment security

Japan models a new look for national security

Japan’s newly defined restrictions on foreign investment, which were laid out last week and designate companies according to their importance to national security, seem wilfully concocted to confuse. Value Golf, a website for booking tee-off times, can be found in the same non-critical category as MUFG, the country’s largest bank. Golf-Do, a purveyor of second-hand clubs, sits a rung of sensitivity higher along with Fanuc, Japan’s most important manufacturer of industrial robots. Resort Trust, which operates a chain of luxury golf courses, ranks in the most protected group alongside Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, which builds military submarines. Quirkily triaged, perhaps. But also revealing of Japan’s attitude towards business and, possibly, a template for governments around the world as coronavirus violently redefines the scope and meaning of national security.

Politics

Divided America imperils national security and economic prosperity

When turning on the cable news or diving into social media, it is obvious that Americans find themselves living in either red or blue realities. From the pandemic response to even relitigating the 2016 election, everything is viewed through political lenses. Such partisanship itself is nothing new. It is as old as the republic itself. But we stand on perilous ground as we let partisanship color our perceptions of the government, the role it plays in our safety and security, and a sense of national unity. It has led us to this grey point in history as we face challenges at home and abroad.

As the death toll from the coronavirus pandemic increases, there is a left versus right divide over the efficacy of masks, the severity of the disease, and believing the fatality rate. Rather than a cohesive strategy to balance the concerns of public health with the economic impact of closures, the debate has become a false choice between public health and economic recovery. Pundits, rather than doctors and scientists, have even spoken about several therapies regardless of possibly fatal side effects.

Cybersecurity

US Department of Homeland Security Warns of Office 365 Security Risks

We have been discussing the abrupt roll-out of remote workforce capabilities both in this space (here and here) and in our recent webinar.   As companies raced to get employees up and running remotely, business continuity was the primary focus, while privacy and cybersecurity issues likely took a backseat.   The Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) has issued an alert providing security advice for companies that may have rushed out Microsoft Office 365 (O365) deployments to support these remote work environments. 

CISA warns in this latest alert that it continues to see companies that have failed to implement the necessary security for the Office 365 implementation, and expresses concern that the hurried nature of the deployments may have led to important security configuration oversights that could be (and have been in the past) exploited by bad actors.

CISA says “In recent weeks, organizations have been forced to change their collaboration methods to support a full ‘work from home’ workforce… While the abrupt shift to work-from-home may necessitate rapid deployment of cloud collaboration services, such as O365, hasty deployment can lead to oversights in security configurations and undermine a sound O365-specific security strategy. 

Electronic surveillance

BND: Court curbs German spy agency's bugging abroad

Germany's highest court has ruled that laws allowing the country's BND foreign intelligence service to spy on foreigners' telecommunications outside Germany breach fundamental rights.

The Constitutional Court case was brought by foreign journalists, who say the ruling is a win for press freedom.

The BND will no longer be able to monitor the emails or other data of foreigners abroad, without good reason.

Currently some of that data is passed on to other countries' spy agencies.

The key question considered by the court was whether the German state was bound by the protections of the constitution outside the country.

The BND (Federal Intelligence Service) is already barred from snooping on German citizens' internet data abroad but the new ruling means that German spies will only be able to monitor foreign nationals abroad if there is evidence of a threat.

Nuclear security

US nukes in Poland would not be a deterrent, but a MASSIVE provocation for Russia

The US has promoted the deployment of US nuclear weapons on Polish soil as part of NATO’s ‘nuclear sharing’ arrangement. Such a move would only increase the chances of the very war such a deployment seeks to deter.

For the second time in little more than a year, the US ambassadors to Germany and Poland have commented on matters of NATO security in a manner which undermines the unity of the alliance while threatening European security by seeking to alter the balance of power in a way that is unduly provocative to Russia. 

Richard Grenell, the US ambassador to Germany and the acting director of national intelligence, put matters into motion by writing an OpEd for the German newspaper Die Welt, criticizing politicians from within Chancellor Angela Merkel’s ruling coalition who were openly calling for the US to withdraw its nuclear weapons from German soil.

Adding fuel to the fire, the US ambassador to Poland, Georgette Mosbacher, tweeted out two days later that “If Germany wants to diminish nuclear capability and weaken NATO, perhaps Poland – which pays its fair share, understands the risks, and is on NATO’s eastern flank – could house the capabilities here.”

Weapons

This Russian Howitzer Had a Bigger Gun Than Iowa-Class Battleships

During the early years of the Cold War, American and Soviet strategic thinking firmly believed that the opening hours of the next major European war would involve incredibly devastating salvos of nuclear weapons. This assumption dominated strategic thinking in the 1950s, and planners developed a wild array of prototype tanks, turboprops, and jets that would be able to survive these crucial first hours by either avoiding nuclear explosions all together, or by being impervious to nuclear weapons thanks to excellent armor protection.

During the early Cold War years, the primary means of delivering nuclear payload was via the air from bombers, or from land—by artillery. And not just any artillery, massively large artillery. The 2B1 Oka is a prime example of huge nuclear-capable artillery that thankfully never made it past the prototype stage.

2B1 Oka

The Oka gets its name from the Oka River, in central Russia. It was a self-propelled howitzer, essentially an armored tank hull without a turret that had an artillery piece mated to the top. The Oka used a T-10 heavy tank hull as a chassis. The T-10 was equipped with a diesel engine with a respectable 750 horsepower output. Since the Oka used an actual tank hull for movement rather than a specially-built hull, it had better protection, at a higher weight cost. This higher weight combined with the impossibly large cannon on top severely hindered mobility.

Health security

Scientists in China believe new drug can stop pandemic 'without vaccine'

A Chinese laboratory has been developing a drug it believes has the power to bring the coronavirus pandemic to a halt.

The outbreak first emerged in China late last year before spreading across the world, prompting an international race to find treatments and vaccines.

A drug being tested by scientists at China's prestigious Peking University could not only shorten the recovery time for those infected, but even offer short-term immunity from the virus, researchers say.

Sunney Xie, director of the university's Beijing Advanced Innovation Center for Genomics, told AFP that the drug has been successful at the animal testing stage.

"When we injected neutralising antibodies into infected mice, after five days the viral load was reduced by a factor of 2,500," said Xie.

"That means this potential drug has (a) therapeutic effect."

The drug uses neutralising antibodies -- produced by the human immune system to prevent the virus infecting cells -- which Xie's team isolated from the blood of 60 recovered patients.