Cybersecurity

Trump says China could have hacked Democratic emails

President Donald Trump said China may have hacked the emails of Democratic officials to meddle with the 2016 presidential election, countering the view of U.S. intelligence officials who have said Moscow orchestrated the hacks.

In an interview transcript published on Sunday, Trump gave no evidence backing his allegation, first made on the eve of the Nov. 8 presidential election, that China could have hacked the emails of his rivals.

"If you don't catch a hacker, okay, in the act, it's very hard to say who did the hacking," the president said in an interview with CBS "Face the Nation." "(It) could have been China, could have been a lot of different groups."

The hackers roiled the presidential campaign by making public embarrassing emails sent by Democratic operatives and aides to Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. One email showed party leaders favoring Clinton over her rival in the campaign for the party's internal nomination contest.

Public security

How and Why Societal Elites Manipulate Public Fear

Have you ever wondered what causes mass hysteria? Have you ever considered that widespread public fear can be created and manipulated by powerful interest groups?

The sociological concept known as moralpanic offers valuable insights into how and why powerful social agents such as the news media and the police deliberately create public concern or fear of an individual or group.

Moral panic has been defined as a situation in which public fears and state interventions greatly exceed the objective threat posed to society by a particular individual or group who is/are claimed to be responsible for creating the threat in the first place.

Weapons

Russia develops hypersonic Zircon missile which can reach speeds of 7,400km/h

THE race to develop an unstoppable and unbeatable weapon capable of defeating all the military defence systems in the world is getting much too close for comfort.

According to multiple reports, Russia is expected to begin production soon of its 3M22 Zircon, a hypersonic missile that will travel 7400 kilometres per hour — five times the speed of sound — and will have a range of 400km. That’s just three minutes and 15 seconds from launch to impact.

Guided hypersonic missiles will be more accurate than traditional ballistic missiles and could conceivably be armed with nuclear warheads, according to the geopolitical analysis firm Stratfor.

And they’re coming, whether we like it or not. And they’ll be on our doorstep sooner, not later.

Weapons

US Army Exploring ‘Devastating’ New Weapon for Use In War with Russia



Were the United States to go to war with Russia, both sides could draw on deadly weapons that the world has never seen on a battlefield. On the Russian side, there are new and smaller tactical nuclear weapons. To counter them, the U.S. Army is taking another look at a “devastating” weapon, one first tested by the Air Force and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in 2013, the Kinetic Energy Projectile, or KEP, a tungsten-based charge moving at three times the speed of sound that can destroy anything in its path.

“Think of it as a big shotgun shell,” Maj. Gen. William Hix, the Army’s director of strategy, plans & policy, said a few weeks ago at the Booz Allen Hamilton Direct Energy Summit. But unlike a shotgun shell, Hix said, the KEP moves at incredible speeds of “Mach 3 to Mach 6.”

Randy Simpson, a weapons programs manager at Lawrence Livermore National Lab, explains that kinetic energy projectiles are warheads that “take advantage of high terminal speeds to deliver much more energy onto a target than the chemical explosives they carry would deliver alone.”

Policing

The Top 10 Items You Should Have in Your Patrol Bag

So back to the patrol bag, here are a few items that I carried in addition to my department issued equipment:

1. Purell hand sanitizer. I used a little spray bottle every time I touched something nasty if I didn’t have a chance to prepare with latex gloves.
2. Surgical face mask. It wasn’t for me. I kept it for the “spitters.”
3. It’s difficult to “spy” on potential bad guys from a marked police unit. But a set of Bushnell binos came in handy on a regular basis.
4. Leatherman pocket tool. It was like carrying a mini-toolbox in my patrol bag.
5. Baby wipes. These kind of duplicate the hand sanitizer, but I used them to wipe down the steering wheel and unit microphone before going into service. I also used them on telephone receivers in the station. All of these things can get pretty nasty from frequent use by so many people.
6. Quick reference guide to every conceivable social service in the county. You can look like a hero when you’re able to provide a person in distress with useful information.
7. Check lists for major incidents. I photo copied protocols from our department General Orders for things like OISs, or SWAT activations. I reduced them on the photo copy machine, then laminated each one and placed them on a ring in my gear bag.
8. Tylenol. I’m allergic to aspirin, so I carried my own pain reliever with me. It seemed like I needed these frequently.
9. My personal CPR mask. The department issued this item in the first aid kit in the trunk, yet I wanted my own.
10. Night vision monocular. Yes, this was an expensive toy, but it came in handy more times than I can articulate.

Immigration security

‘We do not wear burqa:’ Germany’s interior minister favors introduction of ‘dominant’ culture

The German Interior Minister has expressed support for the idea of introducing a “dominant culture” for German society that would define public life and serve as a guideline for the integration of migrants.

“Those, who feel confident about their own culture, are strong,” Thomas de Maiziere said in an opinion piece published in Bild daily’s weekend edition.

He also said he would like to “stimulate a discussion about a dominant culture for Germany with some theses” presenting a ten-point plan outlining his vision of what he described as a set of core features that define the nature of German society.

International security

‘Miserable end’: N. Korea threatens to sink US nuclear submarine in S. Korea

North Korea has promised to sink a US submarine currently deployed in South Korean waters if the Americans take provocative action. The statement comes shortly after Donald Trump said he won’t be “happy” if Pyongyang conducts another nuclear test.

North Korea’s state-controlled Uriminzokkiri news website warned on Sunday that “the USS Michigan won’t even be able to rise to the surface when it will meet a miserable end and turn into an underwater ghost.”

North Korea’s nuclear deterrent will assure that American aircraft carriers, nuclear submarines, and other military hardware will be “shattered into pieces of molten metal” if they threaten Pyongyang, the article read.

The deployment of the USS Michigan submarine and the USS Carl Vinson aircraft carrier group near the Korean peninsula “is aimed at further intensifying threats against our republic,” it added.

According to the article, recent statements coming from the Trump administration indicate that Washington is close to implementing a strategic scenario in which an actual military confrontation is a real possibility.

Climate security

Trans-Atlantic research aims to unlock climate change mysteries

Scientists from six countries have teamed up on a slow boat from Newfoundland to Ireland to take a hard look at the possible effects of climate change on the northwest Atlantic Ocean.

"It's going to take a month to get there because we stop every 30 miles and lower instruments down to the sea floor and collect water, bring it back up, and measure it," said Doug Wallace, a chemical oceanographer from Halifax's Dalhousie University who is leading a team of researchers on the Celtic Explorer.

"The Atlantic is one of the most important places where the ocean sucks carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere and delivers it into the deep ocean.""Understanding this part of the ocean is really key to understanding how climate change is happening and how it will happen in the future," he said.

People smuggling

100 teens may have been smuggled to Paris in 3 years; 2 more carriers held

City crime branch, probing trafficking of minors to Paris, arrested two more carriers on Tuesday for allegedly smuggling teenagers from Mumbai. Investigators said till date around 100 minors may have been smuggled to Paris and their parents' only motive appears to be that their children get better education and their family's "status" improves.

The two accused—Sunil Nandwani (53) of Kalyan and Narsaiyya Munjali (45) of Nalasopara—were arrested after their phone numbers were found in the seized documents.

"Nandwani has earlier carried five to six minors to Paris while Munjali recently made passports for two minors but was unable to get French visas. Both were produced before court and remanded to police custody till April 29," said an officer. Teenagers aged between 14 and 16 are taken to France and kept there till they turn 18, after which they apply for French citizenship.

Chemical security

Chemical weapons team ready to visit Syria if safety assured

The chief of the international chemical weapons watchdog says his team of experts is ready and willing to travel to the site of a deadly nerve gas attack in Syria if their safety can be assured.

Ahmet Uzumcu of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons says the experts are "willing to go to Khan Sheikhoun" — the town where almost 90 people died this month — and that they've "undertaken some actions."

However, Uzumcu cautioned on Friday the area is controlled by opposition fighters and that a temporary ceasefire would be needed to assure his team's safety.

Uzumcu didn't call the April 4 incident a chemical weapons attack but said tests by his organization have established beyond doubt that sarin or a similar toxin was used.

Free media security

A VPN will not save you from government surveillance

Late on Friday afternoon, the Commissioner of the Australian Federal Police waltzed out in front of the microphones and admitted that his agency had misused the metadata that the nation's telecommunication companies are forced to store.

It was a stunning admission. The nation had barely made it a fortnight since the deadline for telcos to have their data retention systems in place had passed, yet here was the AFP self-reporting an event that saw an officer in breach of the metadata laws, and despite years of preparation and interaction with metadata, placed the blame on "human error".

Naturally for the cynics watching, AFP Commissioner Andrew Colvin said the officer involved would not be punished, and the AFP said later in a statement that "it was not an offence under the Act".

Information security

Swiss 'spy' arrested in Frankfurt

A Swiss man has been arrested in Frankfurt on suspicion of spying.

German federal prosecutors said the man was suspected of having worked "for the intelligence service of a foreign power" since early 2012.

Reports suggest the man may have spied on German tax investigators.

Tax authorities in Germany have controversially bought CDs of information from whistleblowers in Swiss banks as they try to catch German residents with Swiss bank accounts.

The issue has caused friction between the Swiss and German governments. Authorities in Germany's federal states have justified the hefty payments by saying the information gained would lead to much larger sums in unpaid taxes being retrieved.

Cybersecurity

Google and Facebook duped in huge 'scam'

Google and Facebook have confirmed that they fell victim to an alleged $100m (£77m) scam.

In March, it was reported that a Lithuanian man had been charged over an email phishing attack against "two US-based internet companies" that were not named at the time.

They had allegedly been tricked into wiring more than $100m to the alleged scammer's bank accounts.

On 27 April, Fortune reported that the two victims were Facebook and Google.

The man accused of being behind the scam, Evaldas Rimasauskas, 48, allegedly posed as an Asia-based manufacturer and deceived the companies from at least 2013 until 2015.

Economic security

As Economy Grows, North Korea’s Grip on Society Is Tested

Unofficial market activity has flourished, too: people making and selling shoes, clothing, sweets and bread from their homes; traditional agricultural markets that appear in rural towns every 10 days; smugglers who peddle black-market goods like Hollywood movies, South Korean television dramas and smartphones that can be used near the Chinese border.
At least 40 percent of the population in North Korea is now engaged in some form of private enterprise, a level comparable to that of Hungary and Poland shortly after the fall of the Soviet bloc, the director of South Korea’s intelligence service, Lee Byung-ho, told lawmakers in a closed-door briefing in February.

Korea

Trump is not ruling out military action against North Korea

President Trump did not appear to be ruling out military action against North Korea if the country pushes forward with its nuclear weapons program.

In an interview with CBS News’s John Dickerson that aired Sunday on “Face the Nation,” Trump said he would not be pleased if North Korea takes that step.

“He’s going to have to do what he has to do. But he understands we’re not going to be very happy,” Trump said of the country’s leader, Kim Jong Un.

Pressed by Dickerson on whether he means there could be military action, Trump did not confirm, but he also did not deny.

“I don’t know,” he said. “I mean, we’ll see.”

Military cooperation

What’s Next for Iran-Russia Military Cooperation After Delivery of S-300?

Russia has entirely fulfilled the contract on delivering the S-300 air defense system to Iran in 2016, according to the head of Rostec Corporation Sergey Chemezov.

Chemezov confirmed this during a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in the Kremlin.

One of the most complicated deals in recent years between Iran and Russia has thus been successfully accomplished.
Russian S-300 systems are now part of the Iranian air defense.

Shoeib Bahman, an Iranian political analyst looked at how Iran and Russia will continue their military-technical cooperation in the future and what other projects the two countries are ready to discuss with each other.

Weapons

Fifth-Generation Kalashnikov Assault Rifles – What’s New?

The development process of the new Kalashnikov assault rifles models has been progressing. Russia’s Kalashnikov Concern plans to conclude field tests of its fifth-generation AK-12 and AK-15 assault rifles by the end of June, according to Rostec state corporation Industrial Director Sergey Abramov.

In February, it was announced that the Concern would increase staff by 1,700, amid a surge in export orders. Russian weapons are regarded as extremely reliable (it famously has a 0.02 error percentage), efficient and combat-proven, and there is much clamor for Kalashnikov goods in overseas markets, according to sputniknews.com.

The 5.45mm Kalashnikov AK-12 assault rifle is a perspective weapon which is eventually intended to replace previous generations of 5.45mm Kalashnikov assault rifles in service with Russian and other governmental forces (AK-74, AK-74M), according to defenseworld.net. AK-12 project was commenced in 2011 by IZHMASH factory (now part of the “Kalashnikov” concern) as a private venture, in an attempt to participate in the “Ratnik” trials which were held by Russian army.

Public security

Terrorism Prevention and Border Protection – New Face Recognition Tech

A new airport security platform was announced by the face recognition provider FaceFirst. Using unique feature recognition capabilities, the new Guardian platform identifies visitors in areas with high foot traffic and supplements the identification process for border control agents.

Humans can typically recall just a few hundred faces on demand, resulting in slow customs processes, and rendering terror watch lists issued by federal and local authorities of little practical use. In comparison, Guardian compares millions of images per second, helping to identify travelers in checkpoints against a vast image database. According to the company’s announcement on prweb.com, the airport security platform may also help authorities monitor the status of arriving visitors or departing passengers.

FaceFirst proactively detects threats at airports, railways and other public transportation centers. The company entered the transportation security sector at Panama’s Tocumen International Airport. Panama Security Minister quickly declared the program a success, citing an average of 30 people per day detected with a police background or wanted by INTERPOL. The program was subsequently expanded, making it the world’s largest biometric surveillance program worldwide.

Weapons trafficking

UNDERCOVER AGENT LEADS TO ARRESTS ON WEAPONS, DRUG TRAFFICKING SUSPICIONS

Israel Police arrested 20 suspects throughout Israel on Sunday after a months-long undercover operation in the weapons and drug trafficking trade. 

The agent, who operated for five months largely in Arab-Israeli communities, purchased three pistols, four M-16 rifles, an Uzi and Carl Gustav submachine guns, as well as hashish, cocaine, and ecstasy, during the course of the operation.

Police also confiscated NIS 100,000 and vehicles that were allegedly used in trafficking. 

Early Sunday morning some 160 police officers conducted raids and arrests in Kfar Kana, Beit Zarzir, Nazareth, Kaabiya, Zalafa and Ashkelon.

The suspects will appear before the Nazareth Magistrate’s Court on Sunday where police are seeking to extend their remands. 

“The undercover agent activity is part of an ongoing and uncompromising struggle against the phenomenon of the use and possession of weapons and drugs. This phenomenon harms the basic and personal security of the normal citizen,” The Northern District Police said in a statement. 

Nuclear security

Pyongyang slams Israel as ‘disturber of peace armed with illegal nukes under US patronage’

North Korea has accused Israel of being the “only illegal possessor” of nukes and threat to peace in the Middle East, and threatened Tel Aviv with a “thousand-fold punishment” after Israeli Defense Minister called Pyongyang’s leadership a “crazy and radical group.”

In an interview with Hebrew news site Walla this week, Avigdor Lieberman stated that North Korea’s leader Kim Jong-un is a “madman” in charge of a “crazy and radical group” which is “undermining global stability.”

Pyongyang “seems to have crossed the red line with its recent nuclear tests,” the Israeli defense minister said, according to the Times of Israel.

In response, Pyongyang promised a “thousand-fold punishment to whoever dares hurt the dignity of its supreme leadership,” calling Lieberman’s “sordid and wicked” remarks a part of Israel’s smear campaign to cover up its own crimes.

Firing back at the perceived hypocrisy, the North Korean Foreign Ministry said that, unlike Israel, which is a “disturber of peace” in its neighborhood, their country is full entitled to seek deterrence against “US aggression.”

Information security

CIA’s anti-leaking tool leaked as ‘whistleblowers watch the watchers’

Annie Machon: I’d be certainly alarmed if the CIA was only reliant on Microsoft in this day and age, but anyway. No, it is not a surprise. In fact, ironically, there was a document drawn up by the American intelligence agencies written in 2008 about how to tackle what was perceived to be an insider threat, as they called it, potential future whistleblowers. This was ironically leaked to WikiLeaks in 2010, so it came into a wider world. The knowledge has been there for many, many years to those both from the inside and those who watch from the outside that, actually, they do take whistleblowing and leaking very seriously. They are trying to take steps to try and stop it. The interesting thing about these CIA documents at the moment is that they date from between 2013 and 2016. So, whoever leaked this cache of documents that is appearing in WikiLeaks ‘Vault 7’ was probably well aware that these documents were indeed watermarked digitally, and they managed to evade that system anyway, because they successfully leaked these documents to WikiLeaks. So, who is watching watchers? Well, the whistleblowers are.

Energy security

Why nuclear power has no future in California or U.S.

To those who have watched the nuclear industry collapse, the recent bankruptcy of Westinghouse Electric Corp. is nothing short of the industry’s death rattle and the final chapter in the 20th century’s deluded affair with nuclear power.

The company’s demise can only be read as decisive proof: There is no economic future in nuclear power.

For decades, Westinghouse was the goliath of nuclear reactor design and construction. Approximately half of the world’s nuclear power reactors are based on Westinghouse technology.

In 2006, when Toshiba bought Westinghouse for $5.4 billion, the seller projected that by 2020 the global market for nuclear power generation was expected to have grown by 50 percent.

Chemical security

Mattis’ Politicized Intelligence on Syrian Chemical Claim

The Israeli intelligence followed on the heels of an April 13, 2017 speech given by CIA Director Mike Pompeo, who told an audience at the Center for Strategic and International Studies that, once information had come in about a chemical attack on Khan Shaykhun, the CIA had been able to “develop several hypothesis around that, and then to begin to develop fact patterns which either supported or suggested that the hypothesis wasn’t right.” The CIA, Pompeo said, was “in relatively short order able to deliver to [President Trump] a high-confidence assessment that, in fact, it was the Syrian regime that had launched chemical strikes against its own people in [Khan Shaykhun.]”

Corruption

Anti-Temer strike paralyses major cities in Brazil

"Shameless government" read one placard waved by one of a group of protesters who gathered outside Temer's family home in Sao Paulo.

Nearly one-third of Temer's ministers and several congressional leaders are under investigation in Brazil's largest political corruption scheme yet uncovered. It revolves around kickbacks from construction companies in return for winning lucrative projects at state-run oil company Petrobras.

The president himself has been accused of corruption. He has denied any wrongdoing.

War on terror

Pentagon Says ISIS Afghanistan Leader Likely Killed, Marines Return to Helmand

US and Afghan troops likely killed the leader of ISIS’ Afghanistan affiliate in a raid in Nangarhar province this week, the Pentagon has said, as US Marines returned to Helmand, where American troops faced heated fighting until NATO’s combat mission ended in 2014.

The US raid, which occurred overnight Wednesday-Thursday, targeted Abdul Hasib, whom the Pentagon called the ISIS leader in Afghanistan.

“The thought is we got him, but we are not certain,” Pentagon spokesman Captain Jeff Davis said.

Davis said about 50 US special forces and 40 Afghan commandos had been chopered in to the Mohmand Valley late Wednesday near the compound used by Hasib.

His group is affiliated with ISIS in Iraq and Syria, and the US military calls it ISIS-Khorasan, or ISIS-K.

Defense

Trump sends South Korea a $1 billion invoice for THAAD

US President Donald Trump said South Korea would have to pay US$1 billion in expenses for the THAAD missile defense system deployment, a position he said he had informed the South Korean government of.

The demand is expected to trigger some controversy, with the US’s calls for Seoul to pay a hefty price tag on the THAAD deployment coming on the heels of a surprise delivery of components to make the deployment a fait accompli before a new South Korean administration takes office next month.

Trump also blasted the South Korea-US Free Trade Agreement (KORUS FTA) as a “horrible” deal and declared it should be either renegotiated or terminated. With this, the Trump administration is lobbing two grenades at the alliance simultaneously - demanding Seoul pay up on THAAD and renegotiating or terminating the KORUS FTA - in a move that focuses on US interests while ignoring the economic retribution South Korea is suffering from China over THAAD.

Asia-Pacific

China draws red line for North Korea issue: war is not allowed

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi took a tough position on the North Korea issue on Wednesday, saying that war on the Korean Peninsula is absolutely unacceptable.

Wang made the remarks in a press conference after a Sino-German dialogue on cooperation with Sigmar Gabriel, the German vice-chancellor and foreign minister in Germany.

“Of course we believe that the continued nuclear tests violate UN Security Council resolutions, but carrying out nonstop military exercises around the Korean Peninsula is clearly not in line with the spirit of Council resolutions,” Wang Yi said. He added that it is imperative to return to dialogue as soon as possible.

Wang Yi said that the goal of the Chinese side is firm; that is, to realize the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula and establish a mechanism for peace on the Peninsula.

Intelligence community

Law enforcement and intelligence agencies are not synonymous

With the ongoing threat of ISIS-inspired terrorist attacks, active shooter incidents and non-financially motivated cyber-attacks; there has been increased public discussion about how law enforcement and intelligence keeps tabs on suspected threats. 

While similar public and political discourse led to an end to the NSA’s metadata collection program, it would be important to clarify the difference between the roles of law enforcement and intelligence agencies, and their capabilities in today’s overlapping war on terrorism.

A major problem when addressing this issue lies in the fact that Americans have been fed a steady diet of television and movie plots centered on CIA operations on American soil. These fictional stories, such as the Showtime cable drama “Homeland,” are so pervasive that most Americans are totally unaware that the CIA has no charter to operate on American soil. 

International security

U.S. wants more U.N. sanctions over North Korea’s nuclear arms, warns time is short

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson called Friday for new economic sanctions on North Korea and other “painful” measures over its nuclear weapons program, as the Trump administration warned that it would take military action if diplomacy failed.

“Failing to act now on the most pressing security issue in the world may bring catastrophic consequences,” Tillerson said during an unusual high-level session of the U.N. Security Council called to review what the Trump administration calls its most dire national security concern. “The more we bide our time, the sooner we will run out of it.”

Asian-Pacific

RUSSIA: Military options against North Korea unacceptable

Russia on Friday warned at the United Nations that military options to address the threat from North Korea’s nuclear and ballistic programs were “completely unacceptable” and would have “catastrophic consequences.”

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Gennady Gatilov told the Security Council that China’s proposals to re-start talks with North Korea should be seriously examined and that sanctions alone would not work.

North Korea “is conducting itself in an inappropriate way,” Gatilov told the council.

“At the same time, options of using force are completely unacceptable and could lead to catastrophic consequences.”

The Security Council was meeting to try to agree on a global response to North Korea that the United States maintains must involve China ramping up pressure on its Pyongyang ally.

Electronic surveillance

N.S.A. Halts Collection of Americans’ Emails About Foreign Targets

The National Security Agency said Friday that it had halted one of the most disputed practices of its warrantless surveillance program, ending a once-secret form of wiretapping that dates to the Bush administration’s post-Sept. 11 expansion of national security powers.

The agency is no longer collecting Americans’ emails and texts exchanged with people overseas that simply mention identifying terms — like email addresses — for foreigners whom the agency is spying on, but are neither to nor from those targets.

The decision is a major development in American surveillance policy. Privacy advocates have argued that the practice skirted or overstepped the Fourth Amendment.

Weapons trafficking

MS-13 - The gang that scares other gangs

They’re known as MS-13, MS, Mara or Mara Salvatrucha, but by any name, they’re trouble.

MS-13 is a Central American gang founded in Los Angeles in the 1980s by Salvadoran immigrants. While still heavily represented in California, they have spread across the nation—into at least 42 states and Washington, D.C.-- and beyond, especially into Central America.

It’s estimated there are more than 10,000 members in the U.S., and over 30,000 worldwide.

Many gang members can be recognized by elaborate tattoos and special hand signals they use, but it’s their criminal activities and tremendous violence that have got the attention of the FBI and ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement). They are known for using machetes to hack some of their victims.