Public security

New Tech to Detect Threats in Crowded Environments

Everyone wants to be safe and secure, but is it realistic to perform in crowded environments such as a metro station security screening like the one at the airport? An imaging technology designed to unobtrusively detect potential threat items in a crowd has been developed by MIT Lincoln Laboratory researchers. The development consists of techniques and algorithms that will work to help security personnel obtain insight from microwave images.

The US Department of Homeland Security‘s science and technology directorate collaborated with the laboratory to evaluate the innovation. The developmental test and evaluation of the millimeter wave imager prototype took place at the Massachusetts Bay Transit Authority’s (MBTA) emergency training center in Boston. The facility served as an excellent testing venue by providing a realistic electromagnetic environment to gauge how the system will function in an operational metro station, according to dhs.gov.

The researchers recorded the prototype’s capacity to recognize multiple simulated threat items on a rail platform at various distances as people moved within a radar’s field of view. DHS noted the millimeter wave imager consists of antennas that are mounted on flat panels and built to process low-power radio signals.

Electronic surveillance

U.K. COURT FINDS GOVERNMENT’S SURVEILLANCE POWERS UNLAWFUL

THE U.K. GOVERNMENT’S mass surveillance powers were deemed unlawful on Tuesday in a court ruling that could force changes to the country’s spy laws.

Three judges at London’s Court of Appeal found that a sweeping data retention law, which allowed authorities to access people’s phone and email records, was not subject to adequate safeguards. The court ruledthat access to the private data “should be restricted to the objective of fighting serious crime”; the court also said that such data should not be turned over to authorities until after a “prior review by a court or an independent administrative body.”

The case was originally brought by the Labour member of parliament Tom Watson following the introduction of the 2014 Data Retention and Investigatory Powers Act. That law expired in 2016 and has since been replaced by the Investigatory Powers Act, which expanded the government’s surveillance authority further, retroactively legalizing controversial spy tactics exposed in documents leaked by Edward Snowden. Human rights group Liberty, which represented Watson in the case, said Tuesday’s ruling meant parts of the Investigatory Powers Act – dubbed the “Snoopers’ Charter” by critics – would now need to be reformed.

Immigration security

Europe's Migration Crisis is Anything but over

Since the European migration crisis captured the world’s attention in 2015, headlines on the subject have significantly decreased. Many assume Europe is receiving far fewer refugees from the Middle East and North Africa, and that the continent has found a way to settle and integrate those who arrived during the height of the wave. The reality is far more complex.

The EU’s future refugee policy now dominates political agendas. Although overall numbers are down, refugee flows to Europe have not stopped. The continent saw around 171,000 sea arrivals in 2017, compared to over one million in 2015. About 1.2 million refugees that made it to Europe applied for asylum in 2016. This exposed deep fissures in the EU’s current system. It divided the continent on how to handle the refugees who have already arrived, and what to do with the many thousands that will inevitably land on Europe’s shores in the coming years. Europe now needs a strategy that can simultaneously address the legitimate concerns of some EU members but also place refugee well-being at the forefront of decision making.

Animal cruelty

Volkswagen to probe its diesel exhaust test on monkeys

 In a shocking expose that emerged this week, a report revealed that Volkswagen’s diesel exhaust tests involved monkeys.

According to the report, a research group funded by auto companies exposed monkeys to diesel exhaust from a late-model Volkswagen.

It added that another group was exposed to fumes from an older Ford pickup.

The experiments on monkeys were reportedly carried out in 2014 in New Mexico before Volkswagen was caught using software that let vehicles cheat on vehicle emissions.

The report stated that the tests were intended to show modern diesel technology had solved the problem of excess emissions.

It further added that Volkswagen and other German carmakers used the European Research Group on Environment and Health in the Transport Sector, known as EUGT, to conduct the research.

Drones

China’s AVIC aims to roll out Wing Loong I-D in 2018

State-owned aerospace and defence prime Aviation Industry Corporation of China (AVIC) will expand its Wing Loong family of strike-capable reconnaissance medium-altitude long-endurance unmanned aerial vehicles (MALE UAVs) with the Wing Loong I-D platform, state news agencies reported on 25 January.

Officials from AVIC’s Chengdu Aircraft Design and Research Institute (CADI) subsidiary were quoted as saying at the Wing Loong UAV Development Conference that the company is aiming to ready the Wing Loong I-D for its maiden flight and entry into the international market within 2018.

The Wing Loong [I-D] is the first of a new generation of improved reconnaissance-strike UAS [unmanned aerial systems] in China,” said Li Yidong, chief designer of the Wing Loong UAV family and vice-chief designer of CADI. “It will help enhance the influence of [the] Wing Loong brand in the global military trade market with other members of the family.”

The Wing Loong I-D is reportedly an improved version of the Wing Loong I UAV, which has entered service with the People’s Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF) under the designation of Gongji-1 (Attack-1).

Afghan war

America’s Longest War—and the Ally That Fuels It


Two months after the 2008 U.S. presidential election, Vice President–elect Joe Biden sat with Afghanistan’s president, Hamid Karzai, in the Arg Palace, an 83-acre compound in Kabul that had become a gilded cage for the mercurial and isolated leader. The discussion was already tense as Karzai urged Washington to help root out Taliban sanctuaries in Pakistan, implying that more pressure needed to be exerted on Pakistani leaders. Biden’s answer stunned Karzai into silence. Biden let Karzai know how Barack Obama’s incoming administration saw its priorities. “Mr. President,” Biden said, “Pakistan is fifty times more important than Afghanistan for the United States.”

It was an undiplomatic moment for sure, but also a frank expression of the devastating paradox at the heart of the longest war in American history. In 16 years, the United States has spent billions of dollars fighting a war that has killed thousands of soldiers and an untold number of civilians in a country that Washington considers insignificant to its strategic interests in the region. Meanwhile, the country it has viewed as a linchpin, Pakistan—a nuclear-armed cauldron of volatile politics and long America’s closest military ally in South Asia—has pursued a covert campaign in Afghanistan designed to ensure that the money and the lives have been spent in vain. The stakes in Pakistan have been considered too high to break ties with Islamabad or take other steps that would risk destabilizing the country. The stakes in Afghanistan have been deemed low enough that careening from one failed strategy to another has been acceptable.

International cooperation

Russia’s Sanctioned Spy Chief Reportedly Met CIA Director in the U.S.

Russia’s sanctioned spy chief recently visited the United States and reportedly met with CIA Director Mike Pompeo, Russian state media reported Tuesday.

Sergey Naryshkin, director of Russia’s foreign intelligence service, the SVR, was spotted aboard a commercial Aeroflot flight to the United States, Russian state-owned news channel Rossiya-1 reported. The SVR is blamed by the U.S. government for a key role in the Kremlin’s interference with the 2016 election. A reporter for the network said Naryshkin landed in New York and met with the CIA director.

Representatives for the CIA and the office of the Director of National Intelligence declined comment to The Daily Beast about whether Pompeo or any other U.S. intelligence official recently met with with Naryshkin—who has been under U.S. sanctions for the past three years.

“While we do not discuss the schedules of U.S. intelligence leaders, rest assured that any interaction with foreign intelligence agencies would have been conducted in accordance with U.S. law and in consultation with appropriate Departments and agencies," a CIA spokesman told The Daily Beast.

Terror threat

Bangladesh's New Generation of Militants

When compared to his peers in the terrorism community, Akayed Ullah was most certainly a loser. The wannabe jihadist attempted to blow himself up at the New York City port authority bus terminal by strapping a pipe bomb to his body. But the bomb — made with firecracker powder and lit with a Christmas candle — was so low intensity that, far from creating widespread terror, he didn’t even end up killing himself. In the weeks that have followed since, the 27-year-old Bangladeshi migrant has received more ridicule than fear or praise.

The attempt may have been quixotic, and there’s little possibility of Ullah getting another shot at jihadist fame. But he is representative of a new generation of young militants from Bangladesh — one that calls not for jokes, but for serious scrutiny.

Financial safety

THE MAN FROM SULLIVAN & CROMWELL

Late last October, several hundred handsomely suited financiers gathered in the ballroom of a luxury Marriott, just two blocks down Pennsylvania Avenue from the Trump International Hotel. Lisa Kidd Hunt, the new chair of the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association, practically glowed as she addressed the crowd of bankers, brokers, and other money managers.

“There has never been a better time to be in this industry!” she declared. The economy was strong, she said, there was “real movement on regulatory and tax reform,” and the United States boasts “the best capital markets system in the world.” The audience had every reason to feel elated. The stock market was setting records, and Donald Trump’s pick to regulate the industry — one of his most significant decisions as president from the perspective of those in the room — couldn’t have been better. Jay Clayton was a familiar face, having spent his career as a lawyer representing large Wall Street firms, and he was about to take the stage.

Intel gathering

Pompeo Wants to Incentivize Some ‘Incredibly Audacious’ Intelligence Gathering

CIA Director Mike Pompeo said the agency must “have a bias towards being as nimble as our adversaries,” or “we will serve America poorly and we won’t steal the secrets that our president and our senior policymakers most need at the most challenging times.”

Speaking Tuesday at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington, the former congressman said he would want his legacy as director to be leaving behind a CIA as “agile and as speedy as we need.”

Pompeo said he’s also focused on ensuring the agency continues “to operate in a way that engenders the American people’s trust, so that those powers and authorities remain in place.”

Elaborating on President Trump’s intelligence briefings, Pompeo said the current commander in chief has a different “pattern of taking this information” than his predecessors, and the CIA team has to be “able to convince him that the facts we’re delivering impact his capacity to perform his mission.”

“I think the day that we can’t deliver that will be the day that it starts getting pushed off, and other things begin to occupy that time and space,” he added. “…We have to make sure that the information we’re delivering meets the threshold for the president of the United States and is delivered in a manner which he can grasp sufficiently to actually be able to act upon.”

Cybersecurity

How To Build Your Firm's Cyber Security Strategy

Cyber attacks are above the radar. They are making front page news, the government is taking them seriously, and almost every movie now features the use of hacking to steal data or funds. Unlike the movies though, most hacks aren’t sensational heists or system-wide ransomware attacks: they simply exploit a lack of employee awareness and too much trust in emails, or the lack of even most basic security within a business. The cyber scams we see are often simple purely because they don’t need to be sophisticated to work.

Different businesses face different cyber risks. If your company value is in your intellectual property, for example, it would be advisable for you to think about how that is protected first, or if you produce particular products, your ability to continue to do so is critical. However, across all of the businesses we deal with, we see cyber frauds targeting payments and funds more than anything else, with sensitive data being a close second.

The first 24 hours following a financial fraud case is the golden period in which to act, the quicker the better. First, let your bank know what’s happened to stop money moving. Then you will want to employ someone to undertake a short, fast investigation to work out where your funds may have moved to and what data may have been lost. When we investigate financial crimes for clients, we use legal orders to request information from banks and technology companies, and rapid investigations to tie an attack to an individual or group if possible. If data has been lost, the sooner we can get an accurate picture of the amount and type of data that has been accessed, the sooner customers and clients can be reassured. Prevention, though, is better than cure.

Poll results

Poll: Americans more satisfied with military, security, economy

Americans are more satisfied with the state of the country’s military, security and economy than they were a year ago, according to a poll released Monday.

A Gallup Poll found most Americans are satisfied with all three topics, including 78 percent who approve of the nation’s military strength and preparedness. That number is up from 66 percent a year ago.

Another 63 percent of Americans are happy with how secure the country is from terrorism, up from 50 percent in 2017.

The nation’s economy is satisfactory to 58 percent of respondents, up 12 percentage points from last year, according to the poll. 

All three are expected to be topics in President Trump’s State of the Union address on Tuesday.

Some categories, however, garnered less favorable results. For example, 38 percent of those surveyed were satisfied with the country’s role in world affairs, down from 45 percent who approved a year ago.

Sanctions

Trump administration declines to impose new sanctions on Russia hours after the Kremlin accused the US of meddling in its election

The Trump administration has indicated it will not seek new sanctions against Russia for its meddling in the 2016 US election, a State Department spokesperson said Monday.

State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said a bill President Donald Trump signed into law in August that called for a report identifying wealthy Russians linked to Russian President Vladimir Putin was enough to steer away from Russia billions of dollars in defense sales.

Nauert said additional sanctions on specific individuals and groups associated with the Kremlin for Russian interference in the 2016 US election "will not need to be imposed."

Nauert added that the effects of the law targeting Russian defense sales were "beginning to become apparent," without citing specifics. Further details were included in a classified report delivered to Congress, the State Department said.

Trump called the bill "seriously flawed" when he reluctantly signed it into law last summer after it passed Congress with broad bipartisan support, including a 98-2 vote in the Senate. Congress had given the Trump administration until January 29 to submit key reports under that law.

Weapons

Raytheon May Build Hypersonic Weapons to Keep America Ahead of Russia and China

Raytheon is has been heavily involved in developing hypersonic technologies but all of the company’s work on such programs is highly classified. “First of all back on hypersonic. We’ve been on the hypersonic path here for many years,” Kennedy said. “It’s in our second pillar of our four-pillar strategy. We actually say that we’re heavily investing and working in the hypersonic area. We have already gotten multiple hypersonic contracts with the Department of Defense. So one of the larger ones is a program called Hawk, which is with DARPA and it is essentially it’s a sensory hypersonic missile and we are the prime.”

Raytheon is also involved in other hypersonic weapons development program, but Kennedy was not able to give specifics due to the classified nature of the programs. “There are several other, I would call, pursuit activities relative to hypersonic,” Kennedy said. “So we are engaged in those hypersonic missile pursuits and as a prime across the board. So we do believe that hypersonics is the next wave of technology related to advanced missile systems, and that's our significant opportunities out there and we've positioned ourselves year over multiple years to be ready to go capture those opportunities.”

Forecasting

TRANSPARENCY ADVOCATES WIN RELEASE OF NYPD “PREDICTIVE POLICING” DOCUMENTS

LATE LAST MONTH, a Manhattan judge ordered the New York City Police Department to release documentation about the department’s use of secretive and highly controversial “predictive policing” surveillance technology, scoring a win for advocates of transparency on police policy. The documents came to light as part of a lawsuit against the city filed by the Brennan Center for Justice, a New York-based policy institute.

Little is known about how the largest domestic police force in the United States uses crime-forecasting software, which works through analysis of historical crime data like arrest records, incident reports, gang documentation, and “stop and frisk” encounters to generate individual or geographic predictions of crime. In July 2015, then-NYPD Commissioner Bill Bratton branded predictive policing as “the wave of the future” and entered into a trial program with at least one predictive policing company, the Philadelphia-based Azavea.

Electronic surveollance

Uncloaking Adversaries through GIS


In modern conflicts, adversaries hide in plain sight. Their intentions are often disguised in overwhelming volumes of data. In response, intelligence organizations are implementing activity-based intelligence (ABI) to uncloak these adversaries. ABI applies geographic thinking in new ways to help solve today’s complex intelligence problems. The implementation of ABI involves the convergence of new and old sources of intelligence information and new ways of thinking about intelligence production.

At any given moment, every person, thing, location, or activity is connected to place and time. This spatiotemporal data is essential for intelligence. It is captured by sensors, transactions, and observations, which intelligence analysts can bring together in a geographic information system (GIS). GIS manages data that’s critical to discovering the unknown. GIS analytic tools transform data into intelligence that drives action.

Economic security

The CIA's Shadow War Against North Korean Smuggling

Around the globe, U.S. intelligence agencies are playing an elaborte cat-and-mouse game against a network of smugglers and agents of the North Korean regime. The fight happens in the shadows but the stakes couldn’t be higher. Just last week, the Trump administration imposed sanctions on six North Korean ships, 16 individuals, and nine companies that it said had facilitated Pyongyang’s weapons programs.

Last week CIA Director Mike Pompeo cited the “remarkable creativity” by U.S. agents that led to stopping some shipments to North Korea. “We have officers all round the world working diligently to make sure we do everything we can to support the U.S. pressure campaign to tighten the sanctions,” he told a small crowd in Washington D.C.

Pompeo's comment brings to mind cloak-and-dagger images: Spies and double agents working crooked businessmen, satellite analysts pouring over images of North Korea, and Navy SEALS monitoring ships. Based on what we know, cracking the black market that supports Kim Jong-un's regime is just as dramatic, but also a lot more nuanced, than a spy thriller.

Nuclear security

Trump's Nuclear Weapons Strategy Could Be Dangerous, Warns Experts

Arms control advocates are denouncing the Trump Administration’s draft Nuclear Posture Review (NPR), which calls for lowering the U.S. nuclear threshold and developing new classes of nuclear weapons.

“At the Arms Control Association, our take is that the NPR constitutes unnecessary, unexecutable and unsafe overreach,” Kingston Reif, director for disarmament and threat reduction policy at the Arms Control Association said during a Jan. 23 press conference.

“Though there are elements of continuity with the policies of previous administrations, the document aligns with President Trump's more aggressive and impulsive nuclear notions and breaks with past efforts to reduce the role and number of nuclear weapons worldwide in several key areas.”

Arms control advocates took aim at three specific areas—one is that the new NPR seeks a greater role for nuclear weapons, another is that it calls for the development of new nuclear weapons and, third, that it walks away from American non-proliferation and disarmament commitments.

Cybersecurity

UK to fine companies up to £17 million for cybersecurity lapses

The UK government will fine companies in "critical industries" up to £17 million if they have woefully inadequate cybersecurity defences. The penalty system is a response to an EU directive, passed in August 2016, that was drawn up to ensure its member states are prepared for modern cyber attacks. Known as the NIS directive, it will be transplanted into UK law to protect health, energy, transport and digital infrastructure. The fines will be a "last resort," however, and take into account how co-operative the company has been with their relevant regulator, the actions taken to remedy the situation, and any other law that might have been breached.

The UK government consulted on its plans to introduce the fee system in August and September last year. It will apply to "operators of essential services," a term that varies depending on the industry. In the transport sector, for instance, it includes airport operators and harbour authorities with more than 10 million annual passengers.

Communication security

National Security Council Idea to Nationalize US 5G Network Sparks Huge Backlash

A leaked memo attributed to White House security officials proposing to nationalize the upcoming 5G wireless network has sparked a massive wave of criticism from companies, US senators and voices outside the US.

The memo was leaked on January 29 and initially reported by Axios. According to the website, the PowerPoint presentation outlines a suggested federal takeover over the 5G wireless network that is to replace the existing 4G LTE network.

According to the memo, such a move is required to protect America against China and "other bad actors," Axios reported. There are both "cyber" and "economic" threats from China, the memo says, as China has dominated the market of chips and antennas required to build such a system.

The memo says 5G is expected to provide reliable, ultrafast wireless connectivity to a growing industry of high-tech inventions such as self-driving cars. It even mentions "true AI-enhanced networked combat," although what exactly that has to do with a mobile network is unclear.

Arms trade

PAKISTAN WANTS TO BUY MILITARY SUPPLIES FROM RUSSIA AND CHINA AFTER U.S. FUNDING FREEZE

As the relationship between the United States and Pakistan continues to deteriorate, signs of a formidable axis in Central Asia emerges.

In an interview with the Financial Times published on Sunday, Pakistan's defense minister Khurram Dastgir Khan said his country was undergoing a "regional recalibration" of its "foreign and security policy."

Part of that regional recalibration involves Pakistan reaching out to Russia and China for new military supplies.

“The fact that we have recalibrated our way towards better relations with Russia, deepening our relationship with China, is a response to what the Americans have been doing," he said.

Khan's comments come three weeks after Beijing revealed it would build an offshore naval base near Gwadar Port in the Pakistani province of Balochistan.

Communication security

Trump's national security team is considering nationalizing a super-fast 5G network

President Donald Trump's national security team is looking at options to counter the threat of China spying on U.S. phone calls that include the government building a super-fast 5G wireless network, a senior administration official said on Sunday.

The official, confirming the gist of a report from Axios.com, said the option was being debated at a low level in the administration and was six to eight months away from being considered by the president himself.

The 5G network concept is aimed at addressing what officials see as China's threat to U.S. cyber security and economic security.

The administration of U.S. President Donald Trump has taken a harder line on policies initiated by predecessor Barack Obama on issues ranging from Beijing's role in restraining North Korea to Chinese efforts to acquire U.S. strategic industries.

Earlier this month, AT&T was forced to scrap a plan to offer its customers handsets built by China's Huawei  after some members of Congress lobbied against the idea with federal regulators, sources told Reuters.

Information security

Deep State: Underbelly of the Intelligence Community

Amid a high-profile showdown with the “intelligence community” early in his term, President Donald Trump was repeatedly and viciously threatened — even with extreme threats such as dying in prison. What type of people can threaten the legally elected president of the United States and get away with it? Meet the “intelligence” and “security” tentacles of the “Deep State,” both of which now function largely as tools of the “Deep State Behind the Deep State.”

Since the presidential election, elements of what is often called the “intelligence community” have dropped the mask. For everyday Americans unaware of the out-of-control behavior of so many secretive government bureaucracies, it was shocking to hear lawmakers and bureaucrats acknowledge that the “intelligence” apparatus was taking on Trump — and to witness the Deep State’s war against the legitimately elected president, such as the incessant leaks from inside the intelligence community. Those leaks included, of course, the now-discredited dirty dossier on Trump. But the intelligence community’s employment of unsavory tactics, supposedly to safeguard national security, has been obvious to discerning Americans for many years.

Infrastructure  security

UK Intelligence Furious After Williamson's Remark About Russian Threat - Reports

UK intelligence community was "furious" due to recent statements of Defense Secretary Gavin Williamson, who assumed that a Russian attack on the nation’s critical infrastructure could kill thousands, The Times reported Sunday, citing its sources.

"People­ at GCHQ [Government Communications Headquarters] were furious," a source told the media outlet, adding that Williamson could use some classified data partially received from UK allies.

The comment follows Thursday's Defense Secretary's statement during an interview with The Telegraph, claiming that Moscow was researching UK infrastructure connections to energy supplies for opportunities to create "chaos." According to Williamson, these alleged possible cyberattacks could kill thousands of people.

Korea

How the intelligence agencies wildly underestimated North Korea's nuclear capabilities: Trump was told he had YEARS before there would be a missile capable of hitting the US

American intelligence agencies initially believed that North Korea was still years away from developing a missile that could reach the United States - but may have gotten their predictions wrong, a new report claims.

When President Donald Trump first took office almost a year ago, intelligence agencies told the new administration that they had at least four years to come up with a plan to slow or stop North Korea's development of an atomic bomb that was capable of striking US soil, the New York Times reports.

Agency officials believed the East Asia country's leader Kim Jong un faced a wide range of issues that would give Trump and his administration more than enough time to negotiate or look into countermeasures.  

Cybersecurity

Intel reportedly notified Chinese companies of chip security flaw before the U.S. government

Intel is not having that great of year thus far in the face of a slew of information about security flaws in it hardware coming out — and you can add another new report from The Wall Street Journal today, which suggests that Intel didn’t immediately notify the U.S. government of the issues, to that list.

The Journal is reporting that Intel notified some of its customers of the security flaws in its processors, dubbed Spectre and Meltdown, but left out the U.S. government as part of that. Some of the companies Intel notified included Chinese technology companies, though the report suggests there is no evidence that any information was misused. An Intel spokesperson told The Journal that the company wasn’t able to tell everyone it planned because the news was made public earlier than expected.

Data security

Security threat? Fitness devices could give away locations of soldiers

An interactive map tracking the location and activities of people using fitness devices like Fitbit has raised concerns about the security of soldiers and civilians at U.S. military bases around the world, The Washington Post reported Sunday.

The Global Heat Map, published by the GPS tracking company Strava, uses satellite information to map the locations and movements of subscribers to the company's fitness service by illuminating areas of activity.

The map shows a great deal of activity in the U.S. and Europe. But in war zones and deserts in countries such as Iraq and Syria, the heat map becomes almost entirely dark -- except for scattered evidence of activity.

A closer look at those areas brings into focus the locations and outlines of well-known U.S. military bases, as well as other lesser-known and potentially sensitive sites -- possibly because American soldiers and other personnel are using fitness trackers as they move around.

The map is not live, but shows a pattern of accumulated activity between 2015 and September 2017.

Criminology

Italian mafia: How crime families went global

Italian police have carried out a spate of anti-mafia raids, arresting dozens of suspects near Naples, Rome and Agrigento in Sicily.

Illegal drugs, arms trafficking, extortion, contract killings, political bribery, prostitution, art thefts... the list of crimes is long.

So who are the Italian mafia?

Sicilian Mafia - Cosa Nostra

The Sicilian gangs established the model for other mafias. They meted out local justice in the 1800s, then grew in power and sophistication.

Cosa Nostra means "our thing" - it is the original Mafia, with a capital M, based on family clans.

It is famous for the "omertà" - a code of silence demanding extreme loyalty. Turncoats risk torture and death, or punishment of their relatives.

Even today they settle some business disputes and retrieve stolen goods in Sicily, undermining the slow-moving Italian courts. But many despise them for the "pizzo" - protection money - that they extort from businesses...

People smuggling

LATIN AMERICAN SMUGGLERS ARE NOW TRAFFICKING ASYLUM SEEKERS FROM ACROSS THE GLOBE

According to an Ecuadorian government official, the​ ​coyotes​ ​are a​ ​well-connected​ ​network​ ​of​ ​smugglers​ ​that​ ​operate​ ​between​ ​countries​. They are​ ​highly flexible​ ​and​ ​just​ ​change​ ​routes​ ​when​ ​they​ ​get​ ​rumbled,​ ​taking​ ​people​ ​instead​ ​on​ trucks​ ​or​ ​buses​ north​ ​to​ ​the​ ​Darien,​ ​she​ ​said.

Hermel​ ​Mendoza​ ​from​ ​the​ ​Scalabriani​ ​Mission​ ​compares it​ ​to​ ​a​ ​"transnational​ ​business"​ ​that​ ​brings​ ​huge​ ​profits. "Gangs​ ​had​ ​experience​ ​of​ ​transiting​ ​people​ ​​in​ ​the​ ​past​ ​from​ ​Ecuador​ ​to​ ​Europe​ ​and​ ​Africa.​ ​From​ ​there they​ ​started​ ​to​ ​build​ ​a​ ​network​ ​of​ ​traffickers​ ​from​ ​all​ ​these​ ​countries.​ ​Those​ ​same​ ​networks​ ​are​ ​now used​ ​by​ ​the​ ​coyotes​ ​to​ ​bring​ ​people​ ​here,"​ ​he​ ​says.

Soledad​ ​Alvarez,​ ​an​ ​academic​ ​who​ ​writes​ ​about​ ​​"Coyoterismo"​​ ​and​ ​Ecuador's​ ​position​ ​in​ ​this international​ ​trade​ ​of​ ​peoples,​ says ​​the​ ​role​ ​of​ ​the​ ​coyote​ ​has​ ​changed​ ​from​ ​someone​ ​who​ ​was well-known​ ​in​ ​small​ ​towns​ ​for​ ​helping​ ​people​ ​they​ ​knew​ ​trek​ ​north,​ ​to​ ​one​ ​that​ ​has​ "increasingly​ ​been incorporated​ ​to​ ​broader​ ​transnational​ ​smuggling​ ​networks."

"With​ ​so​ ​many​ ​controls,​ ​​coyotes​​ ​work​ ​as​ ​in​ ​a​ ​relay​​ race:​ ​from​ ​here​ ​to​ ​Colombia,​ ​one​ ​coyote,​ ​then another​ ​and​ it goes on," she wrote in a recent paper. "Via mobile phones, Ecuadorean coyotes are connected with foreign coyotes along the route. They exchange information and coordinate payments via Western union or Money Gram for the different stretches of the route."

Immigration security

Why America Is Fighting About Immigration

...The United States contains a lot more immigrants. In 1960, when America was, presumably, great, the foreign-born comprised less than five percent of America’s population. Now they comprise more than 13 percent. Moreover, today’s immigrants are now mostly people of color. In the 1960s, when US immigration law strongly favored Europeans, the country that sent the most people to live in the United States was Italy, followed by Germany and Canada. In 2015, more than a quarter of those who immigrated to the U.S. were from Mexico. So immigration is changing America’s racial and ethnic character.

But while this explains why immigration was likely to become a more important issue over time, it doesn’t explain its dramatic rise in political significance over the last few years. In recent years, according to the Pew Research Center, immigration has actually slowed, and there are fewer undocumented immigrantsin the US than there were in 2009. So why now? One of the explanations is probably Barack Obama. The fact that the Democratic Party—which gets an increasing share of its votes from immigrants and people of color—elected the son of a visiting Kenyan college student as president probably elevated immigration’s political salience, and exacerbated the partisan divide surrounding it.

Information security

David Ignatius: Ex-spy chiefs are speaking up ... carefully

Richard Helms, the godfather of modern CIA directors, prided himself on keeping his mouth shut in public. He was delighted that his 1979 biography by Thomas Powers had the starchy title “The Man Who Kept the Secrets.”

But that was then. In today’s media-driven world, former intelligence chiefs appear so regularly on cable television that they probably need agents (not the trench-coated variety) to negotiate their contracts. Five recent directors or acting directors — John McLaughlin, Michael Hayden, Leon Panetta, Michael Morell and John Brennan — all provide regular television commentary. So does James R. Clapper Jr., the former director of national intelligence.

These “formers,” as they sometimes describe themselves, are some of America’s wisest experts on intelligence issues. They offer viewers valuable information and rebut inflammatory, inaccurate comments from President Donald Trump. They don’t share secrets any more than Helms did. But it must be said that the formers have strayed rather far from the old patrician advice: “Never complain, never explain.”

Financial safety

Coincheck: World's biggest ever digital currency 'theft'

One of Japan's largest digital currency exchanges says it has lost some $534m (£380m) worth of virtual assets in a hacking attack on its network.

Coincheck froze deposits and withdrawals for all crypto-currencies except Bitcoin as it assessed its losses in NEM, a lesser-known currency.

It may be unable to reimburse the funds lost on Friday, a representative told Japanese media.

If the theft is confirmed, it will be the largest involving digital currency.

Another Tokyo exchange, MtGox, collapsed in 2014 after admitting that $400m had been stolen from its network.

The stolen Coincheck assets were said to be kept in a "hot wallet" - a part of the exchange connected to the internet. That contrasts with a cold wallet, where funds are stored securely offline.