Counterintelligence

Top Secret No Longer: MI5 Confirms Existence of Previously Unheard of CounterIntelligence Unit

The unit is said to be based at Thames House in London, home to the UK’s domestic counterintelligence and security agency, MI5.

UK Home Secretary Priti Patel has publicly confirmed the existence of a previously unheard of unit of spooks known as the Joint State Threats Assessment Team (JSTAT).

The unit, operating with a level of independence from MI5 from inside of its headquarters, is said to consist of crack intelligence specialists providing the government with advice on potential threats by hostile state actors including foreign spies, assassins, and scheming hackers seeking to disrupt UK elections or carry out cyberattacks.

JSTAT is said to have been created back in 2017 under Prime Minister Theresa May’s government, with its powers including advising Number 10 on potential additional powers that may be needed if a threat arises, including an assessment of relevant UK legislation on providing the government with additional powers.

The JSTAT team is subordinated to a board of governors of senior intelligence officials and officials from other government agencies, as well as the MI5’s director general Andrew Parker, who is said to have ultimate authority over the organization.

Counterintelligence

Chinese paper applauds anti-spy efforts after NY Times report CIA sources killed

An influential state-run newspaper applauded China's anti-espionage efforts on Monday after The New York Times said China had killed or imprisoned up to 20 CIA sources, hobbling U.S. spying operations in a massive intelligence breach.

China killed at least a dozen people providing information to the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency between 2010 and 2012, dismantling a network that was years in the making, the New York Times reported on Saturday.

Global Times, published by China's official People's Daily, said in an editorial in its Chinese and English-language editions that, if true, it was a victory for China.

"If this article is telling the truth, we would like to applaud China's anti-espionage activities. Not only was the CIA's spy network dismantled, but Washington had no idea what happened and which part of the spy network had gone wrong," the paper said.

Counterintelligence

After Report on Killings of C.I.A. Sources, China Asserts Right to Defend Itself

The Chinese government has the obligation to defend its national security and the legal authority to protect China’s interests, a government spokeswoman said on Monday, the first official response to a New York Times report on the dismantling of C.I.A. espionage operations in China.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokeswoman Hua Chunying, speaking during a regularly scheduled news conference in Beijing, did not confirm or deny The Times’s report that for two years starting in 2010, more than a dozen C.I.A. sources were killed or imprisoned, crippling United States intelligence gathering in China.

“I am not aware of the details of that report,” Ms. Hua said, according to an official transcript. “But I can tell you that China’s national security organ is investigating and handling organizations, personnel and activities that endanger China’s national security and interests and fully perform its duty with the authorization by law.”

Counterintelligence

Espionage: Is the defense and intelligence community compromised?

Insights into a late draft of a report by the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission were leaked last week, and the information is quite concerning. 

The report allegedly stated: “The United States faces a large and growing threat to its national security from Chinese intelligence collection operations.” That should not be shocking for anyone in the defense industry, but the following should be: “Among the most serious threats are China’s efforts at cyber and human infiltration of U.S. national security entities,” the draft reportedly read. 

That’s right — covert agents are inside of organizations within our national security community. The report is also said to call out Chinese espionage efforts that resulted in the exfiltration of U.S. military weapons designs and blueprints of their systems. This could result in the mineralization of years of research and development efforts by the military and the U.S. defense industry. 

Counterintelligence

James Olson: The Ten Commandments of Counterintelligence

The need for counterintelligence (CI) has not gone away, nor is it likely to.  The end of the Cold War has not even meant an end to the CI threat from the former Soviet Union.  The foreign intelligence service of the new democratic Russia, the Sluzhba Vneshney Razvedki Rossii (SVRR), has remained active against us.  It was the SVRR that took over the handling of Aldrich Ames from its predecessor, the KGB, in 1991.  It was the SVRR that ran CIA officer Harold James Nicholson against us from 1994 to 1996.  It was the SVRR that was handling FBI special agent Earl Pitts when he was arrested for espionage in 1996.  It was the SVRR that planted a listening device in a conference room of the State Department in Washington in the summer of 1999.  And it was the SVRR that was handling FBI special agent Robert Hanssen when he was arrested on charges of espionage in February 2001.

The Russians are not alone.  There have been serious, well-publicized concerns about Chinese espionage in the United States.  The Department of Energy significantly increased security at its national laboratories last year in response to allegations that China had stolen US nuclear weapons secrets.

Paul Redmond, the former Associate Deputy Director of Operations for Counterintelligence at the CIA, told the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence in early 2000 that a total of at least 41 countries are trying to spy on the United States. 

Counterintelligence

US Already Closely Monitoring Russians Without Anti-Spy Committee

US government agencies are already keeping a close eye on Russian activities inside the United States even without Congress potentially reviving a Cold War-era anti-spy committee, former Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and US National Intelligence Council officer Paul Pillar told Sputnik.

 On Wednesday, BuzzFeed News, citing intelligence sources, reported that the US Senate Intelligence Committee proposed a bill to re-establish aninteragency committee to counter Russian espionage activities on US soil that would be modeled on a similar program once used to catch Soviet spies.

...The Senate Intelligence Committee proposal also calls for the FBI to investigate requests by US-based Russian diplomats who wish to travel 50 miles outside their official post, according to BuzzFeed.

The press office of the Russian embassy in the United States told Sputnik on Wednesday that it found reports of the US legislation to re-establish the anti-spy committee saddening.

Counterintelligence

N. Korea leader orders crackdown on those leaking intelligence to S. Korea

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has ordered his public security staff to hunt down and punish those who leak the reclusive state's internal information to South Korea, multiple sources said Sunday.

In a directive sent to the security agencies and the people, Kim warned that those who leak any information to South Koreans will be labeled as "spies" and face harsh punishments, including execution by firing squad.

"I understand that (Kim) has sent a directive to the security agencies and the people, which says he will sternly deal with rebellious impure elements that hand over our internal intelligence to enemies," a source said, declining to be named.

The directive also urges North Koreans who have attempted to make phone calls with those in China and South Korea to turn themselves in to the security authorities, and offers rewards to those who report any intelligence leaks to the authorities, according to the sources.

Counterintelligence

FBI penetrated New York-based Russian spy ring using hidden recorders

he FBI eavesdropped on meetings involving Russian intelligence personnel in New York City, including a suspected spy posing as a trade representative, by hiding recorders in binders containing supposedly confidential information about the energy sector, U.S. prosecutors said.The hours of covert recordings from 2013 were disclosed in papers filed in Manhattan federal court on Tuesday in the case of Evgeny Buryakov, a Russian citizen who U.S. prosecutors say posed as a banker while participating in a Cold War-style spy ring.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation's eavesdrops enabled the agency to penetrate the workplaces of Russia's foreign intelligence service, the SVR, and hear about Buryakov's work for it, prosecutors said.

Counterintelligence

Putin: Over 400 foreign intelligence services career employees exposed in Russia in 2015

Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Friday more than 400 career staff employees of foreign intelligence services were exposed in Russia in 2015.

"Foreign intelligence services are expanding their activities in Russia and the last year’s results convincingly proved our conclusions," Putin said at a board meeting of Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB). "Over this period [the year 2015], more than 400 career staff employees and agents of foreign intelligence services were exposed. Twenty-three of them were brought to criminal liability."

"Counter-intelligence agencies have special tasks," Putin said. "It is necessary to reliably block access to information about classified activities and employees of power authorities, military facilities, defense-related and energy-sector facilities, Russia’s leading research centers, to block access to confidential information via communications channels."...

http://tass.ru/en/politics/859180

Counterintelligence

NEW COUNTERINTELLIGENCE STRATEGY: FOCUS ON CYBER

A new national counterintelligence strategy aims to learn from the recent Office of Personnel Management hack, attributed to state-backed Chinese actors, which compromised the personal information of 22 million current, past and future federal employees and contractors.

The 2016 strategy, published this week, broadly outlines a plan for detecting, mitigating and preventing such threats, both from "foreign intelligence entities" and from malicious employees.

“As the recent cyberintrusion against the Office of Personnel Management illustrated, even federal agencies that hold sensitive but not classified data are at increased risk of being targeted by foreign adversaries," said a statement signed by President Barack Obama at the top of the DNI document.

Counterintelligence

U.S. counterintelligence chief skeptical China has curbed spying on U.S.

U.S. counterintelligence chief Bill Evanina said on Wednesday he was skeptical China had followed through on recent promises to curb spying on the United States.

Evanina told a briefing that he had seen "no indication" from the U.S. private sector "that anything has changed" in the extent of Chinese espionage on the United States.

He said 90 percent of private sector and government data systems intrusions are enabled by "spear-phishing," adding that spear-phishing played a role in the massive hack of security clearance data from the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM).

Counterintelligence

A BASELINE FOR U.S. COUNTERINTELLIGENCE PROGRAMS

...Counterintelligence: Information gathered and activities conducted to identify, deceive, exploit, disrupt, or protect against espionage, other intelligence activities, sabotage, or assassinations conducted for or on behalf of foreign powers, organizations, or persons, or their agents, or international terrorist organizations or activities. 2. Foreign Intelligence Entities (FIEs): Known or suspected foreign state or non-state organizations or persons that conduct intelligence activities to acquire U.S. information, block or impair U.S. intelligence collection, influence U.S. policy, or disrupt U.S. systems and programs. The term includes foreign intelligence and security services and international terrorists.

Terror threat

How did these terror attacks during the last 20 years change the world?

It has been nearly a month since the terrorist attack in Sousse, Tunisia, during which a gunman shot dead 38 people including 30 Britons.

It was the biggest Islamic State-linked attack on British citizens and was the latest terror incident in which Westerners were targeted.

Counterintelligence

FBI Probes ‘Hundreds’ of China Spy Cases

The FBI has seen a surge in cases of economic espionage in the past year, and the bureau says that China is largely to blame.

China’s intelligence services are “as aggressive now as they’ve ever been,” said Assistant Director Randall Coleman, who runs the bureau’s counterintelligence division. He and other senior FBI officials described the threat China poses to U.S. companies during a rare, on-the-record briefing with reporters Thursday. It was an event meant to underscore the pervasive nature of intellectual-property and trade-secrets theft and to alert businesses to protect themselves.

Counterintelligence

Coats Proposal Would Elevate Counterintelligence Efforts

A provision authored by Senator Dan Coats (R-Ind.) was included in the Intelligence Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2016, legislation reported to the full Senate for consideration last night.

Coats, a member of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, authored a provision that would require the National Counterintelligence Executive (NCIX) to be a presidentially appointed and Senate confirmable position within one year. 

“Unfortunately, it has been two years since Edward Snowden fled to Russia, and there has been no accountability for the counterintelligence and security lapses that led to the most significant breach ever of classified information,” said Coats.

Counterintelligence

Suspected Russian IRS Hack Raises Larger Questions About Spy Recruitment, Blackmail

Last July, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) informed Congress that its auditors “found that about 83,000 Department of Defense (DOD) employees and contractors who held or were determined eligible for secret, top secret or sensitive compartmented information (SCI) clearances, or related interim clearances, had unpaid federal tax debt totaling more than $730 million as of June 30, 2012.”