Nuclear security

US Committed to Dismantling N Korean Nuclear Program Without Delay - Pompeo

Last week, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un claimed that his country would stop nuclear tests and launches of intercontinental ballistic missiles as well as shut down a nuclear test site. Trump has immediately called this statement "big progress" in the negotiations.

Previously Pompeo announced, that Kim Jong-un is ready to outline a roadmap for denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula. This statement was made in the wake of a historic summit in the truce village of Panmunjom, where South Korean President Moon Jae-in and Kim Jong Un met this Friday. Both leaders signed a joint declaration on denuclearization and reunion of separated Korean families. The same day, US President Donald Trump said that he would hold a meeting with the North Korean leader in "the coming weeks."

Politics

How Mitt Romney could wind up running the United States 6 years after losing the presidential election

Romney is running for Senate from Utah in the seat Orin Hatch has held since before Jimmy Carter was inaugurated as president. Romney’s campaign faced an unexpected bump in the road when he came in second in the state convention and will thus have to run in a primary—a situation that often benefits the better-funded candidate. For instance, Governor Gary Herbert lost the convention by 10 points in 2016 and won the primary in a landslide. Assuming Romney wins the June Republican primary he will certainly win the general election seat in this very Republican state.

Biosecurity

The New Killer Pathogens

Military and political leaders have worried about large-scale biological warfarefor more than a century. “Blight to destroy crops, Anthrax to slay horses and cattle, Plague to poison not armies only but whole districts—such are the lines along which military science is remorselessly advancing,” Winston Churchill lamented in 1925. But despite the deadly potential of biological weapons, their actual use remains rare and (mostly) small scale. Over the last several decades, most states have given up their programs. Today, no country is openly pursuing biological weapons.

Recent breakthroughs in gene editing have generated massive excitement, but they have also reenergized fears about weaponized pathogens. Using gene-editing tools, including a system known as CRISPR, scientists are now able to modify an organism’s DNA more efficiently, flexibly, and accurately than ever before. The full range of potential applications is hard to predict, but CRISPR makes it much easier for scientists to produce changes in how organisms operate. 

Financial safety

UK Backs Panama Papers Crackdown On ‘Dirty Money’ Havens

The United Kingdom is to force its overseas territories, including the Cayman Islands, British Virgin Islands and other well-known corporate secrecy havens, to reveal the names of the ultimate owners behind companies in these remote locations.

The surprise move, which until Tuesday had not been supported by prime minister Theresa May’s government, is a victory for corporate transparency campaigners who have long claimed that offshore secrecy encourages and enables corruption, tax evasion, money laundering and other crimes around the world.

It comes two years after the ICIJ’s Panama Papers investigation showed one in every two companies found in Mossack Fonseca’s files — the controversial law firm at heart of the scandal — was incorporated in the BVI. Mossack Fonseca closed down in March.

Military spending

Global military spending remains high at $1.7 trillion

Total world military expenditure rose to $1739 billion in 2017, a marginal increase of 1.1 per cent in real terms from 2016, according to new figures from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI). China’s military expenditure rose again in 2017, continuing an upward trend in spending that has lasted for more than two decades. Russia’s military spending fell for the first time since 1998, while spending by the United States remained constant for the second successive year. The comprehensive annual update of the SIPRI Military Expenditure Database is accessible from today at www.sipri.org.

‘Continuing high world military expenditure is a cause for serious concern,’ said Ambassador Jan Eliasson, Chair of the SIPRI Governing Board. ‘It undermines the search for peaceful solutions to conflicts around the world.’

After 13 consecutive years of increases from 1999 to 2011 and relatively unchanged spending from 2012 to 2016, total global military expenditure rose again in 2017.* Military spending in 2017 represented 2.2 per cent of global gross domestic product (GDP) or $230 per person. ‘The increases in world military expenditure in recent years have been largely due to the substantial growth in spending by countries in Asia and Oceania and the Middle East, such as China, India and Saudi Arabia,’ said Dr Nan Tian, Researcher with the SIPRI Arms and Military Expenditure (AMEX) programme. ‘At the global level, the weight of military spending is clearly shifting away from the Euro–Atlantic region.’

Economic security

Asia Stocks Drop; Dollar Steady at Four-Month High: Markets Wrap

Asian stocks drifted and the dollar consolidated at a four-month high as investors digested the latest earnings reports and many markets reopened after holidays. U.S. equity futures edged lower after a report the possibility of a subpoena has been raised for President Donald Trump in an ongoing special-counsel investigation.

Ten-year Treasury yields pushed higher, though remained below 3 percent, while risk-off assets such as the yen and gold advanced. Equities declined across the region, with the exception of Australia. Chinese stocks fell as traders returned after a two-day holiday. Wednesday is the only day this week when all the region’s markets trade. FTSE 100 futures advanced, while the pound extended a slide.

Investors and traders have once again become preoccupied by the political situation in Washington. Prosecutors working for Robert Mueller have made clear to Trump’s legal team that the special counsel would consider a subpoena compelling the president to testify before a grand jury if he refuses to participate in a voluntary interview. Market focus is also turning to the Federal Reserve meeting. Investors will watch closely for any signals that policy makers will raise interest rates another three times this year.

Climate security

Europe Set for Balmy May After Warmest April Since 1980s

After the hottest April since 1981, forecasters raised the prospect of energy-zapping heatwaves hitting southeast Europe later this month.

Six weather forecasters surveyed by Bloomberg all say that central and eastern Europe will be warmer than usual in May. But the west and southwestern fringes -- the U.K. France, Spain and Portugal -- are most likely to be cooler than normal, according to Meteogroup U.K. Ltd.

Europe’s weather has become more extreme of late, testing energy traders who typically buy power and natural gas in advance. After the coldest winter since 2012, last month’s temperatures were on average as much as 6 degrees Celsius (10.8 Fahrenheit) higher-than-normal in southern Germany, Poland and the Balkans. And April 19 was the warmest day in the month for 70 years.

“A prominent high is expected to anchor over northern and central Europe from the end of this week, bringing dry and settled weather to large swathes of Europe through the majority of May,” said Katie Greening, a meteorologist at the Weather Company.

Cybersecurity

What do Meltdown, Spectre and RyzenFall mean for the future of cybersecurity?

The security community is still reeling from the discoveries of the Meltdown and Spectre computer vulnerabilities, and now it seems that a rash of new hardware vulnerabilities called MasterKey, RyzenFall, Fallout and Chimera have been found in the past few months, too.

Unlike most previous threats, all these vulnerabilities attack a computer’s hardware, rather than its software. This second release of attacks may be early indications that Meltdown  and Spectre have opened a new front in the war between hackers and defenders in the realm of computer chips.

While experts are working to make and distribute patches for these bugs, the question remains: What does this mean for cybersecurity as a whole? The answer to that question starts with understanding a bit about how hackers work.

Climate security

Why blaming conflicts in Africa on climate change is misguided

The role of water crises in conflicts in places like Syria, Nigeria and Iran often feature in media and policy outlets. Many believe that climate change could spark future conflicts. But research shows that most conflicts are driven by factors other than the effects of climate change.

Some research suggests that droughts actually reduce, rather than cause, conflict. Similarly, in a recent paper I find that violent conflict across Africa is more frequent, on average, during times of higher agricultural productivity than during periods of scarcity. It is therefore misguided to blame violence on climate change alone.

That’s not to say that there aren’t situations in which drought conditions can foster conflict. One example is in parts of Somalia. But this happens much less frequently than conventional wisdom might suggest. More often than not, climate change, which can trigger droughts and floods, is just one of many possible contributing factors.

Electronic surveillance

Judge to Consider This Week Whether to Unseal Vast Surveillance Records

The highly publicized debate over whether a federal court could compel Apple to break the security features of the iPhone at the behest of the FBI was a rare moment in history. Most of the time, the public never has a clue when authorities come knocking to ask a company for help in accessing the digital communications of a criminal suspect.

But in August, we may learn more about whether the curtain of secrecy around past electronic surveillance in criminal investigations will be pulled back.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Kandis Westmore of the Northern District of California will hear from local prosecutors and two legal activists, Jennifer Granick of the American Civil Liberties Union and Riana Pfefferkorn of the Stanford Center for Internet and Society, over whether she should set up a process to determine which cases are still validly sealed and those that can be opened.

Granick and Pfefferkorn petitioned the court to unseal cases in the Northern District—where Apple, Google and other giants of Silicon Valley are headquartered—in which technical assistance was sought by authorities between 2006 and 2011. Doing so would surely be a massive administrative undertaking. But the two argue that even if it’s hard to do, that doesn’t overcome the public’s right to know under the law.

Economic security

After a long lull, inflation rises from gas-pumps to retail stores

Behind a wall of stainless steel refrigerators, next to the fancy ranges, nearly 50 washers and dryers are displayed for sale at Warrendale Appliance in suburban Boston. Sales are brisk. And while prices on foreign-made washers have bumped up a bit because of a new tariff, management isn’t worried.

“It’s fifty bucks a washer,” says the owner, who did not want his name published. “It doesn’t affect business.”

But in downtown Boston, the problem for John Sadowski is that prices have been rising even more sharply for longer. Labor and other construction costs are up so much over the past three years that it's getting harder to make the numbers work on development projects. “At some point, something’s got to give,” says the commercial real estate consultant with Colliers International Group.

From real estate to gasoline, Amazon to Whirlpool, prices are on the rise. For some industries, such as construction, they’ve been rising for several years, long enough to become worrisome. For others, price hikes are just beginning.

Drug smuggling

Veterinarian accused of stashing heroin in pups' bellies is extradited to US

A U.S. veterinarian from Venezuela was extradited on Monday after he was arrested in 2015, accused of putting heroin in New York-bound pups' bellies as a part of a Colombian drug trafficking ring.

Andres Lopez Elorza, 38, was arrested in Spain in 2015 after U.S. authorities say he stitched packets of liquid heroin into the bellies of Labrador retrievers and other breeds sent on commercial flights to New York. The packets were later cut out of the puppies, who died in the process.

Lopez was arraigned in Brooklyn on Tuesday and ordered to be detained pending a trial in which he faces charges including conspiring to import and distribute heroin in the United States, according to a press release from the Drug Enforcement Administration. If convicted, he faces a minimum of 10 years in prison -- and as much as a life sentence.

“As alleged in the indictment, Elorza is not only a drug trafficker, he also betrayed a veterinarian’s pledge to prevent animal suffering when he used his surgical skills in a cruel scheme to smuggle heroin in the abdomens of puppies,” said Richard Donoghue, United States attorney for the Eastern District of New York. “Dogs are man's best friend and, as the defendant is about to learn, we are drug dealers’ worst enemy.”

Information security

CIA Can ‘Selectively’ Share Secrets With Pet Reporters Without Challenge

A US federal judge has ruled that the Central Intelligence Agency may selectively give classified information to reporters at the New York Times, Wall Street Journal and Washington Post and withhold the same information from other reporters requesting it, because, though it was shared, the information remains “classified.”

The judge's ruling, which came down April 26, said that the CIA's argument for the practice won't be contested by the judicial system. The director of the CIA is "free to disclose classified information about CIA sources and methods selectively, if he concludes that it is necessary to do so in order to protect those intelligence sources and methods," a judge in New York's southern district wrote.

National security


The Dead Metaphors of National Security


When the U.S. national security community thinks about language, often the first things—not surprisingly—that come to mind are foreign languages. Much less often it thinks about its own language (for example, its habitually sloppy use of terms such as “strategic” and “complexity.”) Rarer yet is any deeper consideration of its common metaphors, those linguistic devices that can illuminate one thing by framing it in terms of another.

Consider a few examples: the Iron Curtain, the Cold War, containment, nation-building, and the War on Drugs. Even this short list demonstrates what a central and powerful role metaphors play in the national security discourse. Indeed, many are now so widely accepted and used that they are no longer even recognized as metaphors. These “dead metaphors” are often so deeply ingrained (like the term “ingrained” here) that they tend to rise above scrutiny. Moreover—and worse—they too easily get repurposed and misapplied to new and fundamentally different issues.

Chemical security

Scotland Yard Yet to Find Suspects in Salisbury Case – National Security Adviser

 The Metropolitan Police is yet to find suspects in the poisoning of former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia despite the conflicting media reports, UK National Security Adviser Mark Sedwill said.

In April, The Sunday People media outlet reported that a former officer of the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB), codenamed Gordon, had been identified as a suspect connected to the Salisbury poisonings. The outlet claimed that the suspect had already left the United Kingdom for Russia.

Asked at a hearing of the UK lower house defense committee if the suspects in the attack have been identified, UK National Security Adviser Mark Sedwill Sedwill replied "Not yet."

At the same time, the UK authorities are currently changing their strategies in order to provide security for the defectors, who can become the target of similar attacks, according to the official.

Biosecurity

CDC: Infections from ticks, mosquitoes surge in US

The number of illnesses caused by infected mosquitoes, ticks or fleas tripled from 2004 through 2016, with the largest surge fueled by the Zika crisis, according to a report released on Tuesday. What’s more, the agency said 80 percent of the vector control organizations designated to control these infections are not equipped to do so.

While Zika was responsible for the most glaring spike, the numbers also showed a steady increase in the cases of tick-borne Lyme disease.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported a 73 percent spike in infections from 2015 to 2016, pinned to the emergence of the Zika virus. The virus, which is transmitted by mosquitoes, can cause devastating birth defects and sparked numerous travel warnings. Zika accounted for 41,680 out of 96,075 cases of infections reported in 2016. Researchers cautioned that the data may not reflect all cases, because not every infection is reported.

The report identified seven new tick-borne germs discovered since 2004, and said that infected travelers can help spread the germs across the world.

Nuclear security

Trump team's typo and Netanyahu's fluff can't obscure Iran deal stakes

Monday night, the White House issued a statement showing support for a presentation Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had just given.

Check that. They issued TWO statements showing support for Netanyahu's presentation.

In case you missed it, Netanyahu unveiled what he called a "trove" of Iranian data and records that demonstrate Iran lied about its nuclear weapons program and that it still intends to pursue that program in the future.

His point, ostensibly, was to prove that the Iran deal -- officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, or JCPOA -- was based on faulty assumptions, flawed logic and poor information. But his goal was no doubt to nudge President Trump even closer to scrapping the deal.

Cybersecurity

10 alarming cybersecurity facts

There are 41 cyber criminals on the FBI’s Most Wanted list as of 2016

In 2016, there were 19 individuals on the FBI’s Most Wanted List for cyber criminals. Each of them was responsible for consumer losses ranging from $350,000 to more than $100 million. In 2018, that same list has 41 cyber criminals from around the world. 

The most expensive computer virus of all time cost $38.5 billion

MyDoom is considered to be the most expensive virus in the world, having caused an estimated financial damage of $38.5 billion. MyDoom was first spotted in 2004 and it became the fastest spreading email worm, exceeding all previous records. It was believed to have originated in Russia but its author was never discovered. 

Nuclear security

Iran Vows 'Surprising' Response to Israel Amid Nuclear Deal Tensions

Iranian Defense Minister Amir Khatami has commented on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's statement that Israel's intelligence had obtained thousands of documents proving that Tehran has been secretly developing a nuclear weapons program.

On Tuesday, Khatami slammed Netanyahu's speech as "Israel's provocative actions" and promised that Tehran would take actions in response.

"This is our warning to the regime occupying Jerusalem and its supporters – stop your dangerous behavior. The Iranian response will be surprising and you will regret it," Khatami stressed, as cited by Haaretz.

The comment comes after Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif mocked Netanyahu's remarks on Twitter, saying that Israel's revelations came in the run-up to the Trump administration's planned announcement regarding the Iran nuclear deal on May 12.

Weapons

Why Lethal Autonomic Weapons Offer The World A Dark Future

When it comes to AI, job loss is high on people's list of concerns but my fears and trepidation comes more from the drone industry - especially when mixed with the military.  Drones are nothing new in warfare but thanks to AI and the ability to strap on weapons to drones we are entering a new era. What once was for identification and recon is now capable of delivering payloads, firing rounds and much more besides. The issue? Who controls the firing mechanism - the drone or the pilot? The phrase “new arms race” keeps coming up when people talk about autonomous weapons systems - where are we in the race? Has it begun? Is it on the final lap? Who are the contenders?

Drones can be used for good in the military (drones making a bridge for example or firefighting) but we are fast moving into vastly unchartered waters thanks to AI and the ability for drones to self-police becoming a very realreality. Last month (April 9-13), the United Nations Convention on Conventional Weapons met for the second time to hammer out a treaty on lethal autonomous weapons systems (known as LAWS). Nearly every nation agreed that humans need to retain control of drones but several disagreed about "meaningful human control" wording. A slight cause for alarm. More talks are planned but will a ban such drones do any good?

Communication security

‘Safe haven for terrorists’: Iran bans Telegram messenger over national security concerns

The Iranian judiciary has issued a “total ban” on Telegram following a request from the security services, which argued that the encrypted messaging app has become a “safe haven” for terrorist cells, according to local media.

“Considering various complaints against the Telegram social networking app by Iranian citizens and based on the demand of security organizations to confront the illegal activities of Telegram, the judiciary has banned its usage in Iran,” the decision said, as cited by Iranian media. “All Internet providers in Iran must take steps to block Telegram's website and app as of April 30.”

The judicial order envisages a “total ban” on the messaging app that would require the providers to ensure there is no way circumvent the restrictions, Mehr state news agency said.

National security

The National Security State of the Future

It’s all well and good to perseverate about the national security dangers the Trump presidency poses to the United States, and some at least are real enough. But it’s a mistake to allow our time horizons to be constricted by the presumably fleeting periodicity of those dangers. When we analyze the future security environment, as the U.S. intelligence community is obliged to do from time to time, we look out beyond three, five, or eight years. When we do that, what post-Trumpian challenges can we detect? 

In my view, the most serious of these challenges is not strictly an exogenous threat, whether from a state or clot of non-state actors, but rather the combination of a key challenge with how the very act of managing it could change American governance frameworks in ways we might come to regret. More specifically, my fear is that a protracted geo-economic competition with China could usher in the American national security state of the future. I will come in a moment to my meaning and reasons, but we need a little history as prelude.

Opinion

Ex-CIA Director On National Security, Post-Truth 'Assault On Intelligence'

President Trump has a heaping plate of foreign policy background to consume in May, which will see a possible summit with the leader of North Korea, a deadline to decide on restoring Iranian sanctions, and the move of the U.S. Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.
In the past, most presidents have leaned on the intelligence community for guidance and context — but Trump has made plain his differences with the CIA, FBI and National Security Agency.
In The Assault On Intelligence, former CIA Director Michael Hayden says the Trump administration has ushered in what he calls a "post-truth world," and he scolds the president for waging a war on U.S. spy agencies.
In its best form, Hayden writes, intelligence is the objective truth.
"I've always viewed the role of intelligence as creating the left- and the right-hand boundaries of logical policy discussion," Hayden tells NPR. "If you deny intelligence its role, you deny yourself these boundaries — and that, of course, I think leads to some really serious situations."

War on terror

CIA Fails to Organize Prison Break for Doctor Who Helped Find Bin Laden - Source

Washington has offered Islamabad to exchange Shakil Afridi, who helped catch Osama bin Laden, for Pakistani scientist Aafia Siddiqui who is serving a jail term in the United States, according to anonymous sources speaking to Sputnik.

The CIA failed to conduct an operation to stage a prison break for Pakistani physician Shakil Afridi who had helped the US authorities track down founder of al-Qaeda Osama bin Laden, according to a source familiar with the situation.

"The CIA planned to pull Dr. Shakil Afridi from the Peshawar prison, trying to organize a prison break, but the attempt was disrupted by [Pakistan's] ISI [Inter-Services Intelligence]. A local informant who also worked for the CIA handed over information about this [CIA plan], and was aware of the plan. ISI became aware that [the CIA] was also interested in the plan of the prison itself," a source who refused to reveal his name told Sputnik.

Information security

The CIA Cleared Her Book Twice. Then It Took It Back. Why? It’s a Secret.

Sarah Carlson spent seven years analyzing the attack plans of Middle Eastern terrorist groups for the CIA. Now the agency is trying to stop Carlson from writing a book about one tumultuous aspect of her service.

Carlson is set to file a lawsuit demanding the agency permit her to go forward with a book that touches upon her time as an analyst for the CIA’s highly secretive Counterterrorism Center. The bureau within the CIA that ensures former officials don’t publish official secrets, the Publications Review Board, already cleared her manuscript twice.

But in November, two years after Carlson first submitted her manuscript, the CIA board told her that “the entire manuscript reveals classified information,” according to a copy of her imminent lawsuit provided to The Daily Beast. It’s even trying to stop Carlson from publishing her intended book title.

The book, Carlson told The Daily Beast, doesn’t reveal a scandal. She doesn’t “say anything negative about the CIA,” she said. “It’s very focused on a specific year and what happened there during a dangerous environment, a crisis and what we did in response.”

Electronic surveillance

Chinese Surveillance Is Literally Getting in Workers’ Heads

Feel like your boss is a bit of a micromanager, always looking over your shoulder? Be grateful that they’re not peering into your brain.

That’s now the case for a number of workers in China, the nation competing for the global superlative of Most Dystopian.

An “emotional surveillance” system is allowing supervisors to scrutinize employees’ brainwaves for signs of distress, according to a report from the South China Morning Post (SCMP). The technology is the result of a government-backed project.

Here’s how it works. Lightweight sensors embedded in workers’ hats or helmets wirelessly transmit the wearer’s brainwave data to a computer — it probably works a bit like an electroencephalogram (EEG), as MIT Tech Review notes. Then, artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms scan the data, looking for outliers that could indicate anxiety or rage.

Some organizations use the sensors during routine work, while others embed them in virtual reality (VR) headsets to monitor workers’ emotions during training exercises.

We don’t know exactly how many workers have been subjected to this surveillance system, but the SCMP article does say the technology is being deployed “on an unprecedented scale” in China.