Cybersecurity

Hackers targeted other systems to find weak spots, Homeland Security says

The Department of Homeland Security said Thursday that just because Russian government hackers didn't directly scan election systems in some U.S. states, it doesn't mean they weren't looking to break into them.

DHS spokesman Scott McConnell declined to discuss specific states. But he said hackers looked for vulnerabilities to exploit in other government computer systems in an unspecified number of states as a way to get into the election systems. The other networks were usually connected to the election systems or shared similarities, he said.

The release of additional information came after state officials in Wisconsin and California said they had received conflicting reports from DHS about which of their computer systems were targeted by hackers during the 2016 presidential campaign.

Electronic surveillance

Apple sees sharp increase in U.S. national security requests

Apple Inc (AAPL.O) has received more than four times as many national-security related requests from the U.S. government in the first half of this year versus a year ago, according to a company report on Thursday.

Apple said it had received between 13,250 and 13,499 national security requests affecting between 9,000 and 9,249 users. That compares with a range of 2,750 and 2,999 requests affecting between 2,000 and 2,249 users in the first half of 2016. (apple.co/2xO5fLM)

The requests come in the form of so-called National Security Letters, or NSLs, and requests under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, or FISA. Apple and other companies report ranges because government rules prevent disclosing precise numbers.

Apple declined to comment beyond the figures it released.

The disclosures are voluntary, and firms like Microsoft Corp (MSFT.O) and Facebook Inc (FB.O) have yet to report any figures for 2017. In the past, those companies have issued more detailed reports, for example separating FISA requests and NSLs. The government requires they wait six months to report that level of information.

Gun control

'Concealed carry' ruling could help put gun issue on Supreme Court agenda

In a win for gun rights activists, a federal appeals court on Thursday let stand another court’s ruling that it was unconstitutional for Washington, D.C.’s local government to require licensed gun owners to provide a “good reason” for legally carrying a concealed weapon in the nation’s capital city.
The ruling potentially sets the matter on a path to the U.S. Supreme Court, because other federal courts have reached varying decisions in similar cases, the Washington Times reported.

“Sometimes the most important thing a court does is not do anything,” Adam Winkler, a University of California, Los Angeles, law professor who has written extensively on the Second Amendment, told the Times. “Because of what the D.C. Circuit didn’t do today, the Supreme Court is now far more likely to take a concealed carry case.”

Second Amendment advocates said the law was too restrictive, and would make it more difficult for law-abiding citizens to obtain concealed carry permits. As of June, D.C. police had granted 126 such permits and denied 417 since the law took effect in 2014, the Washington Post reported.

Intel cooperation

Israeli Intelligence Helped Thwart Dozens of Terror Attacks Worldwide

The Israeli intelligence community has shared information with other countries over the past two years that has helped thwart dozens of terror attacks about to be perpetrated by Islamists who were in contact with members of Islamic State and Middle Eastern factions identified with Al-Qaida. 

As part of the international effort to fight radical Islamic terror, Israeli intelligence bodies have tightened coordination with counterparts in friendly countries in recent years. Until now, there have been reports of Israeli warnings that helped thwart attacks such as the one planned by ISIS terrorists at a soccer game between host Albania and Israel. 

Espionage

Woman, 65, working for government arrested on suspicion of passing secrets to foreign power

A 65-year-old woman suspected of passing state secrets to countries such as Russia or China was arrested by anti-terrorism officers yesterday.

The woman, a British national who has been working for as a contractor for a Whitehall department, was held at her north London home by officers acting on a tip-off from the intelligence services.

She was arrested by Scotland Yard's counter-terrorism command on suspicion of an offence under the Official Secrets Act, which covers espionage and passing secrets to an enemy.

Criminal investigation

Will Trump finally reveal 54-year-old secret FBI and CIA files on JFK assassination next month?

Scholars are eagerly awaiting the anticipated release of thousands of never-before-seen government documents related to President John F. Kennedy's assassination.

Now, they're waiting to see whether President Donald Trump will block the release of files that could shed light on a tragedy that has stirred conspiracy theories for decades.

The National Archives has until October 26 to disclose the remaining files related to Kennedy's 1963 assassination, unless Trump intervenes. 

The CIA and FBI, whose records make up the bulk of the batch, won't say whether they've appealed to the Republican president to keep them under wraps.

War on terror

Ex-Drone Warrior: Don’t Give the CIA Authority to Deploy Killer Robots in Afghanistan

Since the drone program began, the U.S. military has been keen on keeping data related to it under wraps. Due to the near-absence of official information, drone strike statistics answer few questions and raise many more. For example, when the Obama administration released the first official estimates of those killed in strikes during President Obama’s presidency, they only included those that took place outside the conventional wars in Iraq, Syria, and Afghanistan, leaving human rights advocates and media organizations trying to fill in the blanks.

Under President Trump, whose stated opinions on transparency vary from negative to non-existent, the problem is only getting worse. However, the incredible work of accountability organizations such as The Bureau of Investigative Journalism in recent years allows us to fill in some of the blanks. Looking at drone strike data from Afghanistan, starting at the beginning of Trump’s presidency nine months ago, there have been a minimum of 2,353 confirmed strikes in Afghanistan, with between 684 and 1081 people reported killed in them, including anywhere between 51 and 116 civilians and children.

Cybersecurity

‘Very troubling’: US asks China to hold off on cybersecurity law

Washington has asked Beijing to refrain from enforcing a new cybersecurity law that would require foreign and domestic companies to store user data in China and submit to security checks, saying such measures would damage global trade.

The Cybersecurity Law was passed by China in November 2016, and went into effect in June 2017. The law states that any “network operators” in China, including any local or international firms that gather data, must store all user data within mainland China.

In the two-page document submitted for debate at the World Trade Organization (WTO) Council for Trade in Services on Tuesday, the US raised concerns over provisions requiring companies to submit to a "security assessment” and prove that the “purpose of the transfer meets standards of legitimacy, necessity, and justification” before they transfer data out of China.

Forensics

IEDs Are More Dangerous Than Landmines

Landmines have increasingly been replaced in modern warfare with improvised explosive devices, usually known as IEDs.

The mechanism of injury is the same for landmines and IEDs, while the seriousness of injuries for either device depends on how close the victim is to the center of the explosion, says a  research published in BMJ Open.

Researchers suspected that pattern 1 injuries — those where the victim suffers the full effects of the explosion at close quarters — would be more serious when they involved IEDs.

Forensics

New Tech to Uncover Face Behind Mask

According to ibtimes.co.uk, the technology maps 14 facial points (10 for eyes, one for the nose, and three for lips) on a person’s face and uses the distance and angles between those points to approximate the hidden facial structure. Finally, the system compares the estimated facial structure with learned images to unveil the actual identity of the person in question.

When put to test, the deep-learning algorithm delivered 56% identification accuracy when the face was covered with hats or scarves. With the addition of glasses, the number went down further to 43%, according to a report in Quartz.

Undoubtedly, the AI-based facial-recognition system is still at a nascent stage and will need a number of improvements before being applied practically. The research team understands this need and has released datasets of disguised and undisguised faces, calling on others to test and develop the technology.

Still, the research provides a good insight into the possible applications of a technology that could help identify people just by scanning their masked faces. Law enforcement could be a major beneficiary, but at the same time, it could raise alarms for violating the privacy of a number of people who wear hats and scarves.

Wildlife smuggling

Traffickers find new ways to smuggle rhino horn out of Africa

Instead of shipping poached rhino horns whole or in chunks, transnational criminal networks have started manufacturing jewelry and other rhino-horn trinkets in southern Africa, according to a new report from conservation NGO Traffic.

Beads, bangles and other carved rhino-horn trinkets have previously been found in destination countries like Vietnam and China. However, manufacturing such products before shipping them out of Africa represents a new tactic for evading detection, and indicates a possible shift in consumer demand.

“I think it makes it extraordinarily difficult for law enforcement agencies,” said Julian Rademeyer, a South Africa-based project leader for Traffic and one of the authors of the report. “They are already overstretched and under-resourced, and who’s going to be able to stop someone walking through an airport wearing a rhino-horn bracelet or bangle or beads, or carrying them in a bag? It’s not the sort of thing that law enforcement agencies and customs officials are looking for. They’re looking for whole horns or chunks of horns.”

Drug smuggling

Here's how drugs are getting smuggled from South America to the US

The cultivation of coca, the base ingredient of cocaine, in Colombia spiked 134% between 2013 and 2016, after hitting a low in 2012.

That period also saw the two largest year-over-year increases in cultivation ever in Colombia — a 39% rise in 2014 and a 42% increase 2015.

Cultivation increased a little over 13% in 2016, but that growth brings Colombia to double the acreage under cultivation it had in 2012, its lowest point.

"This surge is very troubling and likely foreshadows an increase of importation, abuse, and overdose deaths in the United States," Anthony Williams, assistant administrator and chief of operations for the US Drug Enforcement Administration, told the Senate Caucus on International Narcotics Control on Tuesday.

Much of the cocaine from the region — Colombia, Bolivia, and Peru are the world's biggest producers — travels to the US, plying sea and air routes in the eastern Pacific and Caribbean, as shown by the map below, which was prepared by US Southern Command and displayed at the hearing.

Electronic surveillance

Feds want foreign surveillance authority renewed

Intelligence and law enforcement officials across the government lobbied Congress Monday to let them conduct broad surveillance on foreign targets in coming years, saying it helps prevent terrorist and cyberattacks on the United States. They said current rules adequately safeguard the privacy of Americans.

More than 10 senior officials with the CIA, National Security Agency, FBI, Justice Department and national intelligence director’s office made their case to news reporters for why Congress should reauthorize a highly contentious section of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.

They said the authority to target the communications of foreigners located outside the United States yields intelligence on terrorist plots, weapons proliferation, malicious cyber operations and other threats to U.S. national security. The officials said 106,469 foreigners abroad currently are being targeted — up from about 89,000 in 2013. The authority expires at the end of the year and lawmakers are weighing reauthorization.

Military

New uniform coating could keep troops warm without multiple layers

Researchers are working on a way for soldiers to generate heat in cold environments instead of piling on multiple bulky layers to their uniforms.

By applying a silver nanowire coating to the uniforms, troops could theoretically dial up the heat to keep themselves comfortable, according to researchers at U.S. Army Natick Soldier Research, Development and Engineering Center in Massachusetts.

The silver nanowires form an electrically conductive network that when hooked up to a low-power battery can heat up polyester and polypropylene, research bioengineer Paola D’Angelo told Army Times.

The goal is to coat gloves with the material and eventually apply it to the entire uniform.

“If we reduce the number of layers [troops have to wear], they still keep that dexterity that allows them to operate weapons and machinery,” D’Angelo said.

Environmental security

HOW MILITARY OUTSOURCING TURNED TOXIC

The military is one of the country’s largest polluters, with an inventory of toxic sites on American soil that once topped 39,000. At many locations, the Pentagon has relied on contractors like U.S. Technology to assist in cleaning and restoring land, removing waste, clearing unexploded bombs, and decontaminating buildings, streams and soil. In addition to its work for Barksdale, U.S. Technology had won some 830 contracts with other military facilities — Army, Air Force, Navy and logistics bases — totaling more than $49 million, many of them to dispose of similar powders.

In taking on environmental cleanup jobs, contractors often bring needed expertise to technical tasks the Pentagon isn’t equipped to do itself. They also absorb much of the legal responsibility for disposing of military-made hazards, in some cases helping the Pentagon — at least on paper — winnow down its list of toxic liabilities.

But in outsourcing this work, the military has often struggled to provide adequate oversight to ensure that work is done competently — or is completed at all. Today, records show, some of the most dangerous cleanup work that has been entrusted to contractors remains unfinished, or worse, has been falsely pronounced complete, leaving people who live near former military sites to assume these areas are now safe.

International security

Trump says 'totally prepared' for military option in N. Korea

U.S. President Donald Trump said Tuesday he is "totally prepared" to use military options in North Korea, although they are not preferred.

Trump's remark came in response to North Korea's threat a day earlier to shoot down approaching American bombers even in international air space.

"We are totally prepared for the second option. Not a preferred option, but if we take that option, it will be devastating -- I can tell you that -- devastating for North Korea," he said at a White House press conference with Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy Brey. "That's called the military option. If we have to take it, we will."

Foreign affairs

US And Russia Quietly End Diplomatic Tailspin

After months of angry statements, diplomatic expulsions, and shuttered consulates, US and Russian officials have quietly put an end to the tit-for-tat retaliations between the two sides, and US officials are now considering reviving parts of a Russian proposal from March to strengthen military-to-military contacts.

The improvement in relations follows talks between Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly last week.

For weeks, US officials had braced for Moscow to take retaliatory measures against US facilities in Russia in response to Washington’s closure of a Russian consulate in San Francisco in late August. But following last week’s meetings, Moscow is signaling an end to the feud, and US officials are expressing cautious optimism about the two diplomats’ conversations.

Corruption

U.S. Attorney Announces The Arrest Of 10 Individuals, Including Four Division I Coaches, For College Basketball Fraud And Corruption Schemes

The charges in the Complaints result from a scheme involving bribery, corruption, and fraud in intercollegiate athletics.  Since 2015, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York and the FBI have been investigating the criminal influence of money on coaches and student-athletes who participate in intercollegiate basketball governed by the NCAA.  The investigation has revealed two related schemes.  In the first scheme (the “Coach Bribery Scheme”), athlete advisors – including financial advisors and business managers, among others – allegedly paid bribes to assistant and associate head basketball coaches at NCAA Division I universities, and sometimes directly to student-athletes at those universities, facilitated by the coaches.  In exchange for the bribes, the coaches agreed to pressure and exert influence over student-athletes under their control to retain the services of the bribe-payors once the athletes entered the National Basketball Association (“NBA”).  

In the second scheme (the “Company-1 Scheme”), athlete advisors working with high-level Company-1 employees, allegedly paid bribes to student-athletes playing at, or bound for, NCAA Division I universities, and to the families of such athletes.  These bribes were paid in exchange for a commitment by the athletes to matriculate at a specific university sponsored by Company-1, and a promise to ultimately sign agreements to be represented by the bribe-payors once the athletes entered the NBA.

Participants in both schemes allegedly took steps to conceal the illegal payments, including (i) funneling them to athletes and/or their families indirectly through surrogates and entities controlled by the scheme participants; and (ii) making or intending to make misrepresentations to the relevant universities regarding the involvement of student-athletes and coaches in the schemes, in violation of NCAA rules.

Terror threat

In drones, ISIS has its own tactical air force

Commercial drones, such as the $1,500 Chinese-made DJI Phantom widely used by the Islamic State group, are providing nonstate actors with their own mini-air force, according to an expert in irregular warfare, who spoke on a panel Wednesday at the Modern Day Marine expo in Quantico, Virginia.

While many observers have awed over ISIS’ use of these platforms to drop munitions — a significant change in operations and a threat to U.S. and allied forces unseen in the last 16 years — the totality of the group’s use of drones should be taken into account, said David Knoll, a research analyst at the Center for Naval Analysis.

ISIS uses these devices for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, as well as close-air support, providing the militant group with a tactical-level air force capability that many states did not even possess 10 years ago.

Immigration security

Let’s grab the chance to trounce human traffickers and smugglers

Last year, the New York Declaration delivered a compelling statement from the United Nations that refugees and migrants need protection and assistance.

Nations agreed to return to New York in 2018 to adopt a Global Compact on migration.

The compact will be the first negotiated agreement by governments to cover every aspect of international migration.

Migration is an issue for our times — and there is a real need to go after root causes such as conflict — but we can all agree that refugees and migrants should not be treated like criminals.

ORGANISED CRIME

This is why the compact can take the lead, and nations can assist by adopting and implementing the UN Convention Against Transnational Organised Crime and its relevant protocols on trafficking in persons and migrant smuggling.

We have the tools to disrupt organised crime networks through intelligence sharing, joint operations, financial investigations and coordination across local and regional borders.