Electronic surveillance

TRUMP ADMINISTRATION LOBBYING HARD FOR SWEEPING SURVEILLANCE LAW

THE TRUMP ADMINISTRATION is pushing hard for the reauthorization of a key 2008 surveillance law — section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, known as FISA — three months before it sunsets in December.

To persuade senators to reauthorize the law in full, the Trump administration is holding classified, members-only briefings for the entire House and Senate next Wednesday, with heavy hitters in attendance: Attorney General Jeff Sessions, Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats, NSA Director Mike Rogers, and FBI Director Christopher Wray will give the briefings, according to an internal announcement of the meetings provided to The Intercept and confirmed by multiple sources on Capitol Hill.

Section 702 serves as the legal basis for two of the NSA’s largest mass surveillance programs, both revealed by Edward Snowden. One program, PRISM, allows the government to collect messaging data sent to and from foreign targets, from major internet companies like Google, Facebook, Apple, and Microsoft. The other, UPSTREAM, scans internet backbone sites in the U.S. and copies communications to and from foreign targets.

Whistleblowing

Israel ‘reviewing’ nuclear spy Vanunu’s travel restrictions

The Foreign Ministry said on Sunday it’s reviewing the travel ban imposed on Israeli nuclear secret-spiller Mordechai Vanunu after Norway granted him permission to immigrate so he can be united with his wife.

“Israel will continue to review updates of the situation in order to determine appropriate restrictions in accordance with security dangers posed by Vanunu,” a statement said.

A ministry spokesperson said the restrictions on Vanunu’s freedom of movement were “due to the danger that he posed” to the Jewish state.

He declined to say if Vanunu had made an official request to travel to Norway.

Vanunu’s wife, Kristin Joachimsen, told Norway’s TV2 channel Friday the couple requested family reunification after they wed in May 2015. Norway’s Directorate of Immigration confirmed permission had been granted.

Spy story

Even in Death, the Spy Kim Philby Serves the Kremlin’s Purposes

Bereft of friends in Western capitals since its 2014 annexation of Crimea, Russia is celebrating the memory of the British K.G.B. spy Kim Philby, a stalwart supporter who stood by it through thick and thin – and spent the last 25 years of his life in Moscow, often drunk and miserable but still loyal.

Mr. Philby, a notorious double-agent who defected to Moscow in 1963 and died there in 1988, was recently honored with a portrait in a Russian state art gallery and is celebrated in a soon-to-be broadcast film on state television.

The adulation has now reached a new level with the opening of an exhibition in Moscow on the life and work of the best-known of the so-called Cambridge Five Soviet spies in Britain. It portrays Mr. Philby as an unwavering Russian patriot, and it includes the first public display of some of the more than 900 secret British documents he passed on to the K.G.B., the Soviet-era spy agency.

Cybersecurity

Inside the SEC's Statement on Cybersecurity

I strongly urge everyone to read SEC Chair Jay Clayton‘s recent Statement on Cybersecurity. One part of the statement is receiving a lot of attention. Last month, the Commission learned that an incident previously detected in 2016 may have provided the basis for illicit gain through trading. While the Commission believes the intrusion (the exploitation of a software vulnerability in the test filing component of the EDGAR system) did not result in unauthorized access to personally identifiable information, jeopardize its operations, or result in systemic risk, it openly admits that it did result in access to nonpublic information of issuers.  The statement did not say whether any of the issuers’ nonpublic information that was exposed was material, and there’s no way it could possibly determine that. The Commission’s investigation of this matter is ongoing.

Public security

Austrian ban on full-face veil in public places comes into force

Legislation banning full-face Muslim veils in public spaces has gone into effect in Austria.

The government says the law, which says faces must be visible from the hairline to the chin, is about protecting Austrian values.

It comes ahead of a general election later this month which could see gains by the far-right Freedom Party.

Muslim groups have condemned the law, saying just a tiny minority of Austrian Muslims wear full-face veils.

The law bans Muslim veils such as the burka or niqab, but also places restrictions on the use of medical face masks and clown makeup.

An estimated 150 women wear the full burka in Austria but tourism officials have expressed fears that the measures will also deter visitors from the Gulf.

Public security

Catalan referendum: 'Hundreds injured' in clashes

Catalan officials say at least 337 people have been injured in clashes as police try to prevent voting in Catalonia's independence referendum.

The Spanish government has pledged to stop a poll that was declared illegal by the country's constitutional court.

Police officers are preventing people from voting, and seizing ballot papers and boxes at polling stations.

In the regional capital Barcelona, police used batons and fired rubber bullets during pro-referendum protests.

The latest injury toll was confirmed by a spokesman for the Catalan regional government, as well as the region's health department.

Separately, the Spanish interior ministry said 11 police officers had been hurt.

Border security

Investigating the Depths

While some fear the unknown, the more daring embrace it.

That best describes a specialized U.S. Customs and Border Protection unit, the Border Patrol’s BORSTAR underwater search-and-recovery dive team.

To grasp just how demanding the job is for these multiskilled diving experts, imagine blindly negotiating deep, cold, murky – and sometimes toxic – water, possibly dodging lethal marine life lurking about, or dangerous, hidden foreign objects.

A difficult but rewarding job

Dive teams conduct search-and-recovery operations and inspect under vessels for narcotics and explosives sometimes attached under the hulls of ships. Typical targets could be a corpse, weapon, vehicle or a container loaded with illegal narcotics, all of which are difficult to spot in water where visibility is many times measured in inches.

Diving is an advanced collateral duty requiring a lot of dedication because agents still perform their regular BORSTAR duties when they’re not in the water. To stay on the team, divers must be proficient in core specialties: tactical medicine, rope and swift-water rescue, land navigation, air operations and other Border Patrol requirements. They must also maintain annual certifications with dive equipment, maintenance, and search-and-recovery operations.

Drug smuggling

CBP Officers Seize 20 lbs of Heroin at Del Rio Port of Entry

“Smugglers continue to use elaborate methods to try to smuggle their drugs into the country,” said Port Director Alberto D. Perez, Del Rio Port of Entry. “This seizure is yet another illustration of the professionalism and dedication our frontline CBP officers put forth on a daily basis.”

On Sept. 26, CBP officers at the Del Rio Port of Entry inspected a 2007 GMC Yukon, driven by a 39-year-old Del Rio man, accompanied by his three minor children, as it arrived in the United States from Mexico.

During inspection, officers examined a fire extinguisher found inside the vehicle. Following an X-ray scan and alert by a CBP canine, officers cut open the fire extinguisher to find four and a half pounds of suspected heroin inside. Further inspection revealed 10 wooden slats in the cargo area of the vehicle. CBP officers discovered the slats to be hollow, containing 238 packages of suspected heroin, totaling more than 16 pounds. In all, CBP officers seized 20.7 pounds of suspected heroin, with an estimated value of $828,929.

The driver was turned over to Homeland Security Investigations for federal prosecution. His children were released to their mother.

Foreign affairs

More US diplomats called out of Cuba after attacks with mystery weapons

More than half of the staff at the American Embassy in Havana, Cuba will return to the US in the wake of mysterious attacks that left diplomats with hearing damage and brain injuries, the State Department announced Friday.

The department said that the staff drawdown was necessary to ensure their safety. And “because our personnel's safety is at risk, and we are unable to identify the source of the attacks, we believe US citizens may also be at risk and warn them not to travel to Cuba,” the department added in a travel advisory.

The attacks have injured 21 Americans associated with the embassy so far, as well as Canadian diplomats. Attacks took place in the diplomats' homes as well as hotels. The last attack occurred in August, according to the New York Times.

Victims have reported a range of symptoms, including dizziness, nausea, headaches, balance problems, ringing in the ears (tinnitus), nosebleeds, difficulty concentrating and recalling words, permanent hearing loss, and speech problems. There have also been brain injuries, including swelling and concussion.

Opinion

Don’t let the CIA run wars

Espionage is sometimes called the cloak-and-dagger business. That term no longer applies to the Central Intelligence Agency. It was established to collect and analyze information, and — at times — quietly subvert enemies. Now its main job is killing. Instead of running agents, it launches drone attacks. The CIA is becoming a war-fighting machine: no cloak, all dagger.

The latest step in this transformation came last month, when President Trump broadened the CIA’s authority to conduct drone strikes. In the past, many of these strikes have been hybrid operations in which the CIA tracks a target and turns details over to the military, which launches the attack. Now the CIA can launch more strikes on its own. Under newly loosened rules, it may also kill anyone it judges to be a fighter, rather than only leaders, and is no longer required to assert “near certainty” that the targeted person is actually guilty.

Cybersecurity

Cybersecurity threats demand modernizing federal technology

WannaCry. Petya. Wikileaks. Cloudbleed. Hacks of presidential campaigns in France and the United States. Shadow Brokers. Equifax. Deloitte. Those are just some of the most significant cyberattacks of the last 12 months.

Private and public networks around the world are incessantly under cyber attack, and the threats continue to proliferate. Cyberattacks steal from the innocent, threaten our national security, and undermine faith in corporations, institutions, and government. 

If it’s not obvious yet that cybersecurity is a major issue, you’re not paying attention. Accordingly, cybersecurity must be a priority for all levels of government, not to mention the private sector. 

Yet much of the federal government’s networks remain vulnerable simply because of outdated and obsolete technology. This must change.

Data security

National security relies more and more on big data. Here’s why.

Data are a defining feature of modern society. Every day, humans and the machines they interact with create 2.5 trillion megabytes of data. As data become more prominent and readily available, the temptation to analyze them and make sense of the world through specific analytics methods or algorithms grows.

This is particularly true for national security. Big data is a “big deal” for U.S. spy agencies, which have long relied on multiple data sources to produce intelligence reports. In the past decade, agencies like the CIA and the NSA have institutionalized big data through the development of dedicated analytics units and research and development projects focusing on the analysis of online data such as YouTube videos and social media posts.

Nuclear security

The nuclear deterrent protects Britain from North Korea, Defence Secretary Fallon warns as he welcomes Nato chiefs to the UK's high-security submarine base to mark the 350th Trident patrol

Britain's nuclear deterrent protects the nation from North Korea and Russia, Sir Michael Fallon claimed today as he welcomed Nato chief to a high-security nuclear base.

The Defence Secretary hosted NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg and the 29 ambassadors of the North Atlantic Council (NAC) at Clyde Naval Base to mark the 350th Trident patrol. 

Each of the missions has been conducted in extreme secrecy with the strength of the deterrent held in enemies not knowing where in the world Britain's subs are.

At least one of the Trident-armed boats has been at sea 24/7, 365 days a year since 1994 and Sir Michael today recommitted the UK to nuclear deterrence.

Radiation safety

Spectre of N. Korean atmospheric nuclear test prompts emergency plans in Seoul & Tokyo

South Korean banks and utility companies are drawing up plans to construct shielding and potentially move operations overseas to protect against North Korea as further provocation from Pyongyang is expected on October 10.

South Korean banks and vital infrastructure facilities, including nuclear power plants and government ministries, have reportedly been hacked by Pyongyang in the past. And as tensions in the region escalate, many now fear the North Korean regime will conduct an atmospheric nuclear test to coincide with the 72nd anniversary of the founding of the Workers' Party of Korea on October 10.

The South Korean government warned Thursday that its northern neighbor was "highly likely" to continue military provocations in the build up to the October celebrations.

"Current regulations prohibit the transfer of client information overseas, so we are discussing ways to revise those rules so we can set up data back-up centres abroad," a Financial Supervisory Commission official said as cited by Chosun.

Outer space

Elon Musk: Rockets will fly people from city to city in minutes

People will soon be able to fly from city to city within minutes, rocket and car entrepreneur Elon Musk says.

Mr Musk made the promise at the International Astronautical Congress (IAC) in Adelaide, Australia.

A promotional video says the London-New York journey would take 29 minutes.

Mr Musk told the audience he aimed to start sending people to Mars in 2024. His SpaceX company would begin building the necessary ships to support the mission next year.

He says he is refocusing SpaceX to work on just one type of vehicle - known as the BFR - which could do all of the firm's current work and interplanetary travel.

Nuclear security

The effects of a single terrorist nuclear bomb

The escalating threats between North Korea and the United States make it easy to forget the “nuclear nightmare,” as former US Secretary of Defense William J. Perry put it, that could result even from the use of just a single terrorist nuclear bomb in the heart of a major city.

At the risk of repeating the vast literature on the tragedies of Hiroshima and Nagasaki—and the substantial literature surrounding nuclear tests and simulations since then—we attempt to spell out here the likely consequences of the explosion of a single terrorist nuclear bomb on a major city, and its subsequent ripple effects on the rest of the planet. Depending on where and when it was detonated, the blast, fire, initial radiation, and long-term radioactive fallout from such a bomb could leave the heart of a major city a smoldering radioactive ruin, killing tens or hundreds of thousands of people and wounding hundreds of thousands more. Vast areas would have to be evacuated and might be uninhabitable for years. Economic, political, and social aftershocks would ripple throughout the world. A single terrorist nuclear bomb would change history. The country attacked—and the world—would never be the same.

Drug smuggling

Drug smuggling, and the endless battle to stop it

In the middle of a peaceful green valley where the salt air drifts in clean and fresh from the ocean, it can be hard to remember the chaos.

Drug shootouts. Smugglers scrambling down the canyons. When congressmen wanted tours of the area, they’d have to see it from the window of a helicopter because Border Patrol couldn’t guarantee their safety.

Then came the fences. One perimeter, then a secondary. The fences helped the Border Patrol reclaim this little sliver of the country.

But the fences did not stop the drug smuggling. With a near-infinite supply of money and resources on the other side, drugs continue to move under, around and through anything the country builds.

No wall will stop them.

Chemical security

Russia reports destruction of all remaining chemical weapons

Russia has completed the massive task of destroying its Cold War-era chemical weapons stockpiles, winning praise from an international chemical weapons watchdog.

Russian officials reported the destruction of the country's last remaining artillery projectiles filled with a toxic agent to President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday. The work took place at the Kizner facility in the Urals, one of five facilities built in Russia to destroy chemical weapons.

Ahmet Uzumcu, director-general of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, commended Russia for achieving a "major milestone" with the destruction of its chemical arsenals.

The OPCW oversees global efforts to eliminate chemical weapons under the Chemical Weapons Convention that took effect in 1997. It says over 96 percent of the stockpiles declared by the conventions 192 participants have been destroyed.

Law enforcement

FBI: Terror probes nearly equally split between domestic, jihadi

The FBI's number of terrorism investigations is almost equally split between domestic cases and those involving jihadi operatives, the agency's new director told a Senate panel Wednesday.

But some Democrats have been pushing the Trump administration to shift the nation’s security focus away from radical Islam and toward combating domestic white supremacists, the Washington Times reported.

When it comes to homeland security, the FBI is currently looking into roughly 1,000 domestic terrorism cases, which is almost on par with the number of jihadi terrorist threats, said Christopher Wray, who took over as FBI director in August.

During Wednesday's hearing, hosted by the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, several Senate Democrats argued that white supremacist and domestic extremist threat may require more resources, using last month's violence in Charlottesville, Va., as an example, the Times reported.

Electronic surveillance

Moscow Deploys Facial Recognition to Spy on Citizens in Streets

Moscow is adding facial-recognition technology to its network of 170,000 surveillance cameras across the city in a move to identify criminals and boost security.

Since 2012, CCTV recordings have been held for five days after they’re captured, with about 20 million hours of video stored at any one time.

"We soon found it impossible to process such volumes of data by police officers alone," said Artem Ermolaev, head of the department of information technology in Moscow. "We needed an artificial intelligence to help find what we are looking for." 

Moscow says the city’s centralized surveillance network is the world’s largest of its kind. The U.K. is one of the most notorious for its use of CCTV cameras but precise figures are difficult to obtain. However, a 2013 report by the British Security Industry Association estimated there were as many as 70,000 cameras operated by the government across the nation.