Crimes

Global Economic Crime Survey 2016

More than a third of organisations have experienced economic crime in the past 24 months, as reported by over 6,000 respondents to PwC’s Global Economic Crime Survey 2016. This year’s results show that the incidence of economic crime has come down, for the first time since the global financial crisis of 2008-9 (albeit marginally by 1%).​ 

At first glance, this could be evidence of a return on the investments in the preventative measures which organisations have been making over the past few years. But as we look at the data more closely, it is possible that this small decrease is actually masking a worrying trend: that economic crime is changing significantly, but that detection and controls programmes are not keeping up with the pace of change. What’s more, the financial cost of each fraud is on the rise.​ 

http://www.pwc.com/gx/en/services/advisory/consulting/forensics/economic-crime-survey.html

Counterterrorism

France’s ‘secret war’ against the IS group in Libya

French newspaper Le Monde reported on Wednesday that special forces and the military unit of France’s DGSE intelligence agency are engaged in covert operations against Islamic State (IS) groupmilitants in Libya alongside the US and UK.

Le Monde also said sources had reported sightings of French special forces in eastern Libya since mid-February.

Although the French government has not confirmed the revelations, Le Drian has ordered an immediate investigation into "breaches of national defence secrecy" to identify the sources of the report.

http://www.france24.com/en/20160225-france-secret-war-libya-islamic-state-group

Cybersecurity

Facebook used by arms dealers to sell jihadis guns, tanks and missiles across Syria, Gaza and Iraq

Arms dealers located in Egypt, Syria, Libya, Gaza and Iraq are using Facebook to sell a wide range of weapons, missiles and tanks to various parties in the Middle East who need from, ranging from Kurdish rebels to Islamic State (Isis) fighters and Hamas paramilitaries.

On Tuesday 23 February, the Syrians News website and other Arabic online sites broke the news that it is possible to buy US weapons meant for the CIA and the Pentagon on Facebook – as well as Soviet-era grenade launchers – on a page belonging to arms dealers located in Idlib, Syria.

The news was picked up by a couple of UK national newspapers including The Mirror, and Facebook quickly took the page down. However, an investigation by IBTimes UK has uncovered an additional 11 other communities and shops dedicated to supplying firearms to people in the Middle East on Facebook, and the traders are catering to a wide audience − pretty much anyone at all who would like to buy a firearm or military equipment...

http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/facebook-used-by-arms-dealers-sell-jihadis-guns-tanks-missiles-across-syria-gaza-iraq-1546011

Remote control combat

The Untold Casualties of the Drone War

Early one evening in November, Brandon Bryant, a former Air Force officer and perhaps the world's most famous drone program whistleblower, sits on the sofa in a Manhattan hotel suite, writing a letter to President Obama. A grey hoodie is pulled over his baseball cap, the sleeves half-covering a red dragon and Nordic tribal tattoos on his arms and hands. For three years, he's spoken critically about his time flying drone missions in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia — where he helped kill 1,626 people, according to his own performance review — but now he can't seem to find the right words. Between sips of water and occasional requests for feedback, Bryant furiously crosses out lines in the notebook he typically uses to write poetry. "I don't want it to sound too formal," he says. "It needs to read like it's coming from us and not from our lawyers."

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/the-untold-casualties-of-the-drone-war-20160218

Chasing the Soviet clients

THE LONG SHADOW OF THE GULF WAR

Twenty-five years ago this month, the conclusion of the First Gulf War inaugurated the post-Cold War global order. Militarily, U.S. forces dramatically outperformed pre-war expectations. Diplomatically, Washington assembled a coalition that shouldered the financial burden of the war. Domestically, the American public rallied around the flag. Meanwhile, the war exposed Iraq, the erstwhile Soviet client with the world’s fourth-largest military, as a paper tiger. By the end of 40 days of aerial bombing and 100 hours of ground combat operations, on February 28, 1991, it was clear to the Bush administration that the United States possessed the military edge and the political support to stand alone as the sole superpower that would set the terms of the post-Cold War world.

Although frequently overshadowed by the humanitarian interventions of the 1990s and the Global War on Terror of the 2000s, it was the Gulf War that fundamentally structured the geopolitical context in which the United States has operated since the Cold War...

http://warontherocks.com/2016/02/the-long-shadow-of-the-gulf-war/

National security culture

US Strategy and Strategic Culture from 2017

The American government elected in 2016 will face a transforming world – one that will require strategic approaches that are markedly different from those of the last two US administrations.

Every country has what might be called a ‘strategic culture’ – that is, the instincts at play and the means employed as the country defines and advances its interests in the world. This affects everything from how countries set priorities to how they fix the balance between diplomacy and the use of force. The strategic culture of the US over the last 16 years has reflected the unusual circumstances and characters of two very different – and in some ways very unusual – administrations. The first under President George W. Bush (2001 to 2009) had to deal with the most devastating attack that America has suffered since 1941. The administration responded aggressively and, while it succeeded in thwarting much of the terrorist threat of that time, it also generated enormous controversy – largely due to its instinct for preemptive action, and in particular its forceful removal of Saddam Hussein in Iraq and that operation’s violent and chaotic aftermath.

http://globalbrief.ca/blog/2016/02/19/american-strategy-and-strategic-culture-next-administration/

Laser

'Star Wars' lasers coming to military vehicles soon (maybe)

High-powered "Star-Wars"-style lasers could be coming to military vehicles within a few years.

Or it could be decades. Or centuries.

As part of their research budget pitch to Congress on Wednesday, Defense Department officials professed confidence that long-promised “directed energy weapons” are in the reach of military experts in the near future, noting recent technological progress and the current use of defensive laser systems in some service aircraft.

But they also acknowledged that’s a promise that lawmakers have heard many times before.

“Directed energy is always something that is five years away, and then years later it’s still five years away,” said Stephen Welby, assistant defense secretary for research. “But I’m very excited about what’s happening in these spaces now.”...

http://www.militarytimes.com/story/military/2016/02/24/lasers-military-research-hopes-reality/80869064/

Drug trafficking

DEA considers expanding DARPA's big data program

The Drug Enforcement Agency and DARPA have been working together to create a big data processing system that boosts law enforcement capabilities while maintaining the security of classified information. DEA has been trying to get the final program off the ground since early 2014 and is in need of a third-party integrator to help move things forward and eliminate the project backlog.

The DEA-DARPA collaboration on big data has been ongoing since the early ‘90s when the two started working on a system to crunch large data sets and improve law enforcement efforts...

http://www.federaltimes.com/story/government/it/2016/02/24/dea-considering-expanding-darpa-big-data-program/80850846/

Terror threat

The Islamic State's supply chain for IEDs is fast, reliable

Fertilizer from Turkey.

Detonator cord made in India.

Microprocessors made in the USA.

Islamic State militants have built a fast and effective supply chain for making improvised explosive devices, one that is flowing underneath the radar of international rules designed to halt weapons sales, according to a new report.

The main components of the Islamic State’s signature weapon — chemicals, fuses and cell phones — are not subject to many traditional export controls because they have viable commercial and industrial uses.

And it can take just a few weeks for many of those items to move from legal over-the-counter sales in neighboring countries to fully assembled weapons on the battlefield in Iraq and Syria, according to Conflict Armament Research, a London-based group that investigates the supply of weapons into armed conflicts...

http://www.militarytimes.com/story/military/2016/02/24/islamic-states-supply-chain-ieds-fast-reliable/80863970/

Mass shootings

Four dead, 14 injured in Kansas attacks

A sheriff in south-central Kansas said Thursday that four people, including a gunman, are dead after a series of shootings at a business, its parking lot and two streets nearby.

Harvey County Sheriff T. Walton said at a news conference that all the dead were shot inside Excel Industries, a plant in Hesston that makes lawn mower products. He said 14 were injured in the shootings, 10 critically.

A law enforcement officer killed the gunman, who worked at the plant, after he began shooting at them, Walton said.

The man traveled between sites firing from a vehicle before reaching the plant, the sheriff said.

Walton said about 150 people were likely in the plant at the time of the shooting, and that the law enforcement officer who killed the suspect ‘‘saved multiple, multiple lives.’’ He said the gunman had an assault weapon and a pistol.

http://www.bostonglobe.com/news/nation/2016/02/25/multiple-deaths-injuries-kansas-attacks-sheriff-says/ncF4kcbTcWUXum8k0O4OOM/story.html

Spy story

Polish codebreakers 'cracked Enigma before Alan Turing'

Alan Turing could not have cracked the Enigma Code without the help of Polish mathematicians and it is time to "right the wrong" and acknowledge their contribution, the Polish government has said.

Deciphering the German system is believed to have shortened World War Two by two years and saved countless lives.

But few people realise that early Enigma codes had already been broken by the Poles who then passed on the knowledge to Britain shortly before the outbreak of war...

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/history/world-war-two/12158055/Polish-codebreakers-cracked-Enigma-before-Alan-Turing.html?__scoop_post=30bf2900-d44e-11e5-896a-00221934899c&__scoop_topic=4050186#__scoop_post=30bf2900-d44e-11e5-896a-00221934899c&__scoop_topic=4050186

Privacy & security

The Apple-FBI Fight Isn’t About Privacy vs. Security. Don’t Be Misled

THROUGHOUT THE ONGOING fight between Apple and the FBI over custom access to an iPhone used by one of the two terrorists who killed 14 people in San Bernardino, the government has framed the argument as a simple trade-off: You must surrender a little privacy if you want more security. The scales don’t balance quite so neatly, though; there’s nothing secure about giving the FBI their way. Still, it’s been an effective way for the government to win over the public, on its way to trying to win over the courts.

FBI director James Comey most recently pushed the dichotomy in an op-ed for Lawfare. “We have awesome new technology that creates a serious tension between two values we all treasure: privacy and safety,” he writes. “That tension should not be resolved by corporations that sell stuff for a living. It also should not be resolved by the FBI, which investigates for a living.”...

http://www.wired.com/2016/02/apple-fbi-privacy-security/?mbid=social_twitter&__scoop_post=c08e44a0-daf5-11e5-927b-00221934899c&__scoop_topic=4050186#__scoop_post=c08e44a0-daf5-11e5-927b-00221934899c&__scoop_topic=4050186

Tortures

Joint Chiefs Chairman Rejects Trump's Claims That 'Torture Works'

Joint Chiefs Chairman Marine Gen. Joseph Dunford indirectly but strongly rejected Thursday the campaign statements of Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump that "torture works."

Put on the spot about Trump's remarks by Rep. Betty McCollum, a Democrat from Minnesota, Dunford didn't respond directly but made clear that torture was out of bounds for a military that embodies American values.

"One of the things that makes me proud to represent this uniform is that we represent the values of the American people," the general said in testimony before the House Appropriations Defense Subcommittee. While he never mentioned Trump's name, he said, "When our young men and women go to war, they go with our values."...

http://www.military.com/daily-news/2016/02/25/joint-chiefs-chairman-rejects-trumps-claims-that-torture-works.html

Business security

10 Stupid Moves That Threaten Your Company's Security

Despite companies spending billions of dollars on information security technology, it turns out that the greatest threat to their security may be you -- their clueless employee.

Granted, employees' intentions are not always meant to be malicious, but, rather, it's often a case of boneheaded maneuvers, say security experts.

And employees, as a collective group, account for a wide swath of the confidential data loss at companies, according to a recent study. Of the 5,564 IT professionals queried in the Global IT Security Risks Survey by Kaspersky Lab and B2B International, 73% were affected by internal security incidents. It turns out that employees were the largest single group that created this confidential data loss, accounting for 42% of the incidents...

http://www.informationweek.com/strategic-cio/10-stupid-moves-that-threaten-your-companys-security/d/d-id/1324035?_mc=RSS_IWK_EDT&__scoop_post=5d90e890-c361-11e5-d9f1-90b11c3d2b20&__scoop_topic=4050186#__scoop_post=5d90e890-c361-11e5-d9f1-90b11c3d2b20&__scoop_topic=4050186

Biosecurity

All Eyes Are On Colombia: Will Zika Trigger A Spike In Microcephaly?

Keila Atuesta Jaimes, a petite 25-year-old, is lying on an exam table next to an ultrasound machine. The doctor moves the wand across her belly. It's pretty flat. She's only about three months pregnant. Then suddenly, there's the heartbeat!

Atuesta smiles. Nervously. About three weeks ago she came down with the kind of rash and fever she figured could mean only one thing: Zika.

She says she went straight to the hospital, concerned her baby might end up with the birth defects that have been linked to Zika: brain damage and an abnormally small head, a condition called microcephaly...

http://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2016/02/24/467983166/pregnant-women-whove-had-zika-and-their-doctors-watch-and-wait

Nuclear security

See inside the underground bunker that could launch a nuclear war

 During the Cold War, the United States developed a vast nuclear arsenal with weapons on aircraft, submarines and land-based missiles. These three ways of delivering nuclear weapons became known as the triad, with the Soviet Union was the primary target. The strategy was to deter an attack on the United States by having enough nuclear weapons that could survive a strike and retaliate.

Over the next three decades, the Pentagon plans to spend $1 trillion to rebuild the triad. Military commanders and civilian experts say nuclear weapons are used every day to deter a nuclear attack against the U.S. and that the current stockpile needs to be replaced because they are old. An example: the B-52H bombers began flying in the late 1950s early 1960s and are older than the crews that fly them.

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/updates/see-inside-the-underground-bunker-that-could-launch-a-nuclear-war/

Intel analyses

House Chairman: Military Files, Emails Deleted amid Probe

The chairman of the House Intelligence Committee said Thursday that personnel at U.S. Central Command have deleted files and emails amid allegations that intelligence assessments were altered to exaggerate progress against Islamic State militants.

"We have been made aware that both files and emails have been deleted by personnel at CENTCOM and we expect that the Department of Defense will provide these and all other relevant documents to the committee," Rep. Devin Nunes said at a hearing on worldwide threats facing the United States. Central Command oversees U.S. military activities in the Middle East.

Nunes, R-Calif., also said the Office of the Director of National Intelligence briefed the committee on a survey indicating that more than 40 percent of Central Command analysts believe there are problems with the integrity of the intelligence analyses and process.

http://www.military.com/daily-news/2016/02/25/house-chairman-military-files-emails-deleted-probe.html

Policing

UK: Blanket Surveillance Act

February 7, 2016 was the effective date for the Act of January 15, 2016 on Amendments to the Police Act and Certain Other Acts (Journal of Laws of 2016, item 147), generally known as the "Blanket Surveillance Act". It introduced essential amendments to the operation of the uniformed services¹, including operational surveillance procedures, and the services' ability to collate data from telecom, postal and e-service operators.

As you are very likely to use the services of any of the above companies, or may actually be classified as one of them, please take some time to read the most important amendments.

Information security

Spy agencies say Clinton emails closely matched top secret documents

US spy agencies have told Congress that Hillary Clinton’s home computer server contained some emails that should have been treated as “top secret” because their wording matched sections of some of the government’s most highly classified documents, four sources familiar with the agency reports said.

The two reports are the first formal declarations by US spy agencies detailing how they believe Clinton violated government rules when highly classified information in at least 22 email messages passed through her unsecured home server.

The State Department has already acknowledged that the emails contained top secret intelligence, though it says they were not marked that way. It has not previously been clear if the emails contained full classified documents or only some information from them.

Innovations & technologies

China becomes world's second-largest R&D performer

China is playing an increasingly prominent role in world's science and engineering as the country becomes the second-largest performer of research and development (R&D),according to the Science and Engineering Indicators 2016 (Indicators) report from theU.S. National Science Foundation.

Indicators 2016 makes it clear that Global R&D spending shows an overall upward trend mainly in North America, Europe and East Asia and Southeast Asia, while the U.S.continues to lead the world.

According to Indicators 2016, China is now the second-largest performer of R&D,accounting for 20 percent of global R&D spending as compared to the United States,which accounts for 27 percent.