Counterterrorism
Most Americans have no idea who Federico Motka, Marco Marginedas, Patricia Galvez, Frida Saide, Didier Francois, Daniel Rye Ottosen or Nicolas Henin are, but we owe these freed hostages our gratitude. They returned from hell to help convict El Shafee Elsheikh…
The Islamic State terrorist group (ISIS) is calling on its supporters to launch renewed attacks around the world while the U.S. and other western nations are distracted by the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine. In an audio message to supporters, obtained by the Jerusalem…
Military & Defense
Russia assaulted cities and towns along a boomerang-shaped front hundreds of miles long and poured more troops into Ukraine on Tuesday in a potentially pivotal battle for control of the country’s eastern industrial heartland of coal mines and factories. If successful, the Russian…
China said Tuesday it has signed a security pact with the Solomon Islands, confirming an arrangement that in its draft form drew objections from the U.S. and Australia because it would allow Beijing to dock warships in the Pacific nation. Foreign Minister Wang Yi…
Cybersecurity
Okta said Tuesday that a forensic investigation that it commissioned found that the hacker group Lapsus$ accessed two active customer tenants during the January breach of a third-party support firm. The threat actor “actively controlled” a workstation belonging to one…
In April 2013, pro-Assad online activists from Syria hacked into the Twitter account of the Associated Press and tweeted about a fake explosion at the White House that supposedly injured President Barack Obama, leading the U.S. stock market to temporarily dip by $136…
Counterintelligence & Espionage
A few Army officers are under the scanner in an inquiry after a cybersecurity breach linked to an espionage attempt by Pakistan was detected by military and other intelligence agencies. Sources on Tuesday said the officers posted with an Army formation in northwest India…
The number of Chinese espionage groups has declined in recent years, but several dozen remain active in what appears to be an orchestrated campaign focusing on the US and other key targets, says a report by Mandiant. Just 36 espionage groups backed by China were…
Transnational Organized Crime
Mexico has disbanded a select anti-narcotics unit that for a quarter of a century worked hand-in-hand with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) to tackle organized crime, two sources said, in a major blow to bilateral security cooperation. The group was one of the…
Coca farms and cocaine production camps are proliferating in Honduras, showing that the illicit crop has taken root in the country after years of low-level experimentation. Between January and March this year, authorities have destroyed some 543,000 coca plants, about…