Daily Intel Brief
A package bomb at Northeastern University may have been staged, the Senate looks to send $6.5B in military aid to Taiwan, and the U.S. accuses 3 IRGC-linked hackers of numerous cyberattacks...
Counterterrorism
Boston and federal authorities are investigating whether a package that supposedly detonated at Northeastern University Tuesday evening might have been staged by the employee who opened it and was injured, a law enforcement source told Fox News. There were no signs of…
Seven years after the party was declared extremist by Tajikistan, the Islamic Renaissance Party of Tajikistan (IRPT) has reportedly been named a “terrorist” group by the Supreme Court of Russia, too. This is sure to please Tajik President Emomali Rahmon when he meets…
Military & Defense
The Senate on Wednesday advanced a sprawling bill that would give Taiwan the same benefits as major non-NATO allies, provide $6.5 billion in military aid, expedite arms sales and prioritize the transfer of excess U.S. defense articles there. The Foreign Relations…
Armenia and Azerbaijan negotiated a cease-fire to end a flare-up of fighting that has killed 155 soldiers from both sides, a senior Armenian official said early Thursday. Armen Grigoryan, the secretary of Armenia’s Security Council, announced the truce in televised…
Cybersecurity
Iranian hackers with ties to the nation’s military are responsible for carrying out “hundreds” of ransomware attacks on victims in the U.S. and other countries over multiple years, U.S. federal authorities said Wednesday. The attacks are said to have targeted nearly every kind of…
After suffering a series of cyber-attacks, Kosovo’s government is to propose the establishment of an Agency for Cyber-Security. The government on Wednesday approved a draft law on cyber security, which will include forming an agency. Minister of Interior Xhelal Sveçla said…
Counterintelligence & Espionage
A secret plan by the European Union’s spy chief to visit Taiwan was scrapped after Beijing learnt of the trip and put pressure on the EU to cancel it. José Casimiro Morgado, the Portuguese head of the EU’s intelligence services, had been due to fly to Taiwan next month…
Russia acknowledged this week that parts of its technology industry are dependent on foreign knowledge and lagging competitors by more than a decade, raising concerns that the country’s cyber spies will be used for industrial espionage. Experts told The Record that Western…
Transnational Organized Crime
Five people have been arrested for smuggling migrants into western Europe on private jets, Italian police say. The suspects gave the migrants fake diplomatic papers for the Caribbean nation of St Kitts and Nevis. Private jets, officially heading to the Caribbean, took the…
Illicit economies, most notably arms trafficking, cattle rustling and kidnapping for ransom, are a major factor behind West Africa’s growing instability – says a new report by the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime and Corruption (GI-TOC)…