Daily Intel Brief
Explosions in Transnistria, $3M in NFTs hacked, and an "unprecedented" espionage threat from China...
Counterterrorism
A prosecutor told jurors in an opening statement Monday that a New Jersey software developer was actually a highly trained terrorist scoping out U.S. landmarks for attack from 2000 to 2005. Alexei Saab, 45, of Morristown, New Jersey, had a double identity while he…
The Canadian Armed Forces is not doing enough to detect and prevent white supremacists and other violent extremists from infiltrating the military, said a report released Monday by Defense Minister Anita Anand. The report comes after a yearlong review by a panel of…
Military & Defense
A purported attack on a building used by security services in the Russian-occupied separatist region of Transnistria is a part of an effort to increase tensions in the region, Moldovan authorities said Monday. According to Russian state media, a "series of explosions" occurred…
Russia unleashed a string of attacks Monday against rail and fuel installations deep inside Ukraine, far from the front lines of Moscow’s new eastern offensive, in a bid to thwart Ukrainian efforts to marshal supplies for the fight. The U.S., meanwhile, moved to rush more…
Cybersecurity
An Iranian cyber espionage group that some vendors track as Rocket Kitten has begun exploiting a recently patched critical vulnerability in VMWare Workspace ONE Access/Identity Manager technology to deliver the Core Impact penetration testing tool…
Another day, another crypto scam. This time, however, the targets were the $5 billion-valued Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) and holders of its NFT apes. On Monday, the Bored Ape Yacht Club's official Twitter account announced that the company's Instagram account was…
Counterintelligence & Espionage
During a Monday meeting at Moscow’s Prosecutor General’s Office, Russian President Vladimir Putin made a shocking accusation, announcing the arrest of several accused assassins who were allegedly planning to kill prominent Russian state TV journalist…
FBI Director Christopher Wray said on Sunday that the current scale of espionage and cybersecurity threats from China were “unprecedented in history.” “The biggest threat we face as a country from a counterintelligence perspective is from the People’s Republic of China…
Transnational Organized Crime
Eleven people are dead following a shooting at a clandestine horse track about 200 miles south of Juarez, Mexican authorities said. Witnesses reported the armed attack around 7:45 p.m. on Sunday at a ranch in the farming community of El Sauz; five people died on the…
Iran's Revolutionary Guards said on Sunday they seized a foreign vessel smuggling fuel in the Gulf and arrested its crew members, AFP reported, citing state media. The Guards "seized a foreign vessel carrying 200,000 liters (around 53,000 gallons) of smuggled fuel in the north of…