Daily Intel Brief
Myanmar's military junta executed 4 pro-democracy activists, Ukrainian spies offered $2M to Russian pilots to surrender, and HIMARS continue to destroy Russian ammo depots...
Counterterrorism
Syria's semi-autonomous Kurdish administration hands Tajikistan 146 women and children related to Islamic State group jihadists, according to a Kurdish official, in the first such repatriation to the ex-Soviet state. The women "did not commit any crimes or terrorist acts…
ISIS (Islamic State in Khorasan Province) Uzbek, Tajik and Uighur militants from Central Asian post-Soviet countries and China’s province of Xinjiang have become distinguished from other foreign fighters by their sophisticated jihadi tactics challenging the Afghan Taliban…
Military & Defense
Myanmar's ruling military announced on Monday it had executed four democracy activists accused of aiding "terror acts", sparking widespread condemnation of the country's first executions in decades. Asked in an interview what should be done in response, U.N. Special…
Ukraine said Monday its military used U.S.-supplied HIMARS rocket systems to destroy 50 Russian ammunition depots, as the weapon continues to bolster Ukrainian forces in their fighting against Russia's military. The announcement comes as the Russia-Ukraine war…
Cybersecurity
An emerging and fast-growing threat group is using a unique business model to offer cybercriminals a broad range of services that span from leaked databases and distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks to hacking scripts and, in the future, potentially ransomware…
When T-Mobile compromised the sensitive personal information of more than 76 million current, former, and prospective customers in 2021, plaintiffs involved in a class action lawsuit complained that the company continued profiting off their data while attempting…
Counterintelligence & Espionage
A plot to persuade Russian fighter pilots to fly their aircraft to Ukrainian-controlled territory and surrender has emerged after a tussle between the two countries’ spies, involving promises of millions of dollars in bribes and an alleged agent masquerading as a pilot’s lover…
Twitter Spy Trial Underway as Former Employee Is Accused of Selling Dissidents’ Data to Saudi Prince
Former Twitter executive Ahmad Abouammo faces up to 20 years in prison if convicted of charges that he divulged protected user data about accounts critical of Saudi Arabia, Bloomberg reports. Assistant U.S. Attorney Colin Sampson is arguing that…
Transnational Organized Crime
Gold has become the most important revenue stream of Colombia’s illegal armed groups, according to the organized crime agencies of the Organization of American States (OAS) and the United Nations (UN). According to the UN’s Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC)…
On 27 June, authorities discovered an abandoned tractor-trailer outside of San Antonio, Texas, filled with dead people smuggled from Mexico and Central America. Fifty-three migrants would ultimately die in the tragedy. It was the worst such incident in US history…