Counterterrorism
An eco-terrorist who planted a bomb at a popular tourist district in Scotland a few years ago -- which failed to detonate -- was sentenced on Wednesday to more than eight years in prison. Nikolaos Karvounakis, 35, was arrested and charged for planting the device…
The Palestinian militants scrambled out of the tunnel and attacked an Israeli tank in broad daylight as gunfire and explosions echoed across the Gaza frontier. This time it wasn’t the start of another war, but an action scene filmed for a TV series produced by the territory’s…
Ericsson, the telecoms company based in Stockholm, disclosed yesterday that it might have made payments to Islamic State terrorists to get access to transport routes in Iraq. The high-tech equipment maker, involved in the expansion of 5G networks in the UK, revealed details…
Military & Defense
Following reports of deployment of federal security forces in Jigjiga, capital of Somali regional state, the regional government released a statement accusing what it described as "anti-peace forces" of attempting to overthrow the regional government by force and colliding with…
A US Navy aircraft had an "extremely close" encounter with multiple Russian military jets over international waters in the Mediterranean this weekend, according to multiple US officials directly familiar with the US military reports of the incident. The sources would…
France is expected to formally announce within days a phased withdrawal of its military forces in Mali after almost a decade, following months of diplomatic crisis between the two countries. The departure will mark an end to a fraught nine-year mission…
Cybersecurity
After making headlines last month, additional details are emerging about the hack of the Red Cross organization and the possibility that the attack was carried out by a state-sponsored hacking group. In an update to its original breach disclosure, the Red Cross said today that…
Russia is inching closer to a serious cyberattack in Ukraine even as the United States sharpens its warnings against any cyber aggression. Hackers are poised at the edge of a significant cyber fight, but they haven’t crossed the border yet – much like the broader military conflict right…
Phishing attacks impersonating emails from LinkedIn have grown 232% since the start of February, according to cybersecurity firm Egress. The company released a report about cybercriminals using display name spoofing and stylized HTML templates to socially…
Counterintelligence & Espionage
State-sponsored threat actors from Russia have stolen unclassified but sensitive data on US weapons development and specific technologies used by the US military and government as part of a broader and ongoing cyber espionage campaign going back to at least January 2020…
The US and the UK have sought to fend off a feared Russian invasion of Ukraine in part by going public with an unusual amount of intelligence, hoping to rob Vladimir Putin of the element of surprise. There have been regular briefings in Washington and London…
Although less obvious than its economic and military apparatus, China's covert influence machine is formidable, extensive in its global scale and ambition to exert influence over Western business officials. Christine Fang, also known as Fang Fang, is just the tip of the…
Transnational Organized Crime
London police have launched an investigation into allegations that people associated with one of Prince Charles’ charities offered to help a Saudi billionaire secure honors and citizenship in return for donations. The investigation followed a series of stories in the Times…
The suspension of avocado imports from Mexico came after a US safety inspector received a credible death threat, according to a US official with knowledge of the matter. The inspector had denied permission for a shipment from the Mexican state of Michoacán…
Four people have been arrested for their role in a suspected organised crime group which has allegedly smuggled hundreds of Albanian asylum seekers to the UK illegally. The raids were the latest phase of a significant National Crime Agency (NCA) investigation into a major…