Daily Intel Brief
Russian hackers have spied on 42 countries supporting Ukraine, exotic animal smuggling is on the rise in Myanmar, and about half of all Russian proxy forces have been killed or wounded in Ukraine...
Counterterrorism
A man who drove his car through crowds of people in Times Square in 2017, killing a young tourist and maiming helpless pedestrians, was cleared of responsibility Wednesday because of mental illness. A jury in New York City accepted an insanity defense claiming Richard Rojas…
An Australian state has become the first in the country to pass a law banning the public display of Nazi swastikas, as concerns grow about the rate at which local young people are being radicalized. The Parliament of Victoria, Australia’s second-most populous state…
Military & Defense
Russian and Russian proxy forces in the Donetsk region of Ukraine have suffered heavy casualties, according to UK intelligence officials. They estimate the Donetsk militia alone has lost 55% of its original force. Russian forces are focused on conquering…
New tensions between Moscow and the West are rising after Lithuania decided to halt the transport of some goods through its territory to the Russian region of Kaliningrad as part of European Union sanctions on the Kremlin. The Kremlin warns it will retaliate against…
Cybersecurity
Anonymous, the decentralized hacktivist collective that swore to fight Russia on the cyber front following its invasion of Ukraine, on Tuesday announced another series of attacks against Russian websites. In a series of Twitter posts, the hacking collective announced…
Hackers have obtained data from the Ecuadorian Embassy in Moscow, revealing a trove of documents and emails as well as discussions regarding NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden. The more than 53 gigabytes of data, provided to the journalism collective DDoSecrets by…
Counterintelligence & Espionage
Coinciding with unrelenting cyberattacks against Ukraine, state-backed Russian hackers have engaged in “strategic espionage” against governments, think tanks, businesses and aid groups in 42 countries supporting Kyiv, Microsoft said in a report Wednesday. “Since the start of the…
Iranian hard-line media reported June 21 that Iran was holding three individuals working as agents for Mossad, the overseas branch of Israel's intelligence agency. According to Mehdi Shamsabadi, the prosecutor in the southeastern city of Zahedan, the three were rounded up…
Transnational Organized Crime
A Russian state-backed shipping company sanctioned by the U.S. and EU in February continues to deliver crude oil to European ports, analysis of company records and live ship tracking shows. Experts say the company disguised its ownership of the vessels by basing…
Exotic and endangered species are the latest in the list of items being smuggled from Myanmar into India, evidenced by seizures at regular intervals across different states in the country. The species that have been confiscated so far range from pangolins to chimpanzees…