Counterterrorism
Iraqi airstrikes killed nine suspected Islamic State fighters, including four Lebanese, in retaliation for an IS attack on Iraqi army barracks earlier this month, officials said Sunday. IS gunmen in Iraq broke into a barracks in the mountainous al-Azim district outside the town of…
An American woman accused of leading an all-female ISIS battalion and training the group's fighters for a hypothetical attack on a U.S. college campus was transferred to the FBI's custody Friday ahead of her trial on terrorism charges. Allison Fluke-Ekren is charged with…
U.N. experts said in a new report that nearly 2,000 children recruited by Yemen’s Houthi rebels died on the battlefield between January 2020 and May 2021, and the Iranian-backed rebels continue to hold camps and courses encouraging youngsters to fight. In the report to…
Military & Defense
The army takeover in Myanmar a year ago that ousted Aung San Suu Kyi not only unexpectedly aborted the country’s fledgling return to democracy. It also brought a surprising level of popular resistance, which has blossomed into a low-level but persistent insurgency…
A Russian military exercise has been moved further from the Irish coast, after pressure from politicians and fishermen. It has been moved outside of the Republic's Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ). The 'live-fire' exercise had been due to take place 240km off the southwest coast…
The Chinese ambassador to the United States this week gave another hawkish warning about growing tensions over Taiwan -- predicting a "military conflict" if Taiwan kept moving toward independence. "If the Taiwanese authorities, emboldened by the United States, keep going…
Cybersecurity
Zerodium has jacked up its offering price for Microsoft Outlook zero-day exploits. Act fast if you have the goods and the moral equanimity, to make up to $400,000 for a zero-click, remote code-execution (RCE) exploit. “Zero-click” means that targets neither have to read…
Lazarus Group is using Windows Update to spray malware in a campaign powered by a GitHub command-and-control (C2) server, researchers have found. On Thursday, the Malwarebytes Threat Intelligence team reported that they discovered the North Korean state…
Apple's software updates this week for multiple vulnerabilities in its macOS Monterey operating system, iOS, and iPadOS serve as the latest indication of security researchers' and threat actors' growing interest in its technologies. The flaws included one in macOS that…
Counterintelligence & Espionage
The mobile devices of Finnish diplomats working abroad have been hacked with the use of sophisticated spyware, Finland's government said Friday, and the Nordic country's spy chief said a “state actor” was likely to blame. The Finnish Foreign Ministry said the victims were…
French President Emmanuel Macron called for the “immediate release” of a French-Iranian researcher imprisoned in Iran, officials said Sunday. Macron made the plea in a “long” phone call on Saturday with Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, according to a statement from the…
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has issued a Private Industry Notice on protecting against malicious activity by Iranian cyber company Emennet Pasargad (formerly known as Eeleyanet Gostar). Two Iranian nationals employed by the company were indicted on…
Transnational Organized Crime
An eight-week INTERPOL operation against wildlife crime and trafficking resulted in arrests and seizures across Asia and Africa. Codenamed Golden Strike, the operation – which ended late last year – targeted the criminals and networks smuggling wildlife protected under the…
Scotland Yard’s Flying Squad is to take on organised robbery gangs after a surge in attacks on footballers and other celebrities. The elite unit has traditionally tackled commercial burglaries and armed robberies but its remit has been widened to home invasions amid alarm over…
The U.S. Coast Guard repatriated 40 Cubans on Thursday picked up off the Florida Keys in two suspected smuggling operations. The first group was spotted last Sunday, around 5 a.m., about 13 miles southeast of Marathon. One suspected smuggler was turned over to Homeland…