Counterterrorism

Threat Actor Profile - Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP)

Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), also commonly known as the Pakistani Taliban, is an umbrella organization of various Islamist armed militant groups operating along the Afghan–Pakistani border. The TTP has maintained a close relationship with al-Qaeda, from which it…

Mass shooting at Nigeria church kills dozens, says local lawmaker

A church in southwestern Nigeria became the site of a bloody attack on Sunday, according to local lawmakers. Attackers stormed into the church in the city of Owo and began "shooting sporadically," Adeyemi Olayemi, the legislator representing the Owo constituency in the…

Military & Defense

NATO holds Baltic Sea naval exercises with Finland, Sweden

NATO kicked off nearly a two-week U.S.-led naval exercise on the Baltic Sea on Sunday with more than 7,000 sailors, airmen and marines from 16 nations, including two aspiring to join the military alliance, Finland and Sweden. The annual BALTOPS naval exercise, initiated…

South Korea, U.S. launch 8 missiles in response to North Korea’s missile firings

South Korea and the United States fired eight surface-to-surface missiles early on Monday off South Korea’s east coast after North Korea launched a barrage of short range ballistic missiles on Sunday, a South Korea defense ministry official said. The action is a demonstration of…

Cybersecurity

Can the World Avoid a Cyber-Nuclear Catastrophe?

Anxieties about the dangers inherent in nuclear weapons were the defining feature of the Cold War era. On the negative side, the entire period was characterized by acute fears that the superpower tension would escalate into a nuclear exchange, existential security concerns…

Atlassian warns that Confluence zero-day is being exploited by hackers

Atlassian has warned its customers that hackers are exploiting a zero-day vulnerability in all supported versions of Confluence Server and Data Center. A spokesperson for the Australia-based software firm told The Record that the bug – tagged as CVE-2022-26134 – does not yet…

Counterintelligence & Espionage

Iranian scientist and a senior military officer found dead in mysterious circumstances amid a new wave of tension between Iran and Israel

A military officer and a weapons scientist have died under mysterious circumstances in Tehran, fuelling tension between Iran and Israel. Military officer Colonel Ali Esmaelzadeh died under unverified circumstances on Friday. The New York Times reported that various…

Dmitry Kovtun, Russian agent who went from washing dishes to ‘killing’ Kremlin critic, dies

From allegedly dreaming of becoming a porn star to washing dishes and working as a waiter to being accused of assassinating Kremlin critic and former spy Alexander Litvinenko by poisoning his green tea, Russian agent Dmitry Kovtun lived a colourful life. Kovtun died of…

Transnational Organized Crime

Nearly 60 Rohingya Found Abandoned On Thai Island: Police

Fifty-nine Rohingya people have been discovered on a Thai island, saying they were abandoned by traffickers en route to Malaysia, a senior police officer said Sunday. The group -- among them five children -- were found on Koh Dong island in the southern Satun…

Real-life tomb raiders are stealing priceless artefacts for super-rich buyers

From Indiana Jones and Lara Croft to Tintin and Nathan Drake in the current movie Uncharted, treasure hunters have earned a popular image of glamorous adventurers. But the real-life tomb raiders are now being revealed as gangsters, terrorists and common thieves…