Daily Intel Brief
Putin issues a partial military mobilization order, Texas Governor Abbott designates Mexican cartels as terrorists, and U.S. nuclear scientists have been recruited by China...
Counterterrorism
The chief of Indonesia police’s anti-terror squad has warned that violent extremism still poses a danger in South-East Asia’s largest nation, admitting authorities are powerless to stop jihadists from spreading their ideology on social media. Indonesian authorities have rounded…
A 41-year-old North Dakota man is behind bars after he allegedly admitted to intentionally running down an 18-year-old man following a “political argument,” authorities say. Shannon Joseph Brandt was taken into custody Sunday evening and charged in the death of Cayler…
Military & Defense
Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered a partial mobilization of reservists Wednesday to bolster his forces in Ukraine, a deeply unpopular move that sparked rare protests across the country and led to almost 1,200 arrests. The risky order follows humiliating setbacks for…
Taiwan’s internet relies on undersea cables that also connect much of Asia to the web, but tensions with Beijing have raised concerns about the network’s vulnerability. WSJ maps out how China could limit the island’s communications, and how Taipei is preparing…
Cybersecurity
The IDF’s Cyber Defense Directorate has thwarted close to two dozen cyber attacks against the Israeli military in the past year. The IDF’s network, said to be the largest in the Middle East, is constantly being threatened, and the military has identified an increase of 70% in…
More than two years after the Cyberspace Solarium Commission made recommendations on how the US can bolster its cyber defenses, nearly 85 percent have been implemented or are in progress — but others still face a few “significant hurdles,” according to the commission’s new…
Counterintelligence & Espionage
At least 154 Chinese scientists who worked on U.S. government-sponsored research at the country’s foremost national security laboratory over the last two decades have been recruited to do scientific work in China — some of which helped advance military technology that…
Almost every day in this southern port city, there is news of a Russian missile strike — at a university, a cash machine, an apartment building. Viktoria Komarova is still recovering in the hospital after a strike on a bus stop that killed both her father Andriy and dog Sam…
Transnational Organized Crime
Texas Governor Greg Abbott signed an executive order designating Mexican cartels as terrorist organizations and sent a letter to President Biden and Vice President Harris asking them to label the cartels as terroristic organizations as well. Abbott signed the executive…
Money laundering for organized criminal activity rose in Israel 12.2% over the course of 2021 compared to 2020, according to a new report by the Jewish state’s Authority for the Prohibition of Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing. In total, money laundering on…