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Showing posts with the label The Cipher Brief

The Future of Hong Kong

This expert-driven national-security insight can’t be generated for free.  We invite you to support quality content by becoming a   Cipher Brief Level I Member .  Joining this experienced security-focused community is only $10/month (for an annual $120/yr membership). It’s a great and inexpensive way to stay ahead of the national and global security issues that impact you the most.     The post The Future of Hong Kong appeared first on The Cipher Brief . from The Cipher Brief https://ift.tt/2XUuaZp

Reconsidering Great Power Competition Below Armed Conflict

This unique national-security focused expert insight can’t be generated for free.  We invite you to support this kind of quality content by becoming a   Cipher Brief Level I Member .  Joining this high-level, security-focused community is only $10/month (for an annual $120/yr membership). It’s a great and inexpensive way to stay ahead of the national and global security issues that impact you the most.     The post Reconsidering Great Power Competition Below Armed Conflict appeared first on The Cipher Brief . from The Cipher Brief https://ift.tt/2rAwn0h

Iran’s Coming Response: Increased Terrorism and Cyber Attacks?

Cipher Brief expert and former Director of the NSA, General Keith Alexander (Ret.) and Jamil Jaffer, founder of the National Security Institute at George Mason University, weigh in on Iran’s potential response to recent U.S. actions and how cyber and increased terror attacks should be considered. This is Cipher Brief Level I Member Only content. It can be accessed via login or by signing up to become a Cipher Brief Member .  Joining this high-level, security-focused community is only $10/month (for an annual $120/yr membership). What a great and inexpensive way to Feed Your Need to Know….     The post Iran’s Coming Response: Increased Terrorism and Cyber Attacks? appeared first on The Cipher Brief . from The Cipher Brief http://bit.ly/2YsCiz2

Russia’s Global Ambitions: A Member Briefing with Steven Hall

The Cipher Brief regularly provides opportunities for members to engage with experts via exclusive member-only briefings and webcasts.  Our latest briefing was presented by Steve Hall, who  retired from the Central Intelligence Agency in 2015 after 30 years of running and managing intelligence operations in Eurasia and Latin America. He finished his career as a member of the Senior Intelligence Service, a very small cadre of officers who serve as the senior most leaders of the CIA’s clandestine service. Most of Steve’s career was spent abroad overseeing intelligence operations in the former Soviet Union. As an executive at CIA Headquarters, he also focused on cyber threats, security, counterintelligence and counter terrorism. He has served as a chief of station overseas multiple times and has worked closely with the FBI, the U.S. military, the State Department, and a number of other government agencies, including working as the clandestine service’s senior liaison officer to...

What is Iran’s Next Move?

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani is calling for unity and says that his country is facing ‘unprecedented’ pressure as the U.S. continues to ratchet up sanctions.  Tehran said last week it will no longer comply with portions of the negotiated nuclear agreement, an agreement which the U.S. left last year, while several European countries remain committed to the deal. Iran’s threat to no longer comply is widely seen as an ultimatum meant to pressure European countries to convince Washington to back off of increased sanctions demands. European countries have indicated they will reject any ultimatums. Tehran has previously threatened to block the Strait of Hormuz in response to increased sanctions and the U.S. deployed warships to the Gulf last week amid reported intelligence indicating that Iran was enabling proxies to launch attacks against U.S. interests. This is Cipher Brief Level I Member Only content. It can be accessed via login or by signing up to become a Cipher Brief Me...

An Expert View on the White House’s Executive Order to Bolster Cyber Workforce

The White House issued a recent Executive Order on America’s Cybersecurity Workforce in an effort to put a renewed focus on the federal government’s deficit of some 300,000 cybersecurity practitioners. The EO directs federal agencies including the Department of Homeland Security, the Department of Defense, the White House Office of Science and Technology, the Office of Management Budget, the Department of Commerce and others, to bolster both the size and skill of the workforce through a series of initiatives. The Cipher Brief tapped a range of cyber experts with both public and private sector cyber experience, including Tom Bossert, Stewart Baker, Joel Brenner and Randy Sabett, to offer their thoughts on what the EO gets right and what more needs to be done. This is Cipher Brief Level I Member Only content. It can be accessed via login or by signing up to become a Cipher Brief Member .  Joining this high-level, security-focused community is only $10/month (for an annual $12...

Countering a Resurgent Russia

Recent Russian activities around the world are signaling a resurgent Russia, one that wants to shake up a world order that has existed for seven decades, according to Cipher Brief expert and Former Vice Chief of Staff, U.S. Army, General Jack Keane (Ret.) .    General Keane was one of three witnesses who appeared before the House Committee on Foreign Affairs last week to talk about Russia’s global ambitions and just what the U.S. should be doing about it.   This is Cipher Brief Level I Member Only content. It can be accessed via login or by signing up to become a Cipher Brief Member .  Joining this high-level, security-focused community is only $10/month (for an annual $120/yr membership). What a great and inexpensive way to Feed Your Need to Know….     The post Countering a Resurgent Russia appeared first on The Cipher Brief . from The Cipher Brief http://bit.ly/2V5RyzG

Iran’s Tale of Two Leaders

The leader of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), Qassem Soleimani said this week that Iran will never negotiate with the Trump Administration after the U.S. ended its practice of issuing waivers to countries that buy oil from Iran. The move, announced by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo last week, is an effort to increase the pressure of economic sanctions on Iran. “The enemy wants to make us sit at the negotiating table by economic pressures,” Soleimani was quoted as saying on Monday. “Such a negotiation is an instance of surrendering, but our people are vigilant and wise and believe that negotiation with the enemy under the present circumstances means surrendering.” Soleimani’s comments were noted, primarily because they came as Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif was in the U.S. trying to generate interest in negotiations over a possible Iran-U.S. prisoner swap .  The Cipher Brief recently spoke with expert Norm Roule , who is also the former National M...

Who Should Give the Kill Command?

  The Department of Defense is seeking a significant increase for autonomous weapons programs in efforts to remain competitive with Russia and China, both of which have invested heavily in the technology that drive those systems. Meanwhile a Pentagon-initiated report intended to provide guidelines on the future use of lethal autonomous weapons systems (LAWS) could be delivered to DoD in as little as a month by the Defense Innovation Board, a body made up of a number of senior Silicon Valley executives.   The request for guidelines follows a petition circulated by Google employees last year, protesting use of the company’s AI capabilities to support DoD’s Project Maven, a drone imaging program.   The Cipher Brief asked former Deputy Director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, Doug Wise , former Special Assistant to the Undersecretary of Defense for Policy and author of the award-winning book, Army of None , Paul Scharre and current adjunct economist at the RAND Cor...

What (or Who) is Driving the U.S. Border Crisis?

The number of monthly apprehensions based on illegal border crossings hovers north of 90,000 people.   According to U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), more than 53,000 of the people who crossed in March were what part of ‘family units’, which represents an all-time high according to CBP.   The Cipher Brief tapped expert Mike Fisher , former Chief of CBP, for a deeper understanding of what these numbers mean and what – or who – is driving much higher numbers of people to the U.S.’ Southwestern border, and the resulting national security implications. This is Cipher Brief Level I Member Only content. It can be accessed via login or by signing up to become a Cipher Brief Member .  Joining this high-level, security-focused community is only $10/month (for an annual $120/yr membership). What a great and inexpensive way to Feed Your Need to Know….     The post What (or Who) is Driving the U.S. Border Crisis? appeared first on The Cipher Brief . fro...

The Coming Chinese Storm – Part Two

This is Cipher Brief Level I Member Only content. It can be accessed via login or by signing up to become a Cipher Brief Member .  Joining this high-level, security-focused community is only $10/month (for an annual $120/yr membership). What a great and inexpensive way to Feed Your Need to Know….     The post The Coming Chinese Storm – Part Two appeared first on The Cipher Brief . from The Cipher Brief https://ift.tt/2vK2k55

Taliban: The New Masters of the Gray Zone?

Ahead of The Cipher Brief’s 2019 Threat Conference , we caught up with two of our experts, each with deep knowledge of the Afghan conflict, to get their thoughts on the peace talks, their confidence in the Taliban’s role as a legitimate political player, Pakistan’s involvement and their overall perspective on how they see Afghanistan progressing in the coming months. This is Cipher Brief Level I Member Only content. It can be accessed via login or by signing up to become a Cipher Brief Member .  Joining this high-level, security-focused community is only $10/month (for an annual $120/yr membership). What a great and inexpensive way to Feed Your Need to Know….     The post Taliban: The New Masters of the Gray Zone? appeared first on The Cipher Brief . from The Cipher Brief https://ift.tt/2U1MUpW

So You Think You Have a Book in You?

Under/Cover is constantly probing for insights that will help readers (and writers) understand how to gauge demand, and how to know if that story they have burning inside of them, is actually a book or not.  We recently spoke with Bruce Nichols , Senior Vice President & Publisher of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt’s (HMH) adult and reference group. He oversees adult fiction, nonfiction, cookbooks, field guides, and reference titles.  Under/Cover debriefed him on everything from the publishing industry to how to predict the next best seller.  This is Cipher Brief Level I Member Only content. It can be accessed via login or by signing up to become a Cipher Brief Member .  Joining this high-level, security-focused community is only $10/month (for an annual $120/yr membership). What a great and inexpensive way to Feed Your Need to Know….     The post So You Think You Have a Book in You? appeared first on The Cipher Brief . from The Cipher Brief https://...

How Close Did India and Pakistan Come to War?

It needs no more than 4 bad decisions for India and Pakistan to go to war; and 5 for that war to go nuclear. So how did the Pulwama crisis measure up against this approximate yard-stick? This is Cipher Brief Level I Member Only content. It can be accessed via login or by signing up to become a Cipher Brief Member .  Joining this high-level, security-focused community is only $10/month (for an annual $120/yr membership). What a great and inexpensive way to Feed Your Need to Know….     The post How Close Did India and Pakistan Come to War? appeared first on The Cipher Brief . from The Cipher Brief https://ift.tt/2TYFO5w

A Cloud Computing Forecast

Predicting the future of Cloud computing is a bit like predicting the weather:  there are certain knowns that you can set a clock by, but there are unknowns about the environment, and how conditions can collide as the volume of information placed in the Cloud increases, that can turn what you thought you knew, on its head. A Gartner survey conducted last year, revealed that Cloud computing remained a top emerging business risk for executives, even as use of the Cloud grows.  Cybersecurity threats will impact businesses in unpredictable ways. This is Cipher Brief Level I Member Only content. It can be accessed via login or by signing up to become a Cipher Brief Member .  Joining this high-level, security-focused community is only $10/month (for an annual $120/yr membership). What a great and inexpensive way to Feed Your Need to Know….     The post A Cloud Computing Forecast appeared first on The Cipher Brief . from The Cipher Brief https://ift.tt/2VUz...

DHS’ Big Plan for a Stronger Public-Private Cyber Partnership

It’s been four months since President Trump signed the Cyber Security and Infrastructure Security Agency Act, elevating a division of the Department of Homeland Security that engages with the private sector on cyber issues, to Agency status.  When DHS was established shortly after 9/11, terrorism was the focus. But in the 16 years since the Agency’s creation, the threat landscape has changed dramatically and cyber now plays a leading role in overall threats. Before CISA was established, there was no civilian cyber security agency, at least not one that had that mission on the nameplate, according to the new Agency’s biggest advocate and first director, Christopher Krebs. Now, one of Krebs’ jobs is to get to know C-suite leaders across the country and to both educate and support them in their mission to defend U.S. companies from cyber threat actors.  He also has a mission to inform the public about cyber risk and to provide context to help make better risk decisions.  ...

The Future of the Dark Web

The dark web has long been a place where stolen personal data is bought and sold in staggering numbers, criminals run lucrative drug and pornographic businesses and terrorists have found relatively safe territory from which to organize and communicate.  But the future of the dark web may look different as less-sophisticated Internet users become more savvy to the non-criminal benefits of operating with relative anonymity. This is Cipher Brief Level I Member Only content. It can be accessed via login or by signing up to become a Cipher Brief Member .  Joining this high-level, security-focused community is only $10/month (for an annual $120/yr membership). What a great and inexpensive way to Feed Your Need to Know….     The post The Future of the Dark Web appeared first on The Cipher Brief . from The Cipher Brief https://ift.tt/2C5TDoW

Raising the Drawbridge with an “International Cyber Stability Board”

(Ed note: Follow co-author Dr. Catherine Lotrionte’s sessions at RSA this week: Nation States Behaving Badly: The Evolving Rules of the Game in Cyberspace March 6, 8:00am and Engaging Internationally in Support of Cybersecurity for Critical Functions, March 6, 9:20am.) One of the fundamental issues for geopolitical leaders is to determine when existing international institutions no longer meet present needs and new institutions and methods of operation are required. Such an issue now faces the cyber realm. The internet is structurally and operationally international, and as the internet, the cloud, and all forms of the digital economy and digital society develop, cross-border cybersecurity becomes increasingly crucial. Already, the critical infrastructures of telecommunications, the electric grid, and finance are cyber dependent, and the Internet of Things – where virtually all devices from homes to medical devices to self-driving cars are cyber-controlled – is increasingly upon us. ...

Protecting Sovereignty of U.S. Telecommunications Backbone

Cipher Brief Expert and former Senior Director for Cyber Operations at the National Security Council, Thomas Donahue , provides critical perspective on the strategy needed to protect the sovereignty of the U.S. telecommunications backbone. The U.S. Government – by blocking the sale of U.S. high technology firms to foreign companies for national security reasons and through trade sanctions that cite unfair trade practices – seeks to create time and space for U.S. industry to innovate and be competitive in global markets including those for information technology.  While arguably necessary, these actions will not be sufficient to overcome a U.S. deficit in the marketplace for high-end telecommunications integration.  Overcoming this deficit will be essential not only to U.S. economic prosperity but also to national security, which depends on telecommunication to serve as the “nervous system” for controlling critical infrastructure and military defensive systems. This is Cipher...

Six Big Thoughts on Global Cyber Challenges

U.S. officials recently detailed an offensive cyber operation undertaken by U.S. Cyber Command to The Washington Post , revealing how the military blocked Internet access to St. Petersburg’s Internet Research Agency on the day of the U.S. midterm elections last year. “The operation marked the first muscle-flexing by U.S. Cyber Command, with Intelligence from the National Security Agency, under new authorities it was granted by President Trump and Congress last year to bolster offensive capabilities,” writes the Post’s Ellen Nakashima. Military offensive cyber operations were just one of the important global issues that we discussed recently with Cipher Brief Expert Dr. James Miller , former Under Secretary of Defense for Policy from 2012-2014. In a Cipher Brief Exclusive , we asked Dr. Miller to outline his biggest concerns when it comes to future global cyber challenges.  Dr. Miller will also be a guest speaker at the International Conference on Cyber Engagement , April 23, ...