In The News

Cybersecurity for Infrastructure: Project Syndicate

Marietje Schaake and Stéphane Duguin June 9, 2020
The Covid-19 pandemic underscores society’s reliance on infrastructure, including the internet for communication and data exchanges as well as health-care systems. Malevolent forces target social media with disinformation and hospitals and laboratories with ransomware, phishing and other malicious programs. Over the past two months, such attacks have occurred every three days, yet governments...

US Intelligence Coup: Washington Post

Greg Miller February 12, 2020
Swiss Encryption company Crypto AG began working for the US government during World War II. Customers included 120 countries, including US allies that had no clue the company was “secretly owned by the CIA in a highly classified partnership with West German intelligence,” reports Greg Miller for the Washington Post. The purchase was made in 1970 through shell companies. The intelligence agencies...

The US Losing Fight on Huawei: Wired

Garrett M. Graff February 2, 2020
Despite US lobbying, UK officials will allow the Chinese firm Huawei to provide components to its 5G network. British officials suggest they can mitigate risks, but the United States expects Huawei to undermine security and privacy. “Over the past two years, the Trump administration has mounted a high-profile, high-stakes, high-pressure campaign to stop its key allies – including the so-called...

UN Urges Probe of Alleged Saudi Hacking: NPR

Avie Schneider and Shannon Bond January 22, 2020
The United Nations has urged a probe after an investigation pointed to a 2018 WhatsApp message, sent by an account of Saudi Arabia’s crown prince to the CEO of Amazon that when opened allowed exposed contents of the phone. The target, Jeff Bezos, commissioned the investigation and report, reviewed by UN human rights experts. “The forensic analysis assessed that the intrusion likely was...

Norms for Cyberspace Stability: Project Syndicate

Joseph S. Nye Jr. December 30, 2019
The internet is vital communications infrastructure. The Global Commission on the Stability of Cyberspace with experts from 16 nations met over three years to consider security challenges, rules and norms for information technology. The aim: encourage safe, secure use of cyber services, manage change in peaceful and organized ways, resolve disputes and reduce tensions while relying on...

Twitter Workers Charged for Spying: Washington Post

Ellen Nakashima and Greg Bensinger November 8, 2019
The US Department of Justice has charged two former Twitter employees, sending out a warning that any activities on tech platforms – social media, email, search engines – can be accessed by spies. The two men Saudi nationals tracked thousands of prominent critics of Saudi Arabia, marking the first formal accusations of the country spying in the United States. Foreign governments with nefarious...

Cybersecurity Group Suspends Huawei: Wall Street Journal

Anna Isaac September 19, 2019
The Forum of Incident Response and Security Teams, or FIRST, has encouraged international cooperation in preventing hacking since the 1990s, reports the Wall Street Journal. “Members share information and intelligence to identify and isolate cyberattacks or vulnerabilities quickly, and disseminate information to protect against their rapid spread,” explains Anna Isaac. “While largely working...