Ideas

Bear, Meet Porcupine: Unconventional Deterrence for Ukraine

By "going porcupine," Ukraine can make it clear to Russia that invasion will be costly and unsuccessful. But Kyiv needs help.

Science & Tech

One Social-Media ‘Like’ Doesn’t Say Much About a Potential Extremist

Data from open-source social media is generally only helpful in combination with other information.

Ideas

Trollfare: How to Recognize and Fight Off Online Psyops

It starts by understanding common tactics: distort, distract, dismiss, deny, and dismay.

Ideas

Waiting for Attribution in Cyberspace: A Tragicomedy

“We were so hopeful last March when the UN Open-Ended Working Group agreed to endorse all 11 of us voluntary, non-binding norms of responsible state behavior.”

Threats

'Information Disorder' Is Biggest Social Danger, Commission Warns

"When bad information becomes as prevalent, persuasive, and persistent as good information, it creates a chain reaction of harm,” an Aspen Institute report begins.

Ideas

The US Must Turn the Tables on Russia’s Psyops

A post-Cold War fixation on hard power has sapped us of the 21st century’s most potent force.

Threats

Taliban Takeover Of Afghanistan Is Inspiring Americans Online, FBI Says

“That’s where they see this rallying cry and their opportunity. Now it’s ‘time to buy a gun, run people over with a car,’ do whatever they’re going to do,” an FBI official said Tuesday.

Threats

CIA Creates China Center To Shift To Great Power Competition

“It’s taking the top slot from the counterterrorism mission over the past 20 years,” said John Doyon, executive vice president of INSA.

Ideas

The Taliban PR Campaign Has Not Ended, But Transformed

Messages of liberation and inclusiveness have given way to ones that serve the consolidatation of power.

Ideas

Hold the UAE Accountable for Meddling in US Politics

Letting the Emirates go unpunished sends the wrong signal to perpetrators of foreign influence operations.

Ideas

What China’s Vast New Cybersecurity Center Tells Us About Beijing’s Ambitions

The 15-square-mile campus in Wuhan will serve as school, research lab, incubator, and talent cultivator.

Ideas

Promote Open Source to a Full Member of the Intelligence Community

The exploitation of publicly or commercially available information must be recognized alongside spies, signals intelligence, and other established branches of practice.

Ideas

How the Intelligence Community Can Get Better at Open Source Intel

Several factors make it harder to use publicly available information in all-source assessment than classified information.

Science & Tech

Information Warfare Looms Larger in Russia’s New Security Strategy

Kremlin’s first update in six years decries foreign influence, calls for more Russian info ops.

Threats

Digital Authoritarianism is a National Security Threat, Pentagon Cyber Leader Says

The U.S. must fund the development of technology that can compete with the offerings of authoritarian countries, said Mieke Eoyang, deputy assistant defense secretary for cyber policy.

Threats

US Troops on Base Less Likely to Seek Extremist Content Than Americans in General, Study Finds

Service branches differ in their engagement with anti-Black extremism or anti-Semitic conspiracy theories, internet research firm says in upcoming report.