Code and Dagger (2024)

08/06/2021

This site rarely does “round-ups,” but my Tron has there been a lot of cybersecurity news lately — including news overnight of a mass internet outage after a critical player in the internet’s infrastructure hit a hiccup. That came just hours after it was revealed the FBI and its law enforcement partners had scored a double win against criminals: one by stealing back some ransomware payments and the other by duping hundreds of criminals into using “secure” communications that were actually run by the FBI. So, to catch up:
https://www.patreon.com/posts/cybersecurity-by-52254700

Official Post from Code and Dagger

25/05/2021

NEW POST: Despite its near-complete loss of territory, the terrorist organization ISIS is estimated to have “tens of millions” of dollars — cash generated from kidnappings and extortion, but also aided to some extent by supporters who use cryptocurrency.

The Department of Treasury, which co-leads the international Counter ISIS Finance Group with Italy and Saudi Arabia, reported last week [PDF] that ISIS makes its money through “extortion of oil smuggling networks,” “kidnapping for ransom targeting civilian businesses and populations,” “looting,” and “possibly the operation of front companies.”

In addition to those traditional money-making tactics, Treasury said ISIS supporters also “relied on cryptocurrencies and online fundraising platforms.” The report did not provide an estimate for how much money had been raised using cryptocurrencies, and some experts have been skeptical in the past of cryptocurreny’s popularity among terrorist organizations.

MORE: https://codeanddagger.com/news/2021/5/25/isis-funds-estimated-in-tens-of-millions-some-in-cryptocurrency

Despite its near-complete loss of territory, the terrorist organization ISIS is estimated to have “tens of millions” of dollars — cash generated from kidnappings and extortion, but also aided to some extent by supporters who use cryptocurrency. The Department of Treasury, which co-leads the in...

14/05/2021

NEW POST: The American Red Cross is facing a dip in the supply of blood in the Southeast meant for needy hospitals in the latest ripple effect of the hack of a major East Coast gas pipeline.

“As a result of the gas shortage, the Red Cross has had to cancel more than a dozen blood drives in the Southeast,” Red Cross spokesperson Katie Wilkes told Code and Dagger via email on Thursday. “In addition, we are seeing decreased donor turnout at our drives in affected areas as individuals look to conserve gas.”

Wilkes said that normally the Red Cross organizes about 500 blood drives across the whole of the U.S. every day. While that means the cancellations add up to a relatively small percentage of the country’s total, Wilkes said the Red Cross is more concerned about the lack of donors at the open drives.

The American Red Cross is facing a dip in the supply of blood in the Southeast meant for needy hospitals in the latest ripple effect of the hack of a major East Coast gas pipeline. “As a result of the gas shortage, the Red Cross has had to cancel more than a dozen blood drives in the Southeast,”...

06/05/2021

NEW POST: As U.S. officials raise the alarm about reportedly mysterious directed energy attacks on diplomats abroad and as close to home as around the White House, a concerning echo of a Cold War crisis grows louder. That was when the Soviet Union was accused of using microwave attacks that hit American officials in the Moscow embassy, in what the CIA reportedly dubbed “Operation Pandora.”

FULL STORY: https://codeanddagger.com/news/2021/5/6/in-mysterious-attacks-on-diplomats-and-spies-echoes-of-cold-war-operation-pandora

As U.S. officials raise the alarm about reportedly mysterious directed energy attacks on diplomats abroad and as close to home as around the White House, a concerning echo of a Cold War crisis grows louder. That was when the Soviet Union was accused of using microwave attacks that hit American off

04/05/2021

NEW POST: The U.S. Defense Department announced today the expansion of its bug bounty program, now calling on hackers to break into just about any public-facing Pentagon tech, from communications to Internet of Things (IoT) objects to infrastructure.

The original “Hack the Pentagon” program, launched in 2016, encouraged anyone to break into public-facing websites and applications and then disclose them to the Pentagon so they could be patched up. The military, like many major tech companies before it, had realized one way to defend against malicious hackers was to work with good ones who could alert them to security holes.

And hackers found them — about 20,000-worth of vulnerability reports so far, the Pentagon said. Some of the hackers have been publicly praised on the DOD Cyber Crime Center’s Twitter feed. (Looking at you, fiveguyslover…).

The U.S. Defense Department announced today the expansion of its bug bounty program, now calling on hackers to break into just about any public-facing Pentagon tech, from communications to Internet of Things (IoT) objects to infrastructure. The original “Hack the Pentagon” program, launched in 2...

30/04/2021

NEW POST: Looking back at the intelligence community’s predictions for 2020, at least, shows relatively little interest in pandemics at the time. The document, written in December 2004, really only discusses it in one short section about globalization and the things that could derail it. Still, it seemed to assume that the world already had learned how to handle pandemics better.

“Some experts believe it is only a matter of time before a new pandemic appears, such as the 1918-1919 influenza virus that killed an estimated 20 million worldwide,” the 2004 report says. “Such a pandemic in megacities of the developing world with poor health-care systems — in Sub-Saharan Africa, China, India, Bangladesh or Pakistan — would be devastating and could spread rapidly throughout the world...

FULL STORY below.

Every few years the U.S. intelligence community gets together with outside experts to imagine what the world will look like about 20 years from the present. As such, the National Intelligence Council recently released the Global Trends 2040 report, a 144-page tome that covers everything from the

29/04/2021

UPDATED with more analysis from former senior CIA officer John Sipher: “The Czech response is a signal to other countries that the Russians have gone too far,” he said. “Is it enough to change [Russian President Vladimir] Putin’s mind? Probably not, but it sends a signal that the price is getting bigger.”

https://codeanddagger.com/news/2021/4/28/timeline-in-europe-overlapping-russian-spy-scandals-spark-dizzying-diplomatic-tit-for-tat

In Russia, across Europe and in the U.S. scores of “diplomats” have been forced to pack their bags as the fallout from at least three simultaneous spying scandals continue to spread — each scandal blamed on, and denied by, Russia. In just the past two months, more than 130 diplomats, purported...

28/04/2021

NEW - TIMELINE: Across Europe and in the U.S., scores of “diplomats” have been forced to pack their bags as the fallout from at least three simultaneous spying scandals continue to spread — each scandal blamed on, and denied by, Russia.

In just the past two months, more than 130 diplomats, purported spies and embassy staff have been forced out, according to media reports and government statements, with the number split about evenly between capitals of the West and Moscow, in the wake of allegations that Russian spies conducted cyber attacks against America, blew up an arms depot in the Czech Republic and was caught in other espionage operations in several European countries.

See story below, including commentary from fmr CIA European ops division chief Rolf Mowatt-Larssen:

Across Europe and in the U.S., scores of “diplomats” have been forced to pack their bags as the fallout from at least three simultaneous spying scandals continue to spread — each scandal blamed on, and denied by, Russia. In just the past two months, more than 130 diplomats, purported spies and...

20/04/2021

NEW POST: Chinese authorities knew, of course, that Randal Phillips was a former senior officer with the Central Intelligence Agency. After all, his online biography notes his stint as the “Chief CIA representative in China” – a clumsy euphemism for chief of station, or head spy, in Beijing.

Still, after leaving the CIA in 2011 Phillips chose to live as a private businessman in the heart of what the U.S. intelligence considers a “hard target” to be with his then-future wife, an American diplomat. And for years, he said, the Chinese security services mostly left him alone.

Phillips assumed there was plenty of what he called “technical surveillance” — electronic eavesdropping on his calls or emails — but it wasn’t until early 2017 that he “got a request to go have tea” from “local security service types,” he said. (Full story at the link below:)

Chinese authorities knew, of course, that Randal Phillips was a former senior officer with the Central Intelligence Agency. After all, his online biography notes his stint as the “Chief CIA representative in China” – a clumsy euphemism for chief of station, or head spy, in Beijing. Still, afte...

13/04/2021

NEW POST: Typically every year the U.S. intelligence community produces one of the most somber reports an American security professional can read: the annual threat assessment.

Put simply, it’s a list and description of all the bad things lurking out there in the world that keep the CIA, FBI and 15-odd other intelligence agencies up at night.

This year’s was not so different, save for the addition of a deadly global pandemic to add to concerns about everything from Chinese efforts in space to more intense weather patterns.

Here are five factors that Code and Dagger wanted to highlight, but see the whole report [PDF] for more:

Typically every year the U.S. intelligence community produces one of the most somber reports an American security professional can read: the annual threat assessment. Put simply, it’s a list and description of all the bad things lurking out there in the world that keep the CIA, FBI and 15-odd othe...

05/04/2021

NEW POST: The United States said it has destroyed tens of thousands of MANPADs — man-portable shoulder-fired missiles — since it started hunting the dangerous weapons 15 years ago, but the threat is hardly gone, according to a new report. [...]

MANPADS have long been acute fears of security professionals for two reasons: they’re powerful enough to take out commercial airliners and small enough to smuggle with relative ease around the world. Or, as the State report puts it, “The most common types can fit into an automobile trunk.”

The United States said it has destroyed tens of thousands of MANPADs — man-portable shoulder-fired missiles — since it started hunting the dangerous weapons 15 years ago, but the threat is hardly gone, according to a new report. In a report published today the U.S. State Department claimed the g...

30/03/2021

NEW POST: A much-anticipated report from a joint investigation by World Health Organization and Chinese scientists into the origins of the novel coronavirus reportedly leaves many questions unanswered and has reignited others about the Chinese government’s influence on the probe. It’s one reason a former senior CIA official in China told Code and Dagger it’s unlikely the world will ever have a “consensus” on the origins of the deadly microbe.

“Indeed the WHO report is not too surprising, given the very significant pressure the Chinese have employed to get their narrative into the mix, particularly trying to sow some element of doubt that COVID-19 even originated in China,” said Randal Phillips, who was CIA station chief in Beijing from 2009 to 2011, the last posting of a 28-year CIA career in Asia.

A much-anticipated report from a joint investigation by World Health Organization and Chinese scientists into the origins of the novel coronavirus reportedly leaves many questions unanswered and has reignited others about the Chinese government’s influence on the probe. It’s one reason a former ...

22/03/2021

NEW POST: The U.S. government is spending at least $15 billion on dozens of different hypersonic programs, sometimes betting on immature tech to get to a usable weapon faster, according to a new government report.

The report by the Government Accountability Office tracks some 70 programs spread across the military branches, the Department of Energy and NASA, that include hypersonic missiles, so-called hypersonic glide vehicles and the related technology that hopes to get them screaming through the air. For its report, GAO defined “hypersonic” as moving at five times the speed of sound, or more than approximately 3,800 miles per hour.

FULL STORY: https://codeanddagger.com/news/2021/3/22/us-spending-15-billion-on-hypersonic-weapon-tech

The U.S. government is spending at least $15 billion on dozens of different hypersonic programs, sometimes betting on immature tech to get to a usable weapon faster, according to a new government report. The report by the Government Accountability Office tracks some 70 programs spread across the

09/03/2021

NEW POST: Fourteen years after he disappeared in Iran, the case of the kidnapping and purported death of former FBI agent (and reported CIA freelancer) Robert Levinson “is not closed,” U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said today...

Fourteen years after he disappeared in Iran, the case of the kidnapping and purported death of former FBI agent Robert Levinson “is not closed,” U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said today. “We call on the Iranian government to provide credible answers to what happened to Bob Levinson a...

04/03/2021

NEW POST: In news that certainly won’t induce nightmares of a near-omniscient and overbearing Clippy, the mad scientists of the U.S. military are seeking to develop an artificial intelligence that would watch military personnel as they work and correct their mistakes as they make them...

In news that certainly won’t induce nightmares of a near-omniscient and overbearing Clippy, the mad scientists of the U.S. military are seeking to develop an artificial intelligence that would watch military personnel as they work and correct their mistakes as they make them. Dr. Bruce Draper , a

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