Our picksU.S. Cyberattacks Iran | Despite Horrors, Jihadism Has Declined | DHS Cut Corners in Portland, and more Published 4 November 2020 ·  Right and Left-Wing Extremists Are Anticipating Election-Related Violence, From the Other Side, Report Finds ·  U.S. Undertook Cyber Operation against Iran as Part of Effort to Secure the 2020 Election ·  Despite the Horrors

TerrorismVienna “Terror” Attack: Police Launch Massive Manhunt Published 3 November 2020 A massive manhunt is underway in the Austrian capital after an attack that left four civilians dead. Authorities say at least one “Islamist terrorist” was behind the shootings and that more suspects may be at large. Hundreds of police have been deployed across Vienna to

CybersecurityCreating a National Network of Cybersecurity Institutes Published 3 November 2020 DHS S&T, in partnership with the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), awarded $2 million to the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) to develop a plan that CISA can execute to build a national network of cybersecurity technical institutes. “CISA sees the growing

Grid securityNew Cyber Technologies Protect Utility Energy Delivery Systems Published 3 November 2020 Researchers are taking new approaches to solve cybersecurity vulnerabilities for utilities and other industries that use process control technologies. These connected devices are used in operational technology settings and tend to be more vulnerable to cyberattacks than information technology equipment. The software

FloodsMobile Flood Tool Published 3 November 2020 The U.S. Geological Survey announced Friday the completion of a new mobile tool that provides real-time information on water levels, weather and flood forecasts all in one place on a computer, smartphone or other mobile device. The new access anywhere interactive map helps minimize loss of life and property.

ARGUMENT: Election tensionsEasing Election-Related Tensions: Lessons for the U.S. from Elections Abroad Published 2 November 2020 Public officials and the news media have broken through the public consciousness with the message that the results of the election may not be known on the night of 3 November, potentially helping to ease tensions in the immediate

PERSPECTIVE: Election Night Reporting (ENR)Preparing for Election Night: Counting and Reporting the Vote in Battleground States Published 2 November 2020 Disinformation surrounding election night reporting of vote counts poses a unique threat to public confidence in U.S. election results. Jack Caleb and colleagues note that election night reporting (ENR) refers to the real-time report of

Face masksConfronting the Notion that Face Masks Reduce COVID “Dose” By Mary Van Beusekom Published 2 November 2020 When two physicians at the University of California at San Francisco published a commentary in the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) on Sep 8 proposing to resurrect the 18th century practice of variolation using face coverings

Information operationsUnderstanding, and Countering, Information Operations Published 2 November 2020 In recent years, a growing number of governments, non-state actors, and citizens have rapidly expanded their use of pernicious information operations against other countries and even their fellow citizens. Social media and the internet have become the main tool. The current technological revolution has lowered

Election 2020Election 2020 Chatter on Twitter Busy with Bots and Conspiracy Theorists Published 2 November 2020 Bots and conspiracy theorists have infested the Twitter chatter around the upcoming U.S. presidential election, researchers have found. Looking at more than 240 million election-related tweets, the study found that thousands of automated accounts, known as bots, had posted