Most Internet anonymity software leaks users' details

Most Internet anonymity software leaks users' details

Published 30 June 2015

 

Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) are legal and increasingly popular for individuals wanting to circumvent censorship, avoid mass surveillance, or access geographically limited services like Netflix and BBC iPlayer. The study of fourteen popular VPN providers found that eleven of them leaked information about the user because of a vulnerability known as “IPv6 leakage.”

Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) are legal and increasingly popular for individuals wanting to circumvent censorship, avoid mass surveillance, or access geographically limited services like Netflix and BBC iPlayer. According to a Global Web Index report from October 2014, around 20 percent of European Internet users use VPNs to encrypt users’ Internet communications, making it more difficult for people to monitor their activities.
The study of fourteen popular VPN providers found that eleven of them leaked information about the user because of a vulnerability known as “IPv6 leakage.” The leaked information ranged from the Web sites a user is accessing to the actual content of user communications, for example comments being posted on forums. Interactions with Web sites running HTTPS encryption, which includes financial transactions, were not leaked.
QMUL reports that the leakage occurs because network operators are increasingly deploying a new version of the protocol used to run the Internet called IPv6. IPv6 replaces the previous IPv4, but many VPNs only protect user’s IPv4 traffic. The researchers tested their ideas by choosing fourteen of the most famous VPN providers and connecting various devices to a WiFi access point which was designed to mimic the attacks hackers might use.
Researchers attempted two of the kinds of attacks that might be used to gather user data – “passive monitoring,” simply collecting the unencrypted information that passed through the access point; and DNS hijacking, redirecting browsers to a controlled Web server by pretending to be commonly visited Web sites like Google and Facebook.
The study also examined the security of various mobile platforms when using VPNs and found that they were much more secure when using Apple’s iOS, but were still vulnerable to leakage when using Google’s Android.
Dr. Gareth Tyson, a lecturer from Queen Mary, University of London (QMUL) and co-author of the study, said:
“There are a variety of reasons why someone might want to hide their identity online and it’s worrying that they might be vulnerable despite using a service that is specifically designed to protect them.
“We’re most concerned for those people trying to protect their browsing from oppressive regimes. They could be emboldened by their supposed anonymity while actually revealing all their data and online activity and exposing themselves to possible repercussions.”
— Read more in V. Perta et al., “A Glance through the VPN Looking Glass: IPv6 Leakage and DNS Hijacking in Commercial VPN clients,” (a paper to be presented at the Privacy Enhancing Technologies [PET] Symposium, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 30 June 2015)

California's strict vaccine bill would not allow vaccination waiver

California's strict vaccine bill would not allow vaccination waiver

Published 30 June 2015

Last Thursday, the California State Assembly passed SB227, an amendment to the current vaccine bill which would eliminate a waiver for parents to opt out of having their children vaccinated. The proposal passed on a 46-31 vote and is now going back to the Senate this week to confirm the amendments.Under SB277, students who are not vaccinated would have to be homeschooled or participate in off-campus study programs.

Last Thursday, the California State Assembly passed SB227, an amendment to the current vaccine bill which would eliminate a waiver for parents to opt out of having their children vaccinated. The proposal passed on a 46-31 vote and is now going back to the Senate this week to confirm the amendments.
As Emergency Management reports, the vaccine bill first passed in the Senate in May with four votes to spare, but originally contained the controversial waiver. If passed in its revised form, Governor Jerry Brown said he would “strongly consider” signing it into law, and was currently in talks with the administration as the bill progressed.
“We’ve had some very positive conversations,” said Senator Richard Pan (D-Sacramento), who is the author of the bill and also a pediatrician. “The governor is a very thoughtful man who understands how important it is to protect the public.”
Under the current law, Californian children at both public and private schools and day cares are required to have immunizations against ten diseases, including mumps, rubella, measles, tetanus, diphtheria, and chicken pox — all before they are in kindergarten. A booster shot for whooping cough is also required in the seventh grade.
State health officials have said that the vaccination requirement protects the general public against outbreaks and also protects those who are unable to receive the immunizations due to age or health issues.
While the bill originally contained passages that allowed for parents to opt out of the vaccine process under religious or personal belief exemptions, the new amendment would change that.
Under SB277, students who are not vaccinated would have to be homeschooled or participate in off-campus study programs.
“It’s been an intense journey legislatively,” said Pan. “Ultimately, the important thing is that we pass a law and work with people to effectively implement it. I encourage my colleagues in the medical community and the education community to educate people about what the bill actually does because the opponents have spread so much misinformation and continue to spread so much misinformation about what the bill does.”
The change to the legislation would take California from being one of the most lenient states on the matter of school vaccination requirements to one of the most strict by not allowing any personal or religious exemptions.
“SB277 has probably received more public testimony than any other issue this year, including the state budget,” said Assemblyman Marc Levine (D-San Rafael). “For me, the bottom line is we live in a society where we have a social responsibility to act in a manner that protects not only ourselves but others as well.”
The measure was widely opposed by a diverse group of stay-at-home moms, antigovernment activists, Hollywood actresses and the Nation of Islam — which warned African American lawmakers that they would see a backlash from the community if they voted for the bill.
“We have strange bedfellows, now don’t we?” said Lori Martin Gregory, the editor of the blog Mom Street Journal. “We have Malibu Barbie next to the Nation of Islam. People look at that and go ‘Huh?’ We have some differences, we don’t agree on everything in life, but clearly we have common ground on this issue because it’s the right thing. It’s truth. There should never be a public policy that protects some of the people at the expense of others.”
Five Democrats in the assembly voted against the bill, three Democrats did not vote and two Republicans supported it. It is expected to see a new Senate vote this week.

2014 uncertainty over renewal of Terrorism Risk Insurance Act changed consumer behavior

2014 uncertainty over renewal of Terrorism Risk Insurance Act changed consumer behavior

Published 30 June 2015

 

Terrorism insurance take-up rates dropped off toward the end of 2014, due to the anxiety stemming from the unexpected expiration of the Terrorism Risk Insurance Program Reauthorization Act (TRIPRA). Through much of 2014, there was uncertainty whether Congress would renew the program, which initially passed in the wake of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. This uncertainty led customers, and potential customers, to change their insurance buying plans.

Terrorism insurance take-up rates dropped off toward the end of 2014, due to the anxiety stemming from the unexpected expiration of the Terrorism Risk Insurance Program Reauthorization Act (TRIPRA). Through much of 2014, there was uncertainty whether Congress would renew the program, which initially passed in the wake of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. This uncertainty led customers, and potential customers, to change their insurance buying plans.
Congress quickly authorized a slightly amended version of the law in January 2015 and buyers of terrorism insurance since have generally experienced a favorable rate environment, a trend that is expected to continue, barring unforeseen events or market changes.
Still, the changes Congress made to the original bill did change consumer behavior. One of the changes Congress made was to raise the trigger amount needed in total losses before federal reinsurance coverage kicks in from $100 million to $200 million over five years, starting in 2016. The terms of the new law “prompted some organizations to look for certainty of coverage elsewhere, namely the standalone property terrorism insurance market,” Marsh says.
Marsh’s 2015 Terrorism Risk Insurance Report analyzes terrorism risk insurance pricing and take-up rates, breaking down the data by company size, industry, and region.
Among the key findings from the report:
Terrorism insurance take-up rates have remained relatively stable since 2009, although they decreased slightly in 2014 as a result of the anxiety surrounding TRIPRA at the end of 2014.

• Underwriters continue to scrutinize employee concentration exposures, highlighting the importance of accurate data and risk differentiation, particularly for workers’ compensation exposures.
• Organizations that purchased terrorism coverage in the first half of 2015 typically saw competitive rates offered by standalone property terrorism insurers.
• Among industry sectors, education organizations had the highest take-up rate for terrorism insurance in 2014.

The report also covers:

• Insurance market capacity among the major carriers.
• The role of political violence coverage in mitigating exposures not covered by terrorism policies.
• Benefits of using captives to secure terrorism coverage under TRIPRA.
• Potential applicability of terrorism coverage under standard fire policy statutes
• Applicability of insurance coverage for cyber-attacks.
• Terrorism reinsurance markets.

— Read more in 2015 Terrorism Risk Insurance Report

Afghans do not view U.S.-led war in their country as “their war”: Report

Afghans do not view U.S.-led war in their country as “their war”: Report

Published 30 June 2015

 

Afghan security forces, like their fellow citizens more generally, do not view the U.S.-led war in Afghanistan as “their war.” This is a primary policy-relevant conclusion reached in one of two new reports issued last week by the Costs of War Project at Brown’s University’s Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs. Members of the Afghan National Police Force (ANP) do not see the war as their own; they participate as a means of employment to make a living and support family members, particularly given the lack of economic opportunities after thirty-five years of armed conflict and foreign occupation.

Afghan security forces, like their fellow citizens more generally, do not view the U.S.-led war in Afghanistan as “their war.”
This is a primary policy-relevant conclusion reached in one of two new reports issued last week by the Costs of War Project at Brown’s University’s Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs.
The Watson Institute reports that Not Their War to Fight: The Afghan Police, Families of their Dead and the American War, by Harvard University Visiting Assistant Professor Anila Daulatzai, draws on four years of anthropologic fieldwork in Kabul and elsewhere in Afghanistan, and on polls by the Asia Foundation, Gallup and others to assess perspectives toward the war. Among the findings: members of the Afghan National Police Force (ANP) do not see the war as their own; they participate as a means of employment to make a living and support family members, particularly given the lack of economic opportunities after thirty-five years of armed conflict and foreign occupation. As Daulatzai explains, the ANP, their families and Afghans more broadly “do not see themselves as responsible for reversing the mayhem the United States is leaving behind.”
In a separate study, Bombing Pakistan: How Colonial Legacy Sustains American Drones, journalist and Columbia University Ph.D. candidate Madiha Tahir investigates the decade-long US drone strikes over the Pakistani borderlands, known as Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA), or tribal areas. In doing so, Tahir examines the colonial-era legacy that has led to the now acceptable practice of punishing an entire group based on the actions of one or a few people living within externally imposed borders.
The paper cites the thousands of Hellfire missiles that have destroyed people and homes in the region, noting that residents of the tribal areas also live with violence by opposition forces, such as the Pakistani Taliban as well as the Pakistani government. According to Tahir, common wisdom often cited by Western journalists and policy makers when referring to the tribal areas is that they are “lawless,” implicitly justifying the constant bombardment to which residents are subject. Tahir argues that, in fact, the region has long been rigidly organized by British and later, Pakistani law, setting the stage for drone strikes as a form of collective punishment against residents.
Tahir offers examples to illustrate that the U.S. drone program in the tribal areas is not guided by international law. Rather, it is rooted in colonial policies long pre-dating the use of drones. She writes: “…how American drone attacks are conducted — for all the vaunted technical precision and capabilities of armed drones — is bound up with an old colonial game of sorting people into those who are ‘tribal’ and those who are marked out as proper modern citizens.” In doing so, Tahir emphasizes that US policymakers and journalists who argue that drones operate based on a logic of precision are therefore misguided, and that, in fact, drones have “license not to distinguish between anyone” in the region.
“These papers underscore what we already know: that there are significant and enduring costs of war beyond the staggering financial costs we have documented,” said Catherine Lutz, Brown University Professor and co-director of the project. “These findings are valuable for lawmakers as they consider the policy and resource allocation decisions they must continue to make in regard to the wars in Afghanistan and Pakistan.”
First released in 2011, the Costs of War report has been compiled and updated by more than thirty-five economists, anthropologists, lawyers, humanitarian personnel, and political scientists as the first comprehensive analysis of over a decade of wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Pakistan. The Costs of War Project at Brown University’s Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs analyzes the implications of these wars in terms of human casualties, economic costs, and civil liberties.

Turkish forces to enter Syria to create buffer zone along border

Turkish forces to enter Syria to create buffer zone along border

Published 30 June 2015

 

Turkey, for the first time since the war in Syria began four years ago, is preparing to send troops into Syria. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has authorized a change in the rules of engagement which were agreed to by the Turkish parliament, and the changes would allow the Turkish army to strike ISIS and Assad regime targets. The goal of the new policy is not new: to create a buffer zone inside Syria for Syrian refugees fleeing the regime’s bombing, but Erdogan has also suggested that the main target of the intervention, if it takes place, will be to prevent the Syrian Kurds from creating a Kurdish state in the Kurdish regions of Syria.

Turkey, for the first time since the war in Syria began four years ago, is preparing to send troops into Syria. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has authorized a change in the rules of engagement which were agreed to by the Turkish parliament, and the changes would allow the Turkish army to strike ISIS and Assad regime targets.
The goal of the new policy is not new: to create a buffer zone inside Syria for Syrian refugees fleeing the regime’s bombing, but Erdogan has also suggested that the main target of the intervention, if it takes place, will be to prevent the Syrian Kurds from creating a Kurdish state in the Kurdish regions of Syria.
The Syrian Kurdish militia, the YPG (the People’s Protection Units), has established dominance in a border strip across the north of Syria in recent months. The YPG is the armed wing of the PYD (the Democratic Union Party), which is an offshoot of the PKK, a pro-independence Turkish Kurdish faction which, between 1982 and 2012, killed 42,000 Turks, most of them civilians, in a campaign aiming to gain independence for the Kurds in eastern Turkey (see “Turkish jets bomb Kurdish positions,” HSNW, 15 October 2014).
“We will never allow the establishment of a state in Syria’s north and our south,” Erdogan said in a weekend speech. “We will continue our fight in this regard no matter what it costs.”
Turkey has been pushing since 2011 for the creation of a buffer zone — protected by international forces on the ground and by a no-fly zone in the air — in north Syria to allow shelter for Sunni refugees who were fleeing the indiscriminate attacks by the Assad forces on Sunni communities. In the absence of such a buffer zone, the refugees fled into Turkey, which is now home to two million Syria refugees.
Until this weekend, however, Turkey had refused to create such a buffer zone on its own. Two developments have combined to change Turkey’s mind.
First, the Kurds appear to have accelerated their plans to declare an autonomous Kurdish region in the Kurdish areas of Syria, a region which would then negotiate a federative arrangement with the autonomous Kurdish region in Iraq. The Kurds have been emboldened by the growing effectiveness of their forces – the result of increasing U.S. military aid and training, and the presence of U.S. Special Forces on the ground. The New York Times notes that the U.S.-supported Syrian Kurds have achieved two major victories against ISIS. Last fall, ISIS was pushed out of Kobani, a Syrian Kurdish city which ISIS fought over for months under heavy aerial bombardment by coalition forces. ISIS lost thousands of its fighters in its futile effort to keep the city. In recent weeks, the Kurds pushed ISIS from Tal Abyad, an important border town not far from Raqqa, which American officials say was the most trafficked crossing for foreign fighters entering Syria from Turkey.
Second, the Syrian army is no longer a functional military force. Since January, regime forces have suffered a series of defeats at the hands of the moderate Syrian rebels and ISIS, and have retreated to positions around Damascus and in the Alawite region in north-west Syria. The entry of Turkish forces into Syria may thus encounter opposition from U.S.-armed Kurds, but the remnants of Assad’s army are no longer in a position to do prevent Turkey from entering Syria.
The Telegraph reports that the plans for an incursion into Syria were discussed in a meeting of Turkey’s national security council on Sunday. Following Erdogan’s speech, Turkish media were briefed on new orders being given to the military to prepare to send a force of 18,000 soldiers across the border, with some reports saying the move could take place as early as this Friday.
The Turkish officials who briefed the Turkish media said the troops would seize a strip of Syrian territory 60-miles long by 20-miles deep, including the border crossings of Jarablus, currently in ISIS hands, and Aazaz, which is currently controlled by the Free Syrian Army (FSA) but which is under attack by ISIS.
The planned buffer zone would allow Turkey to build refugee camps on Syrian soil under Turkish protection, rather than on Turkish soil as is currently the case, and it would also prevent the two regions currently under Kurdish control — from Kobane to the Iraq border in the east, and Afrin in the west — from joining up.
Turkey says that the buffer zone would also allow Turkey better to control the flow of weapons and fighters into Syria. Turkey has been criticized for doing enough to prevent foreign recruits from crossing from Turkey into Syria to join ISIS.
Officially, Turkey is using the on-going attacks by ISIS on Turkey-supported Free Syrian Army as the pretext for the coming action. “ISIL, along with other armed groups that have the potential to jeopardize Turkey’s security [read: the Kurds], will be included as threats to Turkey in the amended rules and the Turkish armed forces could launch an operation against ISIL once it approaches its borders,” the pro-Erdogan Sabah newspaper reported.
The Financial Times reported on Monday that Jordan was drawing up similar plans for a safe buffer zone in southern Syria, following concerns that ISIS could gain control over territory close to the Jordanian border if the Syrian military were to withdraw from the city of Deraa.
Erdogan’s buffer zone plan has its critics. The Turkish military would rather join the U.S.-led bombing campaign against ISIS, or, alternatively, send a much larger force into Syria to establish a more robust, and better protected, buffer zone.
There are also question about whether an invasion of Syria is permitted without a vote in parliament – and without a UN Security Council vote.
There is also the question of domestic politics. Erdogan’s party suffered a humiliating defeat in the parliamentary election last months, and lost its majority. The current government is in power as an interim government until an agreement on a coalition is reached between Erdogan’s party and one of the smaller potential partners. Critics say that an interim government does not have the mandate for such a bold move.
Any Turkish military action in Syria would also complicate Turkey’s strained efforts to negotiated peace with Turkey’s own Kurdish minority. Kurdish leaders said Monday that any action in Syria would undermine the peace process in Turkey.

Eco-friendly oil spill solution developed

Eco-friendly oil spill solution developed

Published 29 June 2015

 

Chemists have developed an eco-friendly biodegradable green “herding” agent that can be used to clean up light crude oil spills on water. Derived from the plant-based small molecule phytol abundant in the marine environment, the new substance would potentially replace chemical herders currently in use.

City College of New York researchers led by chemist George John have developed an eco-friendly biodegradable green “herding” agent that can be used to clean up light crude oil spills on water.
Derived from the plant-based small molecule phytol abundant in the marine environment, the new substance would potentially replace chemical herders currently in use. According to John, professor of chemistry in City College’s Division of Science, “the best known chemical herders are chemically stable, non-biodegradable, and hence remain in the marine ecosystem for years.”
“Our goal was to develop an eco-friendly herding molecule as an alternative to the current silicone-based polymers,” said John.
CCNY notes that herding agents are surface-active molecules (surfactants) that when added to a liquid, such as seawater, reduce the surface tension. In the case of oil spills, when they are added along the periphery of an oil spill slick, they contract and thicken the slick or push slicks together so that they can be collected or burned.
“Understanding the interfacial behavior is crucial to design the next generation eco-friendly herding agents” said Charles Maldarelli, a professor of chemical engineering in CCNY’s Benjamin Levich Institute for Physico-Chemical Hydrodynamics who participated in the study.
John’s research team also included Deeksha Gupta, a postdoctoral student now at the Royal Society of Chemistry, and Vijay John of Tulane University.
— Read more in Deeksha Gupta et al., “Sacrificial amphiphiles: Eco-friendly chemical herders as oil spill mitigation chemicals,” Science Advances 1, no. 5 (26 June 2015): e1400265 (DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.1400265)

Alumnus’s throwable tactical camera gets commercial release

Alumnus’s throwable tactical camera gets commercial release

By Rob Matheson

Published 29 June 2015

 

Unseen areas are troublesome for police and first responders: Rooms can harbor dangerous gunmen, while collapsed buildings can conceal survivors. Now Bounce Imaging, founded by an MIT alumnus, is giving officers and rescuers a safe glimpse into the unknown. In July, the Boston-based startup will release its first line of tactical spheres, equipped with cameras and sensors, which can be tossed into potentially hazardous areas to instantly transmit panoramic images of those areas back to a smartphone.

Unseen areas are troublesome for police and first responders: Rooms can harbor dangerous gunmen, while collapsed buildings can conceal survivors. Now Bounce Imaging, founded by an MIT alumnus, is giving officers and rescuers a safe glimpse into the unknown.
In July, the Boston-based startup will release its first line of tactical spheres, equipped with cameras and sensors, which can be tossed into potentially hazardous areas to instantly transmit panoramic images of those areas back to a smartphone.
“It basically gives a quick assessment of a dangerous situation,” says Bounce Imaging CEO Francisco Aguilar MBA ’12, who invented the device, called the Explorer.
Launched in 2012 with help from the MIT Venture Mentoring Service (VMS), Bounce Imaging will deploy 100 Explorers to police departments nationwide, with aims of branching out to first responders and other clients in the near future.
The softball-sized Explorer is covered in a thick rubber shell. Inside is a camera with six lenses, peeking out at different indented spots around the circumference, and LED lights. When activated, the camera snaps photos from all lenses, a few times every second. Software uploads these disparate images to a mobile device and stitches them together rapidly into full panoramic images. There are plans to add sensors for radiation, temperature, and carbon monoxide in future models.
For this first manufacturing run, the startup aims to gather feedback from police, who operate in what Aguilar calls a “reputation-heavy market.” “You want to make sure you deliver well for your first customer, so they recommend you to others,” he says.
Steered right through VMS
Over the years, media coverage has praised the Explorer, andTime named the device one of the best inventions of 2012. Bounce Imaging also earned top prizes at the 2012 MassChallenge Competition and the 2013 MIT IDEAS Global Challenge.
Instrumental in Bounce Imaging’s early development, however, was the VMS, which Aguilar turned to shortly after forming Bounce Imaging at the MIT Sloan School of Management. Classmate and U.S. Army veteran David Young MBA ’12 joined the project early to provide a perspective of an end-user.
“The VMS steered us right in many ways,” Aguilar says. “When you don’t know what you’re doing, it’s good to have other people who are guiding you and counseling you.”
Leading Bounce Imaging’s advisory team was Jeffrey Bernstein SM ’84, a computer scientist who had co-founded a few tech startups — including PictureTel, directly out of graduate school, with the late MIT professor David Staelin — before coming to VMS as a mentor in 2007.
Among other things, Bernstein says the VMS mentors helped Bounce Imaging navigate, for roughly two years, in funding and partnering strategies, recruiting a core team of engineers and establishing its first market — instead of focusing on technical challenges. “The particulars of the technology are usually not the primary areas of focus in VMS,” Bernstein says. “You need to understand the market, and you need good people.”
In that way, Bernstein adds, Bounce Imaging already had a leg up. “Unlike many ventures I’ve seen, the Bounce Imaging team came in with a very clear idea of what need they were addressing and why this was important for real people,” he says.
Bounce Imaging still reaches out to its VMS mentors for advice. Another “powerful resource for alumni companies,” Aguilar says, was a VMS list of previously mentored startups. Over the years, Aguilar has pinged that list for a range of advice, including on manufacturing and funding issues. “It’s such a powerful list, because MIT alumni companies are amazingly generous to each other,” Aguilar says.
The right first market
From a mentor’s perspective, Bernstein sees Bounce Imaging’s current commercial success as a result of “finding that right first market,” which helped it overcome early technical challenges. “They got a lot of really good customer feedback really early and formed a real understanding of the market, allowing them to develop a product without a lot of uncertainty,” he says.
Aguilar conceived of the Explorer after the 2010 Haiti earthquake, as a student at both MIT Sloan and the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. International search-and-rescue teams, he learned, could not easily find survivors trapped in the rubble, as they were using cumbersome fiber-optic cameras, which were difficult to maneuver and too expensive for wide use. “I started looking into low-cost, very simple technologies to pair with your smartphone, so you wouldn’t need special training or equipment to look into these dangerous areas,” Aguilar says.
The Explorer was initially developed for first responders. But after being swept up in a flurry of national and international attention from winning the $50,000 grand prize at the 2012 MassChallenge, Bounce Imaging started fielding numerous requests from police departments — which became its target market.
Months of rigorous testing with departments across New England led Bounce Imaging from a clunky prototype of the Explorer — “a Medusa of cables and wires in a 3D-printed shell that was nowhere near throwable,” Aguilar says — through about 20 further iterations.
But they also learned key lessons about what police needed. Among the most important lessons, Aguilar says, is that police are under so much pressure in potentially dangerous situations that they need something very easy to use. “We had loaded the system up with all sorts of options and buttons and nifty things — but really, they just wanted a picture,” Aguilar says.
Neat tricks
Today’s Explorer is designed with a few “neat tricks,” Aguilar says. First is a custom, six-lensed camera that pulls raw images from its lenses simultaneously into one processor. This reduces complexity and reduces the price tag of using six separate cameras.
The ball also serves as its own wireless hotspot, through Bounce Imaging’s network, that a mobile device uses to quickly grab those images — “because a burning building probably isn’t going to have Wi-Fi, but we still want … to work with a first responder’s existing smartphone,” Aguilar says.
But the key innovation, Aguilar says, is the image-stitching software, developed by engineers at the Costa Rican Institute of Technology. The software’s algorithms, Aguilar says, vastly reduce computational load and work around noise and other image-quality problems. Because of this, it can stitch multiple images in a fraction of a second, compared with about one minute through other methods.
In fact, after the Explorer’s release, Aguilar says Bounce Imaging may option its image-stitching technology for drones, video games, movies, or smartphone technologies. “Our main focus is making sure the [Explorer] works well in the market,” Aguilar says. “And then we’re trying to see what exciting things we can do with the imaging processing, which could vastly reduce computational requirements for a range of industries developing around immersive video.”

Abu Dhabi’s power system to be used for critical infrastructure cybersecurity study

Abu Dhabi’s power system to be used for critical infrastructure cybersecurity study

Published 29 June 2015

 

Abu Dhabi, UAE-based Masdar Institute of Science and Technology and MIT will use Abu Dhabi’s power system as a case study for developing a knowledge map of the power system and its cybersecurity shortcomings. The project is due to run for two years. At the end of this two year period, the collaborating institutions hope that data from the analysis of Abu Dhabi’s power system could be compared against data from the projects running concurrently in New York and Singapore to develop a comprehensive knowledge map, capable of being applied to critical infrastructure worldwide.

Masdar Institute of Science and Technology, an Abu Dhabi, UAE-based university focused on advanced energy and sustainable technologies, has recently launched a collaboration with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) to advance cybersecurity research in the UAE.
The objective of the study is to ensure better cybersecurity on critical infrastructure sites in the UAE and globally by assessing potential vulnerabilities to cyberattacks on critical infrastructure. Using Abu Dhabi’s power system as a case study, the research will undertake a multilayered methodology to develop a knowledge map of the power system and its shortcomings.
Dr. Fred Moavenzadeh, president, Masdar Institute, said, “Through Masdar Institute’s ongoing research efforts, greater emphasis is being placed on the protection of critical infrastructure sites by enhancing cybersecurity. This project will help to develop the Institute into a knowledge center for cybersecurity in the UAE and promote Masdar Institute and its Institute Center for Smart and Sustainable Systems (iSmart) as a leader in cybersecurity research. The collaboration with MIT will also help to identify competency gaps, generate critical mass between the faculty and develop human capital in the niche area of cybersecurity.”
Masdar notes that the collaboration will see Masdar Institute and MIT undertake research involving Abu Dhabi’s power system and will focus on using a novel approach to identifying the different sources of cyber gaps in a critical infrastructure system. The research will also investigate the significance of each of these challenges to the integrity of the physical system.
This collaboration is a project of the MIT Technology and Development Program. The principal investigators of the project are Dr. Sameh El Khatib, Assistant Professor in the Masdar Institute Department of Engineering Systems and Management and member of iSmart, and Dr. Nazli Choucri, Professor of Political Science at the MIT School of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences, and Principal Investigator and Director of the MIT/Harvard initiative in Explorations in Cyber International Relations (ECIR).
Masdar also notes that a number of research projects have already been undertaken better to secure conventional information systems, but no research had been conducted regarding the protection of critical infrastructure. Dr. Choucri and Dr. El Khatib’s work will correct this by addressing the cybersecurity of critical infrastructure. The research will also serve as a guide for policymakers in an age where cybersecurity has become one of the biggest issues for businesses and government.
“Our research aims to contribute to the development of cybersecurity as an emerging field of scientific inquiry. To date, there have been few robust scientific investigations that provide comprehensive evidence on the sources and consequences of cyber security. The overarching goal of the project is to analyze and define the science behind cyber security in an effort to provide substantial and concrete scientific data related to the weaknesses of critical infrastructure and how to better protect them,” said Dr. El Khatib.
The project is due to run for two years. At the end of this two year period, the collaborating institutions hope that data from the analysis of Abu Dhabi’s power system could be compared against data from the projects running concurrently in New York and Singapore to develop a comprehensive knowledge map, capable of being applied to critical infrastructure worldwide. It will also aid with the development of human capital in this area, beginning with the five Masdar Institute students — three of which are UAE nationals — which are working with Dr. El Khatib in this cybersecurity project.
Speaking about her involvement in the project, UAE national student Reem Al Hammadi said, “By undertaking this research in collaboration with MIT, I have had the opportunity to develop knowledge and highly technical skills related to the niche area of cybersecurity and critical infrastructure. The continued development of local talent by Masdar Institute in this area will ensure that the UAE is fully equipped to advance research related to cybersecurity and critical infrastructure.”
The research collaboration is part of the Masdar Institute and MIT Joint Cooperative Program and in collaboration with the MIT Interdisciplinary Consortium for Improving Critical Infrastructure Cybersecurity (IC)3, which is one of three recently launched initiatives by MIT dedicated to lead global research in cybersecurity. The (IC)3 initiative, which is directed by Dr. Stuart Madnick, Professor of Information Technologies, MIT Sloan School of Management and Professor of Engineering Systems, MIT School of Engineering, has been formed to address the need to improve the cybersecurity of critical infrastructure, with a focus on strategic, operational and managerial issues related to cybersecurity.

Internet facilitates radicalization of Westerners, even as reasons vary

Internet facilitates radicalization of Westerners, even as reasons vary

Published 29 June 2015

 

Since the early 2000s the Internet has become an important tool for the global jihadist movement. Nowhere has the Internet been more important in the movement’s development than in the West. A new study says that while dynamics differ from case to case, it is fair to state that almost all recent cases of radicalization in the West involve at least some digital footprint. Jihadism is a complex ideology that mixes religion and politics. The study confirms, however, the importance of its religious aspect for many of those who embrace violence — a fact some studies have dismissed.

Since the early 2000s the Internet has become an important tool for the global jihadist movement. Nowhere has the Internet been more important in the movement’s development than in the West. A new study says that while dynamics differ from case to case, it is fair to state that almost all recent cases of radicalization in the West involve at least some digital footprint.
The study was funded through the federal government’s Kanishka Project, a terrorism research effort led by Public Safety Canada.
Mcleans reports that the researchers compiled 1,871 online posts written by the seven men in various open forums over several years. Some were extremely brief, others more than 10,000 words. The researchers assigned them to three main categories: social, religious and political.
Jihadists, whether structured groups or unaffiliated sympathizers, have long understood the importance of the Internet in general and social media, in particular. Zachary Chesser, one of the individuals studied in this report, fittingly describes social media as “simply the most dynamic and convenient form of media there is.” As the trend is likely to increase, understanding how individuals make the leap to actual militancy is critically important.
A Carleton University release reports that the study is based on the analysis of the online activities of seven individuals. They share several key traits. All seven were born or raised in the United States. All seven were active in online and offline jihadist scene around the same time (mid‐ to late 2000s and early 2010s). All seven were either convicted for terrorism‐related offenses (or, in the case of two of the seven, were killed in terrorism‐related incidents.)
The authors of the report say that the intended usefulness of the study is not in making the case for monitoring online social media for intelligence purpose — an effort for which authorities throughout the West need little encouragement. Rather, the report is meant to provide potentially useful pointers in the field of counter‐radicalization. Over the past ten years many Western countries have devised more or less extensive strategies aimed at preventing individuals from embracing radical ideas or de‐radicalizing (or favoring the disengagement) of committed militants (Canada is also in the process of establishing its own counter‐radicalization strategy).
Radicalization is a highly complex and individualized process, often shaped by a poorly understood interaction of structural and personal factors. It is no surprise then that counter‐ radicalization initiatives are equally complex.
Even among the seven subjects which the study examined there are only limited commonalities in terms of interests and views. While all seven subjects share a common background, based on the evidence of their online activities, their interests, views, and approaches remain highly diverse. Some are focused mostly on religion; others are more interested in political issues. Some immediately adopt a jihadist mindset; others seem to undergo a long radicalizing trajectory. Given this diversity, it becomes obvious that any counter‐radicalization needs to be tailored to the specifics of the case. Flexibility is the name of the game.
Another key finding is that, at least in the beginning of their trajectories, the individuals studied here are all avid seekers of knowledge and information on religion. All refer to religious concepts and frames throughout their posts. Jihadism is a complex ideology that mixes religion and politics. The study confirms, however, the importance of its religious aspect for many of those who embrace violence — a fact some studies have dismissed. Any counter‐radicalization effort, while not ignoring other aspects, should take into consideration the centrality of religious issues for those embracing jihadism. While for legal, political and cultural reasons it might be difficult to replicate in the West some of the religion‐based counter‐radicalization efforts adopted in countries such as Saudi Arabia or Singapore, the religious aspect should take a central role.
The study also shows that those interested in religion are extremely inquisitive during the first stages of their radicalization trajectories. In the first months or even years of their posting life, in fact, these individuals constantly engage with fellow posters for sources and opinions on religious matters. They seem to be constantly searching for validation of their opinions. Over time, this openness seemed to slowly decrease, and by the end of the posting trajectory, there are only limited traces of questions. In the late stages, instead of questions, statements appear, often filled with confident pronouncements of their own knowledge. This attitude provides an enormous opportunity for counter‐radicalization. It is arguable that it is in this phase that any kind of intervention might be more likely to succeed.
— Read more in Lorenzo Vidino et al., Terrorist chatter: Understanding what terrorists talk about, Carleton University / Canadian Center of Intelligence and Security Studies, Working Paper No. 03, May 2015

Anti-government extremism most prevalent terrorist threat inside U.S.: Law enforcement

Anti-government extremism most prevalent terrorist threat inside U.S.: Law enforcement

Published 29 June 2015

 

U.S. law enforcement agencies rank the threat of violence from anti-government extremists higher than the threat from radicalized Muslims, according to a report released last Thursday by the Triangle Center on Terrorism and Homeland Security (TCTHS). The data were collected in early 2014, before security agencies began noting increased activity and recruitment of Americans by the self-proclaimed Islamic State (ISIS). In follow-up telephone interviews with law enforcement personnel, the officers did not modify their initial responses in light of ISIS threats within the United States.

U.S. law enforcement agencies rank the threat of violence from anti-government extremists higher than the threat from radicalized Muslims, according to a report released last Thursday by the Triangle Center on Terrorism and Homeland Security (TCTHS).
The report, Law Enforcement Assessment of the Violent Extremism Threat, was based on survey research by Charles Kurzman, professor of sociology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and David Schanzer, director of TCTHS and associate professor of the practice at Duke University’s Sanford School of Public Policy.
”The data show that we have two distinct, serious, ongoing terrorist threats in the United States,” Schanzer said. “Tragic incidents of violence, whether they be in Charleston or the Boston Marathon, tend to exaggerate the magnitude of the threat, but both will require consistent societal and law enforcement vigilance in the foreseeable future.”
A Duke University release reports that the survey — conducted by the center with the Police Executive Research Forum — found that 74 percent of 382 law enforcement agencies rated anti-government extremism as one of the top three terrorist threats in their jurisdiction. By comparison, 39 percent listed extremism connected with al Qaeda or like-minded terrorist organizations as a Top 3 terrorist threat.
Seven percent of the departments rated the threat from anti-government and other forms of extremism as severe, while 3 percent considered the threat from Muslim extremists severe.
Local agencies perceive violent extremism to be more of a threat nationally than within their own jurisdictions. Rural agencies report threats of all forms of violent extremism lower than agencies in mid-size and larger cities.
The data were collected in early 2014, before security agencies began noting increased activity and recruitment of Americans by the self-proclaimed Islamic State (ISIS). In follow-up telephone interviews, the officers did not modify their initial responses in light of ISIS threats within the United States.
Schanzer and Kurzman wrote about their findings in an op-ed published in the New York Times 16 June 2015, the day before the shooting of nine African-Americans in a church in Charleston, South Carolina. Their research has become part of the national dialogue in the aftermath of the crime.
“While public attention focuses primarily on violent extremism associated with Muslims, this horrible crime appears to be drawing public attention to other forms of violent extremism that law enforcement agencies have been concerned about for a while,” Kurzman said.
The report is the first issued from a larger project that also covers community-outreach programs by law enforcement agencies as a technique for countering terrorism.
The project is supported by the National Institute of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, U.S. Department of Justice.
— Read more in Charles Kurzman and David Schanzer, Law Enforcement Assessment of the Violent Extremism Threat (Triangle Center on Terrorism and Homeland Security [TCTHS], Duke University, June 2015); see also Kurzman and Schanzer, “The Growing Right-Wing Terror Threat,” New York Times (16 June 2015)

Disaster resilience competition generates innovative ideas

Disaster resilience competition generates innovative ideas

Published 25 June 2015

The National Disaster Resilience Competition (NDRC), an innovative partnership between the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and the Rockefeller Foundation, is already bearing fruit — even before the selection of any finalists or winners. The Foundation offers six examples of innovative, substantial steps that communities around the country are taking to create, and maintain, a culture of resilience.

The National Disaster Resilience Competition (NDRC), an innovative partnership between the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and the Rockefeller Foundation, is already bearing fruit — even before the selection of any finalists or winners. The Rockefeller Foundation offers six examples of innovative, substantial steps that communities around the country are taking to create, and maintain, a culture of resilience.
Here is how these six places are building more resilient communities:

1. Tuscaloosa, AL, Office of Resiliency and Special Projects
   Tuscaloosa is planning to transform its Department of Recovery Operations into the Office of Resiliency and Special Projects and appoint a Chief Resiliency Officer, who will equip the city with a better understanding of modern shocks and stresses and how these can be magnified by extreme events.
2. The State of Colorado Resiliency Framework
   Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper has adopted a resilience framework which is now moving into implementation. The state collected feedback from communities, local governments, housing authorities, chambers of commerce, foundations, and other stakeholders — all leading to the final framework which was submitted to the governor in March, providing a resource for cultivating a culture of resilience at the local level.
3. Northeastern Illinois Resilience Partnership
   The City of Chicago, Cook County, DuPage County, and the State of Illinois have created a multi-jurisdictional, bipartisan partnership to build resilience in Northeastern Illinois, called the Northeastern Illinois Resilience Partnership. During the first stage of the competition, the partnership hosted a series of neighborhood workshops to address the region’s resilience to incidents of extreme weather, especially rainstorms that cause floods and related damage. The partnership works at both the community and regional scale in order to build resilience in “most vulnerable communities, while also making transformative infrastructural and institutional changes,” throughout the region.
4. Moore, Oklahoma, Department of Resiliency
   As a part of their NDRC application, Moore, Oklahoma has created a Department of Resiliency located in the city manager’s office, with dedicated staff members to oversee the implementation of their resilience projects. Moore has moved its six-person disaster programs team out of the Community Development and Planning Department and into the city manager’s office, where they will be able to coordinate and integrate with other departments more effectively.
5. Minot, North Dakota
   The City of Minot has appointed City Planner Donna Bye as its first Chief Resilience Officer. Bye will work with city departments and community members to “maximize innovation and minimize the impact of unforeseen events.” CRO Donna Bye sees her new role as “someone who engages community stakeholders, listens to them and empowers them to become adaptable.” Through her work she plans to help the community implement a long-term plan and vision, while also taking short-term steps to maintain the quality of life for her community.
6. State of Minnesota Resilience Steering Committee
   In order to create a smooth management process that can build regional resilience, Minnesota is pulling together a Resilience Steering Committee, which will select projects for incorporation into a NDRC final application, oversee the overall project implementation, develop a long-term resilience work plan, and work with partners to establish opportunities for leverage, policy implementation, and cross-sector partnerships.

The Foundation says it looks forward to sharing more success stories as the competition progresses!

Smart grid concept advanced by distributed technique for power “scheduling"

Smart grid concept advanced by distributed technique for power “scheduling”

Published 25 June 2015

 

Currently, power infrastructure uses a centralized scheduling approach to forecast and coordinate the energy produced at the thousands of large power plants around the country. Researchers have developed a new technique for “scheduling” energy in electric grids that moves away from centralized management by tapping into the distributed computing power of energy devices. The approach advances the smart grid concept by coordinating the energy being produced and stored by both conventional and renewable sources.

Researchers from North Carolina State University have developed a new technique for “scheduling” energy in electric grids that moves away from centralized management by tapping into the distributed computing power of energy devices. The approach advances the smart grid concept by coordinating the energy being produced and stored by both conventional and renewable sources.
Currently, power infrastructure uses a centralized scheduling approach to forecast and coordinate the energy produced at the thousands of large power plants around the country. An NC State release reports that as renewable energy systems — such as rooftop solar panels — proliferate, however, and are incorporated into the power grid, the infrastructure will need more advanced systems for tracking and coordinating exponentially more energy sources. Addressing this issue is essential to the idea of a smart grid that can make efficient use of widespread renewable energy resources.
“A key challenge for renewable energy generated on-site — by home solar panels, for example — is determining how much of that energy needs to be stored on-site and how much can be shared with the larger grid,” says Mo-Yuen Chow, a professor of electrical and computer engineering at NC State and senior author of a paper describing the new power scheduling technique.
The existing approaches to scheduling are highly centralized, with power plants sending data to a control center that crunches the numbers and then tells plants how much they’ll be expected to contribute to the grid.
“This approach doesn’t scale up well, which is a problem when you consider the rapid growth of on-site renewable energy sources,” says Navid Rahbari-Asr, a Ph.D. student at NC State and lead author of the paper.
“The rise of on-site energy storage technologies presents an additional challenge, since that means energy can be stored for use at any time — making power scheduling calculations significantly more complex,” Rahbari-Asr says. “In addition, the centralized approach is vulnerable. If the control center fails, the whole system falls apart.”
To address these problems, the researchers developed technology that takes advantage of distributed computing power to replace the traditional control center with a decentralized approach.
“Our approach taps into the computational resources of each energy device,” Rahbari-Asr says. By having each device communicate with its immediate neighbors, the device can calculate and schedule how much energy it will need to store, how much to contribute to the network, and how much to draw from the network.
“Collectively, this distributed technique can determine the optimal schedule for the entire grid,” Rahbari-Asr says.
The distributed technique would also help protect the privacy of home-owners and other power generators, because they wouldn’t be sharing their energy production, storage, and consumption data with a control center.
The technology has been validated in simulations, and the researchers are in the process of implementing it in an experimental smart grid system at the National Science Foundation FREEDM Systems Center on NC State’s campus.
“We hope to have experimental results to report in 2016,” Chow says.
— Read more in Navid Rahbari-Asr et al., “Cooperative Distributed Scheduling for Storage Devices in Microgrids using Dynamic KKT Multipliers and Consensus Networks” (paper to be presented at the IEEE Power & Energy Society General Meeting, 26-30 July 2015, Denver, Colorado)

Feds to curtail use of family detention centers

Feds to curtail use of family detention centers

By Alexa Ura

Published 25 June 2015

 

After visiting a family detention center in Texas, U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson announced Wednesday that families who enter the country illegally to seek asylum will no longer be detained after they’ve established legitimate claim for relief. Johnson said that the Department of Homeland Security is making “substantial changes” to its detention practices so that families with children are not unnecessarily kept locked up.

After visiting a family detention center in Texas, U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson announced Wednesday that families who enter the country illegally to seek asylum will no longer be detained after they’ve established legitimate claim for relief.
Heeding calls from Democrats to end the practice of detaining families, Johnson said that the Department of Homeland Security is making “substantial changes” to its detention practices so that families with children are not unnecessarily kept locked up.
“In short, once a family has established eligibility for asylum or other relief under our laws, long-term detention is an inefficient use of our resources and should be discontinued,” Johnson said in a statement.
The use of family detention centers has garnered national attention and controversy. Protesters have called for ending family detention after a surge of immigrants from Central America in mid-2014 — mostly adults with children, according to federal officials — prompted the Obama administration to increase its practice of detaining families in secure facilities.
Johnson’s announcement came after he visited a detention center in Karnes City, Texas — one of two family detainment facilities in Texas. The other facility in Texas, and the largest in the United States, is the South Texas Family Residential Center in Dilley.
The Dilley detention center was built in December 2014 to host up to 2,400 undocumented women and children seeking asylum, and it was the site of a large protest in May during which more than 500 protesters gathered to call for its closure.
Democrats and immigrant rights activists had criticized the use of family detention centers, saying the jail-like conditions were not appropriate for vulnerable women and children who were seeking relief. The feds had defended the use of family detention centers, calling them effective and humane alternatives to housing immigrant families.
But on Wednesday, Johnson said the family detention centers will only continue to be used to house families that have no legal claim to stay in the United States.
The department will reform its policies so that families that have stated a credible or reasonable fear of persecution in their home countries will be released with “a reasonable and realistic” monetary bond.
Johnson said he is also directing U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services to speed up interviews with detained families to reduce the time they spend in the detention facilities.
“In substance, the detention of families will be short term in most cases,” Johnson said.
In announcing the changes, Johnson said he was hopeful that Central American families would consider safe and lawful ways to migrate to the United States.
“I have personally seen enough to know that the path of illegal migration from Central America to our southern border is a dangerous path and it is not for children,” Johnson said.
Alexa Ura covers politics and demographics for the Texas Tribune. This story is published courtesy of the Texas Tribune, a nonpartisan, nonprofit media organization that informs Texans — and engages with them — about public policy, politics, government and statewide issues.

Niger attacks Boko Haram targets after militants intensify activity inside Niger

Niger attacks Boko Haram targets after militants intensify activity inside Niger

Published 25 June 2015

 

Niger’s army has said it killed fifteen Boko Haram militants in land and air operations against the Islamist group. Earlier this year, frustrated by the Nigerian army’s ineffectiveness, Cameroon, Chad, and Niger told Nigeria that they would join the war against the Islamists – including conducting operations inside Nigeria. The military operations by the three countries have pushed Boko Haram out of many areas it used to control – but in retaliation, Boko Haram has intensified its attacks on Nigeria’s three neighbors.

Niger’s army has said it killed fifteen Boko Haram militants in land and air operations against the Islamist group. The army said it also took twenty prisoners and destroyed an armored vehicle, twenty-six motorbikes, and two caches of food and fuel.
Colonel Moustapha Ledru of the Niger army did not say whether the Chadian army, which has positioned large numbers of troops in Niger, had participated in the operation. Ledru also refused to answer questions about whether the operations have taken place in Niger or inside neighboring Nigeria.
VOA reports that since 2009, when Boko Haram launched its campaign to establish a strict Islamic state in Nigeria’s north east, the Nigerian military has proven itself no match for the militants. Hollowed out by corruption and demoralized by incompetent leadership, the army’s ineffectiveness allowed Boko haram to expand its control over larger areas, and expand its area of operations.
Nigeria refused offers of help from neighboring Cameroon, Chad, and Niger – but earlier this year, when Boko Haram, unmolested by the Nigerian military, began to operate inside these three countries, they told former Nigerian president Goodluck Jonathan that they would begin a military campaign against the militants – including attacking Boko Haram in Nigerian soil. Jonathan, who was locked in a tight presidential election campaign – which he would subsequently lose – accepted the ultimatum of Nigeria’s neighbors, and allowed their armies and air forces to operate inside Nigeria.
The tide of the war against the militants had turned, and Boko Haram had been pushed back from many areas it used to control.
The Chad air force had proved especially effective, inflicting heavy losses on the militants.
The Nigerian army also appeared to have been invigorated by the performance of its neighbors, and in the last few months showed itself to me a more effective fighting machine.
In an effort to retaliate against the growing involvement of Cameroon, Chad, and Niger in the war, Boko Haram has increased its terror activities inside these countries. A double suicide attack carried out by Boko Haram caused carnage in Chad’s capital, N’Djamena, earlier in June, killing thirty-three people and wounding more than 100 others. The announcement by the Niger army’s operation came after an attack by Boko Haram militants in south-east Niger last week killed thirty-eight civilians, most of them women and children. The attack in Diffa province near Nigeria was the deadliest in Niger by the jihadist group since a raid in April killed seventy-four people.
Niger’s interior minister has ordered the military to conduct air and land operations as the country’s security forces seek to “capture and neutralize” the attackers.
Earlier this week, Boko Haram gunmen killed at least forty-two people in two separate attacks in north-east Nigeria, as the Islamist group continues to attack civilians.

Charleston shooting highlights threat posed by domestic terrorism

Charleston shooting highlights threat posed by domestic terrorism

Published 25 June 2015

 

As the nation reflects on the 17 June Charleston, South Carolina church shooting, which killed nine and led to the arrest of suspect Dylan Roof, law enforcement and security experts note that domestic terrorists pose a greater threat to Americans than foreign terrorists. “Since 9/11, our country has been fixated on the threat of jihadi terrorism,” said one expert. “But the horrific tragedy at the Emanuel AME reminds us that the threat of homegrown domestic terrorism is very real.”

As the nation reflects on the 17 June Charleston, South Carolina church shooting, which killed nine and led to the arrest of suspect Dylan Roof, law enforcement and security experts note that domestic terrorists pose a greater threat to Americans than foreign terrorists.

As the Kansas City Star reports, these experts say that foreign terrorist threat should not be dismissed, but that the threat of attacks by domestic lone-wolves is a greater threat to ordinary citizens.
“Since 9/11, our country has been fixated on the threat of jihadi terrorism,” said Richard Cohen, the president of the Southern Poverty Law Center. “But the horrific tragedy at the Emanuel AME reminds us that the threat of homegrown domestic terrorism is very real.”
Roof appears to have been motivated by racist ideology, but investigators are classifying the attack as more than a hate crime.
“Here we go again,” said Daryl Johnson, a former senior analyst with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). “This is an act of domestic terrorism. And as far as the number of fatalities, this was the biggest one we’ve had since Oklahoma City.”
“Yes, it’s hate-motivated, but the definition of terrorism is violence committed for a political or social change that instills fear in a population. It definitely fits the bill because of the target — he went into a historical, symbolic facility — and because of (racial statements) he reportedly shouted during the shooting.”
The Star notes that domestic terrorism has become less of a focus for local and federal law enforcement agencies in the wake of 9/11, with resources shifted to dealing with foreign terrorism, but the incidents of domestic terrorism have been increasing.
Last year, neo-Nazi F. Glenn Miller Jr. shot three people outside of Jewish centers in Overland Park, Kansas.
In 2012, white supremacist Wade Page stormed a Sikh temple outside of Milwaukee, killing six people.
In 2009, white supremacist James von Brunn shot and killed a security guard at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C.
Investigators are still examining Roof’s motives to see whether he he was trying to promote any specific agenda, but many signs point to his general alignment with the practices of hate groups around the country.
“[It’s] an obvious hate crime by someone who feels threatened by our country’s changing demographics and the increasing prominence of African-Americans in public life. Since 2000, we’ve seen an increase in the number of hate groups in our country — groups that vilify others on the basis of characteristics such as race or ethnicity. Though the numbers have gone down somewhat in the last two years, they are still at historically high levels,” Cohen says.
Roof appeared to have an interest in white supremacy, but many of his Facebook friends were black. He was not known to groups tracking white nationalist activity, and in contrast to some who have committed violence, he had not been publicly promoting a racist agenda.
Brian Levin, director of the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at California State University-San Bernardino, told the Star that mass killers do not always easily fit into a simple category.
“We tend to make mass killers 10 feet tall when oftentimes they’re 10 inches tall and hunched,” he said. “Many of these attacks, while symbolically hitting a deep chord with citizens, are often part of a chaotic mix of motives, some of which will only ever be known to the offender himself.
“This may be a situation where mental distress is as much an explanation as anything else. But let’s see what comes out from family and friends. Was there some kind of catalytic incident in his life that filled him with some kind of rage where he felt comfortable lashing out against a symbolic target?”
Levin said Roof’s Facebook photo says a lot about him.
“Generally, when we’re looking at motives, we try to start with what are they saying,” he said. “He certainly looks like an angry fellow, and that was the message that he was trying to present.”

How anthrax spores grow in cultured human tissues

How anthrax spores grow in cultured human tissues

Published 24 June 2015

 

Cultured human lung cells infected with a benign version of anthrax spores have yielded insights into how anthrax grows and spreads in exposed people. The study will help provide credible data for human health related to anthrax exposure and help officials better understand risks related to a potential anthrax attack. The study also defined for the first time where the spores germinate and shows that the type of cell lines and methods of culturing affect the growth rates.

Cultured human lung cells infected with a benign version of anthrax spores have yielded insights into how anthrax grows and spreads in exposed people. The study, published in the Journal of Applied Microbiology, will help provide credible data for human health related to anthrax exposure and help officials better understand risks related to a potential anthrax attack.
The study also defined for the first time where the spores germinate and shows that the type of cell lines and methods of culturing affect the growth rates.
“What we’re learning will help inform the National Biological Threat Risk Assessment — a computer tool being developed by the Department of Homeland Security,” said Tim Straub, a chemical and biological scientist at the Department of Energy’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. “There is little data to estimate or predict the average number of spores needed to infect someone. By better understanding exposure thresholds, the ultimate goal is to be able to predict outcomes from terrorist incidents involving Bacillus anthracis.”
A PNNL release reports that there are decades of data characterizing anthrax exposure in rabbits, but there is limited understanding of how this data extrapolates to humans. When researchers delved into this, working from cultured normal lung cells from each species, they found that, at low doses, the proliferation of anthrax spores is lower in human lung cells.
It is too early to say what that means for human health, but the study’s methods and results may resolve a long-standing debate on the pathogen’s propagation. Researchers showed that anthrax spores germinate in the lungs before making their way to the bloodstream. That has been a point of debate in the research community, with some speculating that spores, which are invisible to the naked eye, must first enter the blood stream and then grow into bacteria that can cause damage and death.
Knowing the precise location and pathway of spore germination and understanding that the bacteria begin producing toxins that damage tissue directly in the lungs may eventually impact treatment options. The finding also likely indicates added susceptibility in individuals who already have lung issues, such as smokers or those with asthma.
Making conditions real
Most of what researchers know about anthrax comes from studying cancerous lung cells of both humans and rabbits because they are easy to grow in a lab. But cancer cells are very different from normal cells, which are referred to as primary cells.
For this study, PNNL researchers wanted to see if normal cells reacted differently. So, they carefully cultured primary rabbit lung cells on special inserts in petri dishes, coaxing them to form small pieces of 3-D lung tissue about the size of a quarter.
“The cells are fed with nutrients from below and we trick the top layer of cells into thinking they are at the air/liquid interface as they would be in a living lung,” said Josh Powell, a microbiologist at PNNL.
Researchers observed the top layer of cells producing sticky mucus, which traps the anthrax spores. This did not occur with cells completely submerged in the growth medium where the spores just float on top. This suggests that this mucus facilitates germination of the spores into bacteria.
“Byproducts secreted in the mucus by lung cells, in reaction to the anthrax, cause the spore to proliferate very quickly,” said Powell. “We don’t know what those byproducts are yet, but this is the first time it’s been shown that growth rate is impacted by these byproducts secreted by the lungs.”
Additional biochemical tests revealed that nutrients in the standard culture media provide an extra, unnatural fuel that makes spores germinate faster than would likely happen in the natural lung.
“These finding have implications for how we study pathogens within in vitro cell systems,” said Powell. “Understanding the impacts of the methodology ensures we get the best data we can from both species on specific rates of spore intake or dose, clearance, germination and proliferation in a lab setting.”
Researchers hope to reproduce this study using the more virulent strain at DHS’s National Biodefense Analysis and Countermeasures Center in Frederick, Maryland, rather than the similar but milder Sterne strain used in this study, which is virtually unable to cause illness in people or animals.
Predicting to protect
The release notes that in the next phase of the project, researchers will put this experimental data into a computational model to more accurately predict outcomes of anthrax exposure. For instance, a model based on primary cell data may calculate how much time doctors have to initiate treatment, how many spores are likely needed to cause disease or mortality in humans, or be able to determine if there is a “safe” level for exposure or a required level of cleanup of a contaminated area.
Once the models are refined with data from the latest experiments, those numbers will be checked against animal data to see if they are indeed predicting outcomes accurately. The models could also potentially speed future drug design.
Researchers hope these fundamental findings and models can be applied to other diseases related to inhaled pathogens, such as the flu or SARS coronavirus. “This is an investment that may eventually help officials triage, treat and influence drug discovery for these lung illnesses,” said Powell.
The Department of Homeland Security Science and Technology Directorate funded this research. All images were acquired with a specialized confocal microscope at EMSL, the Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory, a DOE Office of Science user facility at PNNL.
— Read more in Joshua D. Powell et al., “Bacillus anthracis spores germinate extracellularly at air-liquid-interface in an in vitro lung model under serum-free conditions,” Journal of Applied Microbiology (accepted manuscript, 15 June 2015)

Safety concerns dog new Level 4 Biolab being built in the middle of Tornado Alley

Safety concerns dog new Level 4 Biolab being built in the middle of Tornado Alley

Published 24 June 2015

 

The new Department of Homeland Security’s(DHS) animal pathogen-research facility, a Level 4 Biolab being built in Manhattan, Kansas and aiming to replace the aging New York’s Plum Island lab, is situated in the middle of Tornado Alley, leading researchers and security experts to question the wisdom of the decision to build it there. Why place a lab in which research is conducted on pathogens for which no cure or treatment has yet been found – fir example, foot-and-mouth disease – not only in an area known for being routinely hit by powerful tornadoes, but also in the middle of a region where most U.S. cattle is being raised?

The new Department of Homeland Security’s(DHS) animal pathogen-research facility, a Level 4 Biolab being built in Manhattan, Kansas and aiming to replace the aging New York’s Plum Island lab, is situated in the middle of Tornado Alley, leading researchers and security experts to question the wisdom of the decision to build it there. Why place a lab in which research is conducted on pathogens for which no cure or treatment has yet been found – fir example, foot-and-mouth disease – not only in an area known for being routinely hit by powerful tornadoes, but also in the middle of a region where most U.S. cattle is being raised?
As Laura Kahn, a Science and Global Studies researcher at Princeton University, writes for Slate, the move could have disastrous consequences given the new location.
The $1.25 billion project, known as the National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility (NBAF), is to be constructed on the Kansas State University campus in Manhattan, Kansas and is planned to be operational by 2022. It will include a Biosafety Level 4 lab, which is designed to handle the deadliest and most exotic pathogens that exist — with no known treatments or vaccines.
The location and infrastructure of the Kansas facility will be more susceptible to damage from a natural disaster. Now operating as the Foreign Animal Disease Research Center on Plum Island, New York, the lab is to be moved from its significantly safer New York location to the Kansas campus.
“There was a reason the federal government placed the 840-acre lab where it did,” Kahn writes. “The isolated island sits off of the far eastern end of New York State’s Long Island, where the prevailing winds blow toward the ocean. If the foot-and-mouth virus — or any other airborne danger — escaped, the air currents would likely carry it beyond where it could cause harm. An out-of-the-way location makes sense because no lab is risk free.”
While developers and planners in Kansas are excited about the investment and jobs that the lab will bring to the region, many farmers and ranchers are concerned. In 2010, the National Academy of Sciences conducted an independent risk-assessment of the proposal and concluded that there was a 70 percent probability that an outbreak could occur over the course of the 50-year predicted lifespan of the laboratory.
Further, Kahn argues, no lab should ever be considered risk-free, and adding the danger of tornado damage to a facility that already faces the normal range of risks is not logical.
“In addition, the academy found that Homeland Security had not adequately addressed plans for lab personnel training, sufficiently considered input from local stakeholders, or made the kind of long-term funding commitment needed to maintain high-quality operations,” writes Kahn. “The 2012 evaluation concluded that Homeland Security’s lab proposal was ‘technically inadequate in critical aspects.”
Leaving natural disaster aside, just the extent of human error, according to Kahn, had marred the records of similar laboratories and is well documented.
“Even the best laboratories make mistakes,” she writes. “In July 2014, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention revealed mishaps involving exposure of personnel to anthrax and the transfer of a flu strain. Just this month, U.S. defense officials revealed that an Army lab mistakenly sent live samples of anthrax to at least 52 labs in 18 states and three countries. Meanwhile, a new USA Today investigation into high-containment laboratories (those at Biosafety Levels 3 and 4) found hundreds of incidents in recent years that could have put public health at risk. There is virtually no oversight of the labs that the newspaper looked into — which are operated by private companies, universities, and government agencies — and state health departments typically do not know where they are or what they do, even though the state health departments would be responsible for the response in the event of a lab breach. I first wrote about this problem more than a decade ago, and sadly, not much has changed.”
The groundbreaking for the lab took place last month, so Kahn admits that there is little that can be done now except hope that no natural disaster, human error, or intentional plot would disrupt the normal operations of the facility.
If something bad does happen, “we would have no one to blame but ourselves,” she concludes.

As Syrian Druze plight deepens, Israel’s regional strategy emerges

As Syrian Druze plight deepens, Israel’s regional strategy emerges

Published 24 June 2015

 

On Tuesday morning, Druze on the Golan Heights attacked an Israeli military ambulance carrying two wounded Syrian rebels to a hospital in Israel, killing one of the wounded rebels. Israeli Druze – and the Druze on the Golan Heights – want Israel to help their fellow Druze in Syria, who until recently had been loyal to President Bashar al-Assad, but Israel’s tacit understanding with the Sunni rebels, including the Islamist Nusra Front, indicates that Israel supports those groups in Syria which are supported by the major Sunni states in the region. There used to be a time when Israel allied itself with countries and groups on the geographic, ethnic, and religious periphery of the Middle East – what David Ben Gurion called the Periphery Alliance – but times have changed, and Israel now is seeking a modus vivendi with the region’s Sunni powers. The Druze may be paying the price of this change in Israel’s strategy.

Tensions between Druze residents of the Golan Heights and the Israeli military flared up Tuesday when about 150 Druze stopped a military ambulance carrying two wounded members of an anti-Assad rebel group. The ambulance was carrying the wounded rebels from the border area to a hospital in Israel for treatment, but the Druze forced the ambulance’s doors open, chased away the two Israeli military medics, then pulled the two wounded Syrians and, according to eye witnesses, “lynched” one of them and seriously wounded the other.
Israeli military units dispersed the crowd and saved the second Syrian.
The medics were slightly wounded from rocks thrown at them by the Druze crowd.
The Israeli prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, called the incident “very serious” and said those behind the attack would be held to account.
“We will not let anyone take the law into their hands and prevent the army from carrying out its mission,” he said in a statement, appealing for leaders in the Druze community to maintain calm.
Israeli defense minister Moshe Yaalon pledged to track down the rioters. “We won’t be able to ignore it, and law enforcement authorities will deal with it heavy-handedly,” he said in a statement.