Category: IA News

On July 19, the State Department released the 2016 Country Reports on Terrorism. The annual Country Reports on Terrorism provide policy-related assessments and country-by-country breakdowns of foreign government counterterrorism cooperation, and contain information on state sponsors of terrorism, terrorist safe havens, foreign terrorist organizations, and the global challenge of chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear terrorism. The […]

Earlier this month the New York Times published a piece detailing how hackers have been targeting the computer networks of nuclear power stations, energy facilities, and manufacturing plants. The revelation came from a joint report from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), and was confirmed by security specialists who responded to […]

Last month, U.S. Cyber Command (Cybercom), the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), and the FBI led the sixth annual, week-long Cyber Guard exercise in Suffolk, Virginia. Over 700 participants from across U.S. government and military, as well partners in academia, industry, and around the world took part in the event. Cyber Guard 2017 pitted Cybercom’s […]

Leaders from several Central American countries, Canada, and the European Union gathered in Miami, Florida for the Conference on Prosperity and Security in Central America from June 15 to June 16. The conference focused on the Northern Triangle (El Salvador, Guatamala, and Honduras), and was co-hosted by Vice President Mike Pence and the Secretaries of the […]

Today the Department of State released the 2017 Trafficking in Persons (TIP) Report. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Ambassador-at-Large to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons Susan Coppedge each addressed the report in separate briefings, speaking about the global tragedy of human trafficking and the responsibility of governments to bring an end to this […]

On June 22, four U.S. Senators introduced a bipartisan bill designed to advance the development of unmanned aircraft systems (UAS). The Safe DRONE Act of 2017 is backed by Senators Mark R. Warner (D-VA), John Hoeven (R-ND), Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV), and Dean Heller (R-NV). A press release states that the Safe DRONE Act would “ensure that the […]

A recent paper published by Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs examines the balance between a U.S. citizen’s unalienable right to privacy and security of the nation. “By Any Means Necessary: Privacy Implications of Intelligence Support to Domestic Security” looks at what happens when the government’s responsibilities to provide privacy and security collide. […]

On June 21, the Senate Committee on the Judiciary met for a hearing titled  “The MS-13 Problem: Investigating Gang Membership As Well As Its Nexus to Illegal Immigration, and Assessing Federal Efforts to to End the Threat.” During the hearing several individuals representing U.S. government agencies, including those representing the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) U.S. […]

Last month, the Center for Strategic & International Studies (CSIS) hosted an all-day conference focused on relations between the military and the civilian world. “Command Climate: The State of U.S. Civil-Military Relations” took place on May 23, with panelists representing the Department of Defense (DoD) and other U.S. government entities discussing different aspects of civil-military relations. […]

A recent U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) report examines the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) efforts to address subterranean, aerial, and maritime smuggling of drugs and humans. GAO-17-474 focuses on the known prevalence of these smuggling methods, efforts to address smuggling, and efforts to assess the results of activities to counter smuggling. GAO examined DHS’s investments into technology […]