The U.S. National Security Agency is running an experiment designed to test whether the growing number of military and civilian satellites in lower earth orbit have been compromised. The focus, using artificial intelligence technology, is on trying to find out whether orbits have changed and what countermeasures are possible. [node:read-more:link]
Green Party Leader Elizabeth May says intrusions into Canadians’ digital privacy have become a crisis and it’s time to stop companies from data-mining for profit. She says it’s a timely issue to raise during an election campaign because democracy is threatened when data are collected, manipulated and used. [node:read-more:link]
Kelvin Droegemeier, the new science advisor to President Donald Trump is moving to bolster U.S. policies on research security. Recent U.S.-China political has spilled into the research community which has been pushing back against federal agencies investigating foreign-born scientists. [node:read-more:link]
Edward Snowden, the Central Intelligence Agency contractor who sought refuge in Moscow, says that while France and Germany are considering granting him asylum, he still hopes to return to the U.S. However, having leaked details of extensive internet and phone surveillance by U.S. intelligence agencies, he says he wouldn’t get a fair trial back home. [node:read-more:link]
Hamza Bin Laden, son of al-Qaeda founder Osama Bin Laden and an increasingly active player in global terrorism, has been killed in a U.S. operation. President Donald Trump confirmed his death but no details on where or when the operation occurred have been released. [node:read-more:link]
The U.S. intelligence community is said to be developing biometric identification systems which could single out individuals at a distance. Facial recognition and other biometrics technologies have improved in recent years but evidently are still prone to errors. [node:read-more:link]
The Communications Security Establishment and other intelligence resources are reported to be closely monitoring the possibility that at least six foreign government are working through their diasporas in Canada to influence the results of the Oct. 21 general election. A report cites China, India, Iran, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Venezuela. [node:read-more:link]
Australia, Britain, France and the U.S., Canada’s partners in the Five Eyes intelligence community, are raising questions about the type of information accessible to Cameron Ortis as the director of an intelligence unit within the RCMP. Diplomatic sources say the alliance is concerned that Ortis, who has been arrested and charged, had access to their intelligence information. [node:read-more:link]
All U.S. civil and military organizations will be prohibited, effective Sept. 17, from using cybersecurity products or other software produced by Russia-based Kaspersky Lab. In finalizing the decision, the administration is acting on legislation approved by Congress in response to intelligence community concerns that Kaspersky executives could be forced by Moscow to share information. [node:read-more:link]
Gen. David Goldfein, the U.S. Air Force Chief of Staff, says the military has much to learn from Apple’s “unleashing” of open-source technologies, which became a core in which other companies were founded and have flourished. He writes that the engineering and business lessons are important for the defence sector which he says has too often procured systems which cannot communicate with each other and are difficult to update. [node:read-more:link]
Cameron Ortis, a civilian RCMP director general, is facing charges arising from alleged intelligence breaches which have prompted concerns about whether there are implications not only domestically but also with Canada’s allies. He has been charged under the Security of Information Act which deals with communicating or confirming special operational information. [node:read-more:link]
Decades-old U.S. policies requiring all federal agencies’ Internet traffic flow through a central facility are about to updated to enable them migrate to the cloud while maintaining cybersecurity. The update is being pushed by the Office of Budget Management as part of a broader modernization initiative. [node:read-more:link]
A bipartisan group of Members of Congress wants to identify Chinese companies which might “steal” western technologies for military use. A Chinese embassy spokesperson in Washington dismissed their concerns as groundless, calling the move evidence of a “cold war mentality.” [node:read-more:link]
A high-level source within the Russian government was successfully extracted in 2017 after the U.S. administration mishandled classified information which could have led to the spy’s exposure. This was after President Donald Trump had discussed intelligence issues with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and his ambassador to the U.S. [node:read-more:link]
The fact that some 5.4 million Canadians living in remote areas have at best limited Internet has prompted a suggestion that Huawei technology could be a solution. Despite lingering concerns about security, the Chinese giant is already partnering with two northern companies to expand service to 70 communities. [node:read-more:link]
