The National Intelligence Bulletin is a weekly look at national security, domestic systems disruption, the risk of failing critical infrastructure, and threats to social, political, economic, and financial stability in the United States. This report is available each week for Intelligence subscribers.
In this National Intelligence Bulletin… (2,100 words)
- DHS unprepared to counter threat of drones
- Cyberattacks designed to suppress voter turnout
- When Facebook gets hacked, everyone gets hacked
- Vulnerabilities in U.S. voting systems
- Law enforcement agencies see decrease in applicants
- Kavanugh expected to be confirmed as newest Supreme Court Justice
- DHS Secretary: No sign China’s trying to undermine midterms
- US Department of Energy invests $28m in cybersecurity
- The new national cyber strategy
- Twitter Beefs Up Its Election Security Measures
- China Slams Brakes on U.S. Crude Oil Imports
- Lowest U.S. unemployment rate in 50 years
- And more…
Priority Intelligence Requirements
PIR1: What are the new significant indicators of systems disruption and threats to critical infrastructure?
PIR2: What are the new significant indicators of potentially disruptive social, cultural or political conditions or events?
PIR3: How are state and federal agencies preparing for domestic conflict, emergencies, or other instability?
PIR4: What are the new significant indicators of systems disruption and threats to the economic or financial industry?
PIR1: What are the new indicators of systems disruption and threats to critical infrastructure?
Major Trends
- Nation-state and criminal hacking groups pose persistent threat to critical infrastructure
- Natural disasters pose sporadic but enduring threat to critical infrastructure
DHS unprepared to counter threat of drones
Due to increasing concerns about the use of drones by terrorists and drug cartels, the Department of Homeland Security is requesting that Congress grant them the power to “redirect, disable, disrupt control of, seize, or confiscate” drones that pose a threat without prior consent. (Analyst comment: currently no US law enforcement agencies can legally take down drones.)
In a speech given by DHS Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, Nielsen warned that drones have become “a major national security concern in our homeland,” and stated that law enforcement agencies are prevented from setting up the defenses necessary to “protect big events, federal facilities, and other potential targets from an airborne menace.”
In response to a Senate committee approving legislation that would grant law enforcement the ability to take down drones, the legislative council for the American Civil Liberties Union stated that the new legislation is a problem because “it means that DHS can shoot a drone out of the air or seize it and they can do so without ever having a judge look at their actions and determine if they were right.” [source]
Cyberattacks designed to suppress voter turnout
According to security experts, cyberattacks are being designed to cripple critical infrastructure in order to suppress voter turnout. “Essential services” such as nuclear reactors, water treatment facilities, manufacturing centers, and emergency response services are becoming increasingly vulnerable to these kinds of attacks and could potentially disrupt an election by “preventing voters in key districts from getting to the polls or accessing election information.”
Former senior technical lead at the Joint Warfare Analysis Center, Andrea Limbago, believes that attacks such as botnets aimed at shutting down internet services to prevent access to information are particularly concerning to election security.
Former White House chief information officer, Theresa Payton, also expressed her concerns about about attacks designed to effect elections. Payton believes that emergency systems are “incredibly vulnerable to attacks” and that in order for these kinds of attacks to truly effect the outcome of an election, “a sophisticated attacker would only target individual districts in tight races.” [source]
When Facebook gets hacked, everyone gets hacked
According to cybersecurity news websiteDark Reading, the breach affected nearly 50 million users and was achieved by “exploiting a series of bugs in the platform’s “View As” privacy feature, which lets people view their own profiles as though they were someone else.”Siriwardena provided security advice to businesses hoping to decrease their venerability to these kinds of attacks:
“You have to prioritize application security and recognize all the code you use is a big part of your attack surface…. No matter how strong your engineering team is, a clearly defined process for pushing code changes into production is needed…. Security reviews must be included throughout the process, from design to development to deployment, and the process must be refined frequently…. One small detail that gets overlooked could result in global effects.”
“Because the device in question is a high-speed unit designed to process a high volume of ballots for an entire county, hacking just one of these machines could enable an attacker to flip the Electoral College and determine the outcome of a presidential election.”
PIR2: What are the new indicators of potentially disruptive social, cultural or political conditions or events?
Major Trends
- Ongoing political instability due to the Russia collusion investigation
- Simmering social grievances based on race, class, and political ideology
- Sporadic political violence
- Ongoing culture war featuring information operations and expanding to economic warfare
Law enforcement agencies see decrease in applicants
Law enforcement agencies across the country have seen a decrease in applications in recent years. The decline is being attributed to various causes, however, potential candidates going into the private sector and the increased scrutiny of law enforcement officers are thought to be the primary causes.
“I think when scrutiny of law enforcement began to increase, the number of applicants started to decrease,” said Bemedji, Minnesota Police Chief Mike Mastin in an interview. Mastin stated further in the interview that,
“Initially, the decrease may have been a good thing… I think people entering this position should realize there’s a certain amount of scrutiny and expectations that are associated with professional behavior in this profession. But I think, as this has relentlessly continued, I think we’re now to the point where we’re deterring the people who really should be police officers.”
Kavanugh expected to be confirmed as newest Supreme Court Justice
Brett Kavanugh is expected to be confirmed as the newest Justice to the United States Supreme Court after Republican Senators Susan Collins and Jeff Flake and Democratic Senator Joe Manchin announced that they would be voting to confirm Kavanaugh. If the Senators vote yes, Kavanaugh would receive the 51 votes necessary to be confirmed.(Analyst comment: West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin is the only Democrat that has voted to confirm Kavanaugh.)
According to CNN, moments after the Senate voted to advance Kavanaugh’s nomination, President Trump tweeted, “Very proud of the U.S. Senate for voting ‘YES’ to advance the nomination of Judge Brett Kavanaugh!” [source]
PIR3: How are state and federal agencies preparing for domestic conflict, emergencies, or other instability?
Major Trends
- Large scale efforts to increase election security
- Large scale efforts to increase national cyber security
The Department of Energy will be investing a further $28 million into measures to protect the cybersecurity of critical infrastructure. The investments will be used for 11 different projects by energy providers, universities and various other organizations that will “promote the industry’s advancement of technologies.”
In addition to the DOE’s investment, the Department of Homeland Security Industrial Control Systems Capabilities Enhancement Act has been approved by the department. This new act, as reported by The Daily Swig, includes “measures to reduce the risk of an attack on US systems, and requires the National Cybersecurity and Communications Integration Center (NCCIC) to ‘identify threats to industrial control systems’ and address vulnerabilities in automated technology used in infrastructure.” [source]
- Pillar I: Protect the American People, the Homeland, and the American Way of Life by securing federal networks and information, securing critical infrastructure, combating cybercrime and improving incident reporting.
- Pillar II: Promote American Prosperity by fostering a vibrant and resilient digital economy, fostering and protecting U.S. ingenuity and developing a superior U.S. workforce.
- Pillar III: Preserve Peace through Strength by enhancing cyber stability through norms of responsible state behavior and attributing and deterring unacceptable behaviors in cyberspace.
- Pillar IV: Advance American Influence by promoting an open, interoperable, reliable and secure Internet and building international cyber capacity. [source]
Twitter Beefs Up Its Election Security Measures
“Intentionally misleading profile information such as an incorrect location, a stock or stolen avatar as well as a copied or stolen bio, are all cause for account removal. In general, deliberately mimicking another account, especially one that was previously suspended, is considered suspicious. Distribution of hacked material will also be targeted by Twitter moderators, especially if it contains trade secrets or private information.”
These new security measures taken by Twitter follow the removal of over 700 accounts from Iran that were “engaging in coordinated behavior” and 50 accounts which were “misrepresenting themselves as members of a variety of state Republican parties.”
Twitter officials stated during the announcement that will “We continue to partner closely with the RNC, DNC, and state election institutions to improve how we handle these issues.” [source]
PIR4: What are the new indicators of systems disruption and threats to the economic or financial industry?
Major Trends
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- Trade war with China poses risk to U.S. farmers and manufacturers, emerging markets
- Unsustainable national debt to increase due to trillion dollar budget deficits in 2019+
- High potential for an economic recession around 2019-2020 that causes significant financial disruption
- Professional and business services: +54,000
- Transportation and warehousing: +24,000
- Construction: +23,000
- Manufacturing: +18,000
- Health Care: +30,000
- Retail: -20,000
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