Another Perspective on the Security Clearance Debate
The backlash over President Trump’s decision last week to revoke the security clearance of former CIA Director John Brennan has gotten plenty of media attention […] More
Daniel Hoffman
History’s Lesson Regarding Russian Cyber Warfare
Ten years ago this month, war erupted between Russia and Georgia after Georgian troops attacked South Ossetia and shelled the town of Tskhinvali, in response […] More
Why a Russia Strategy Matters
In a press conference on Monday, President Donald Trump reiterated his view that meeting with other world leaders is important, and again characterized his recent […] More
What is Putin’s Plan Now?
As most of the President’s men and women in senior roles re-iterated and even provided more detail about the Russian threat to U.S. national security […] More
Dispatches from Helsinki: A Shocking Summit Press Brief
Cipher Brief Expert and former CIA Station Chief Dan Hoffman was in Helsinki filing question and answer dispatches for Cipher Brief members. Here’s a look at […] More
Dispatches from Helsinki
Cipher Brief Expert and former CIA Station Chief Dan Hoffman is on the ground in Helsinki filing question and answer dispatches for Cipher Brief members. […] More
President Trump Needs to Keep Ukraine High on the Agenda for Upcoming Summit
Moscow Station is a new Cipher Brief column containing the highest-level insights into the evolving and comprehensive national security threat posed by Russia. The column features […] More
The U.S. Intelligence Mission Targeting North Korea
Shortly after he was sworn in as Director CIA in January of 2017, now-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo made some bold moves that put renewed […] More
Ex-CIA Chief Brennan’s Broadsides Against Trump Only Help Putin
Editor’s Note: The Cipher Brief reached out to former CIA Director John Brennan for a response to the published op-ed, but he declined to comment. […] More
What Scares Vladimir Putin the Most? It’s Still Democracy.
President Donald Trump seized upon Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s 37-page indictment with a tweet that the Russians were laughing over their successful information war against […] More
How Immigration Makes the CIA Better at its Job
In recent weeks, debate over much needed immigration reform has reached a partisan crescendo. Elected representatives have argued whether prospective immigrants should be measured as […] More
Getting the Most Out of Pakistan
The Trump administration’s decision to suspend security assistance to the Pakistani military pending “decisive action” against the Afghan Taliban and the Haqqani network represents an […] More
Book Review: U.S. Spies Triumph in Tragedy against Hitler
Wartime has been a force multiplier for espionage ever since the Revolutionary War, when General George Washington was the founding father of the art of […] More
Getting the Best Out of Moscow
Russia’s annexation of Crimea, intervention in eastern Ukraine, and meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential election have escalated distrust and rancor between the U.S. and […] More
Exposing Russian Interference – The Value of Real-Time Forensics
Russian President Vladimir Putin has sought to exploit open and free U.S. cyberspace, which serves as a force multiplier for commerce and freedom of expression, […] More
What Scares Putin? Democracy.
Speaking to the Russian Federal Assembly in March 2014, Russian President Vladimir Putin defended his country’s annexation of Crimea and forcefully presented his national security strategy […] More
Blackmail Culture Goes Digital in Putin’s Russia
It was 1999, and the Russian Prosecutor General, Yury Skuratov, who was investigating former Russian President Boris Yeltsin’s administration for corruption, found himself in the […] More
Ready for the Next Nightmare: The Art of Incident Response
During multiple war zone tours of duty in the Middle East and South Asia, I learned firsthand how timely and effective incident response entails real […] More