Ghosts in the Machine that Can Rob You Blind
It was almost a devastatingly effective cyber-heist. Hackers compromised the Kathmandu-based NIC Asia Bank this fall, fraudulently transferring $4.4 million to destinations in at least […]
Opinion
Network Take: Shocked, Not, Over Flynn’s Guilty Plea
The Cipher Brief asked former CIA Russia hand John Sipher to react to the news that Trump administration National Security Adviser Michael Flynn admitted to […]
Use What’s Known to Get to the Unknowns
The U.S. intelligence community has long considered its mission as the gatherer of secrets. But sometimes insights are hiding in plain sight among tweets, blog […]
U.S. Follows Forever War to Niger
Niger gained the attention of the American public when four U.S. troops were killed there in an ambush on Oct.4, highlighting the expansion of U.S. […]
Stop Firing Missiles and Start Talking
This has been an unprecedented year for nuclear proliferation in East Asia, namely in North Korea. If not halted quickly, it’s very possible the region […]
Bipartisan Hill Group Slams Trump’s China Policy
President Donald Trump’s wooing of Chinese President Xi Jinping has so far failed to deliver the results he promised since their first summit meeting in […]
Fighting the Wrong Enemy, aka the Stalemate in Cybersecurity
Despite all the attention, cyberspace is far from secure. Why this is so reflects flawed technologies and conceptual weaknesses. The result is institutionalized stalemate. Two […]
Best Of: Trump Changes the Game in Afghanistan
Earlier this week, the U.S. commander in Afghanistan, General John Nicholson, laid out a two-year plan to take back substantial territory in Afghanistan and drive […]
Best Of: “The U.S. is Sick”: How a Chinese Analyst Might View the United States
For this year’s Thanksgiving Day column, The Cipher Brief revisits a unique column by Michael Morell, the former acting director and deputy director of the […]
Diplomacy: Secretary of State Rex Tillerson Just Doesn’t Get It
Imagine a general who says, “I’m the only one who matters here.” The response, as we used to say in junior high, might be, “You […]
Wrestling with Nukes, Not Enough Troops & Too Much CO2
While most American news outlets last week focused on sexual harassment, tax reform and President Donald Trump’s red-carpet trip to the Far East, the Pentagon […]
How Britain’s GCHQ Decides Which Secrets to Share with You
The Trump Administration’s National Security Council has released an unclassified set of guidelines for determining when the U.S. government will disclose – rather than retain […]
Open Source Information: Info Ops’ Untapped Weapon
There has been growing discussion about the importance of open source information – both in terms of the power and potential of creating and disseminating […]
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 […]
How Putin’s Attempts at Deception Failed in Ukraine
Concealment, imitation and disinformation – tactics known as maskirovka – were part of a Soviet doctrine used by their military and intelligence services – namely […]
Tell Trump to Get Pyongyang to Negotiating Table Now
“Trust” is not a word I would normally associate with what President Donald Trump says publicly, particularly in answering a question at a press conference. […]
Steals the Deal: Source Code Inspections Herald New Risks for Tech Vendors
Software is the invisible underpinning for much of our digital world. At its core is source code: the lingua franca that allows software-based technology systems […]
Foreign Investment Helps Boost U.S. National Security
President Donald Trump is currently on his first trip to China and East Asia. The visit comes at a time when America’s allies in the […]