Russian National Pleads Guilty in Connection with Conspiracy to Work for Russian Intelligence
Who said Russian spying ever went away? (DOJ) Evgeny Buryakov, aka Zhenya, 41, pleaded guilty today to conspiring to act in the United States as an agent of the Russian Federation without providing prior notice to the Attorney General. The guilty plea was announced by Assistant Attorney General for National Security John P. Carlin and […]
Jury Finds Air Force Veteran Guilty in First Conviction After Trial in the United States for Attempting to Travel Overseas to Join ISIL
(DOJ) Former U.S. Air Force Airplane Mechanic Convicted of Attempting to Provide Material Support to Terrorists and Obstruction of an Official Proceeding A jury in the Eastern District of New York today found Tairod Nathan Webster Pugh, 48, of Neptune, New Jersey, a veteran of the U.S. Air Force, guilty of attempting to provide material support […]
How Mega-Breaches Could Literally Kill You
(ABC) Although it took a while for the whole story to emerge, we learned that more than 80 million customers of Anthem were exposed in a giant breach that included Social Security numbers (SSNs) and other kinds of sensitive personally identifiable information. A scant three months later, in March 2015, Premera began notifying 11 million members […]
ODNI warns of ‘human targeting’ in counterintelligence war
(Federal News Radio) Just because a federal employee or public sector worker doesn’t have a security clearance doesn’t make them less of a foreign intelligence target. In the latest video installment of the “Know the Risk — Raise Your Shield” campaign, which is backed by the National Counterintelligence and Security Center [under the Office of the […]
Chinese National Pleads Guilty to Conspiring to Steal Trade Secrets
Children of the Corn The Chinese Corn Case has surfaced again: (DOJ) Mo Hailong, aka Robert Mo, 46, pleaded guilty today to conspiracy to steal trade secrets before U.S. District Judge Stephanie M. Rose of the Southern District of Iowa, announced Assistant Attorney General for National Security John P. Carlin and Acting U.S. Attorney Kevin E. […]
Counterintelligence app lets troops in Europe flag suspicious acts
(US Army) The U.S. Army Europe counterintelligence division has officially released a new smartphone application to facilitate the “if you see something, say something” reporting process for service members, civilians, contractors and Family members in Europe. “iReport was developed to take advantage of today’s smartphone culture. It is an application that we want everyone to have […]
Navy Civilian Engineer Sentenced to 11 Years for Attempted Espionage
(FBI) Mostafa Ahmed Awwad, 36, of Yorktown, Virginia, was sentenced today to 132 months in prison by U.S. District Judge Raymond A. Jackson of the Eastern District of Virginia for attempted espionage relating to his attempt to provide schematics of the nuclear aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford to Egypt while serving as a Navy engineer. […]
The Company Man: Protecting America’s Secrets
(FBI) Economic espionage is a problem that costs the American economy billions of dollars annually and puts our national security at risk. To raise awareness of the issue, the FBI and the National Counterintelligence and Security Center have launched a nationwide campaign and released a short film aimed at educating anyone with a trade secret […]
Threats to the Homeland
(FBI) The FBI Director’s statement before the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs: Good afternoon Chairman Johnson, Ranking Member Carper, and members of the committee. Thank you for the opportunity to appear before you today to discuss the current threats to the homeland and our efforts to address new challenges, including terrorists’ use […]
Former DuPont Employee Sentenced for Stealing Trade Secrets
(FBI) A second former DuPont employee—Edward Schulz—was recently sentenced for his role in a conspiracy led by a South Korean company to steal trade secrets related to Kevlar, a trademarked product developed and sold by DuPont. Kevlar, an incredibly strong synthetic fiber developed by the U.S.-based DuPont 50 years ago, is used around the world in […]
22.1 Million People Compromised in Hack of Government Personnel Data
(New York magazine) Last month we learned that hackers stole the personal data of at least 4 million current and former government workers, and a few days later it was reported that every federal employee might be affected. Now that number has expanded to include people who merely know someone who tried to work for the […]
Encryption useless when OPM hires foreign contractors
“You’ve reached the IT Help Desk. How can I help you today?” Who needs to hack into a system when you are given the keys to the front door? Let’s cut to the chase of this Ars Technica article and highlight this info towards the end: Some of the contractors that have helped OPM with managing internal […]
Officials: Chinese had access to U.S. security clearance data for one year
(Washington Post) The recently disclosed breach of the Office of Personnel Management’s security-clearance computer system took place a year ago, giving Chinese government intruders access to sensitive data for a year, according to new information. The considerable lag time between breach and discovery means that the adversary had more time to pull off a cyber-heist of […]
Navy Civilian Engineer Pleads Guilty to Attempted Espionage
(DOJ/NSD) Mostafa Ahmed Awwad, 36, of Yorktown, Virginia, pleaded guilty today to charges of attempted espionage relating to his attempt to provide schematics of the nuclear aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford to Egypt while serving as a Navy engineer. Assistant Attorney General for National Security John P. Carlin, U.S. Attorney Dana J. Boente of […]
Chinese hack included security-clearance database
You’ve heard me say it before: it just gets worse and worse! China now has your SF-86 and background investigations. And who knows who they will sell this info to. (Washington Post) The Chinese breach of the Office of Personnel Management network was wider than first acknowledged, and officials said Friday that a database holding sensitive […]
Chinese breach of govt data means YOU are a target
“Some of you may think that you are not of interest because you don’t have access to classified information. You are mistaken.” —Deputy National Counterintelligence Executive Dan Payne After hacking, government workers warned of potential fraud (AP) An immense hack of millions of government personnel files is being treated as the work of foreign spies who could […]
6 Chinese Charged with Economic Espionage, Theft of Trade Secrets for Benefit of PRC Govt
The Gang of Six: Zhang, Pang, Gang, Zhang, Zhou and Chen. You have GOT to read: The Hundred-Year Marathon: China’s Secret Strategy to Replace America as the Global Superpower by Michael Pillsbury Chinese Professors Among Six Defendants Charged with Economic Espionage and Theft Of Trade Secrets for Benefit of People’s Republic of China; Chinese Professors Alleged to Have […]
Wikileaks data merging with ICWATCH
Wikileaks Twitter feed said that on Monday, data from Wikileaks will be merged with ICWATCH: I’m not in the IC now but I was and I’m in the database too. Over 25,000 hits for “counterintelligence”: Foreign intel officers don’t even have to get out of their chairs now to do their work. Their only […]
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