Recommended Resources

I get asked for recommendations a lot. This page is a pretty random, and far from complete, sampling of some of the resources I find useful. Standard disclaimers apply. I obviously don't necessarily agree with every opinion or policy recommendation you'll find on the sites in this list but these resources can serve as a decent starting point for your own research.

If you have thoughts about what is, or isn't, on this list drop me a line.

Last Update: 3/12/22

Table of Contents

Russia-Ukraine War

  • Blogs of War Russia-Ukraine Updates: All posts related to the February 24th invasion.
  • Help Ukraine: A list of organizatons providing humanitarian relief and independent journalism in Ukraine.
  • Russia-Ukraine Monitor Map: The Russia-Ukraine Monitor Map is a crowdsourced effort by Centre for Information Resilience, Bellingcat, Conflict Intelligence Team and the wider open source community to map, document and verify significant incidents during the conflict in Ukraine.
  • Oryx: Military analysts documenting destroyed vehicles and equipment, from both sides, which can be verified by photo or videographic evidence.
  • Liveuamap: Another map-based effort to track events.
  • FlightRadar24: Flight tracking.
  • ADS-B Exchange: The world’s largest source of open unblocked unfiltered flight data.
  • websdr.org: Web interface for controlling software defined radios based in Ukraine, Russia, and other countries in the region.
  • Planet: Satellite imagery
  • Inoculate Yourself Against Russian Disinformation - And Its Amplifiers: Organizations tracking and countering Russian disinformation narratives.
  • Putin's List: The Free Russia Forum has added 155 new figures to the “Putin’s List” – figures of Russian culture who signed a letter in support of Putin’s aggression and the massacre of civilians in Ukraine.
  • John Spencer's Mini-Manual for the Urban Defender: An urban warfare expert's evolving guide for Ukrainian defenders.
  • NASA FIRMS Map: Can be used to detect battlefield fires. Near real-time fire data are available within approximately 3 hours of satellite overpass and imagery within 4-5 hours.

National Security

  • The Cipher Brief: Broad coverage of emerging national security challenges - especially where they intersect with technology.
  • Lawfare: Deeply engaged in the most challenging security polcicy debates
  • RealClear Defense: National security news aggregator
  • TSC Intel Brief: Newsletter that covers the most important current events stories related to national security
  • Just Security: Progressive views on national security
  • Divergent Options: National security analysis, options without advocacy
  • Strategy Bridge: A community blog focused on  the development of people in strategy, national security, & military affairs
  • Philwalter1058: Collected thoughts on national security and intelligence from Phil Walter
  • Small Wars Journal: Counterguerilla/counterinsurgency strategy, tactics, and doctrine

Intelligence

Misinfo/Disinfo

  • First Draft: First Draft is a global non-profit  that supports journalists, academics and technologists working to  address challenges relating to trust and truth in the digital age
  • DFRLab: The Atlantic Council’s Digital Forensic Research Lab
  • Misinfocon: A global movement focused on building solutions to online  trust, verification, fact checking, and reader experience in the  interest of addressing misinformation in all of its forms.
  • Kremlin Watch: Kremlin Watch is a strategic program of the European Values Center for Security Policy which aims to expose and confront instruments of Russian influence and disinformation operations focused against Western democracies.
  • EU vs Disinfo: A project of the European External Action Service’s East StratCom Task Force.  It was established in 2015 to better forecast, address, and respond to  the Russian Federation’s ongoing disinformation campaigns
  • The Atlantic: The Billion-Dollar Disinformation Campaign to Reelect the President
  • Buzzfeed: All stories related to misinformation
  • Poynter: A guide to anti-misinformation actions around the world
  • Motherboard: The Bots That Are Changing Politics - I was a contributing author to this piece that we published after working on the topic at Jigsaw
  • Oxford Internet Institute: A multidisciplinary research and teaching dept at University of Oxford, dedicated to the social science of the Internet
  • Digital Communication Methods Lab: Focuses on innovative work on methods, and practices critical to Communication Science
  • Graphika: Works with academia, businesses and philanthropic orgs, and create new tools to analyze information flows
  • Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society: Harvard University group exploring cyberspace, sharing in its study, and helping to pioneer its development

Investigative Reporting/OSINT

  • Bellingcat: An independent international collective of researchers, investigators,  and citizen journalists using open source and social media  investigations to probe a variety of subjects
  • Novaya Gazeta: Investigative coverage of Russian political and social affairs
  • OCCRP: The Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project connects  45 non-profit investigative centers in 34 countries, scores of  journalists and several major regional news organizations across Europe,  Africa, Asia, the Middle East and Latin America
  • Re:baltica: Based in Riga, with journalists and board members from all Baltic states: Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia
  • MANS: Devoted to fighting corruption and organized crime in Montenegro

Infosec

  • Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency: CISA is the nation’s risk advisor, working with partners to defend against today’s threats and collaborating to build a more secure and resilient  infrastructure for the future
  • Schneier on Security: Bruce Schneier's blog - strong focus on privacy and encryption angles
  • Stilgherrian: Information, politics, media, and cyber from an Australian perspective
  • Krypt3ia: Scot Terban's blog
  • Dark Reading: Infosec news for a technical audience
  • Hacker News: Y Combinator's social tech news aggregator.
  • Hak5: Long running YouTube show that makes technical news and projects accessible to a wide audience
  • The Register: Cheeky UK based site with a global view. Uses the term "boffins" a lot.

Military

  • The Angry Staff Officer: Personal blog with a focus on Army doctrine and history
  • The Modern War Institute:  A national resource within the Department of Military Instruction at West Point that studies recent and ongoing conflicts to prepare present  and future leaders to win in a complex world
  • The Military Writer's Guild: Exists to gather writers committed to the  development of the profession of arms through the exchange of ideas in  the written medium

NATO

Advocacy

  • #NatSecGirlSquad: Promoting gender diversity in U.S. national security circles
  • National Security Action: Former national security professionals who believe that the "United States is stronger, safer, and more respected in the world when we use our power wisely, stand strong with allies and partners,  pursue principled diplomacy, and remain true to the values that have  long defined us at home and abroad."

Journalism

  • Committee to Protect Journalists: Promoted press freedom globally
  • Nieman Journalism Lab: An attempt to help journalism figure out its future in an Internet age
  • Reporters Without Borders: Reporters Without Borders (RSF) is the world’s biggest NGO specializing in the defense of media freedom
  • Columbia Journalism Review: Essential venue not just for journalists, but also for the thousands of professionals in communications, technology, academia, and other  fields reliant on solid media industry knowledge
  • Poynter: Explores the intersection of journalism, technology and the public interest

Security Apps and Tools

Election Security

  • Defend Our Elections: The Brennan Center is a nonpartisan law and policy institute, striving to uphold the values of democracy
  • Election Security Best Practices: Developed by the Center for Internet Security
  • Election Security in All 50 States: A comprehensive overview of election security prepardness and gaps in all 50 states prepared by The Center for American Progress
  • EFF Election Security: The Electronic Frontier Foundation's position on election security and articles on the subject
  • MotherJones: Researchers Assembled over 100 Voting Machines. Hackers Broke Into Every Single One
  • Dark Reading: The ABCs of Hacking a Voting Machine
  • Recode: The Iowa caucuses app won’t be the only new tech this election cycle,  but Congress hasn’t been funding voting security the way it should.
  • DHS CISA: Homeland Security's Cybersecurity Infrastructure & Security Agency offers a variety of free services to help states ensure both the physical security and cybersecurity of their elections infrastructure

Domestic Extremism

  • Southern Poverty Law Center: Monitors hate groups and other extremists throughout the United States and exposes their activities to the public
  • Anti-Defamation League: The ADL works to counter antisemitism and extremism in an effort to secure justice and fair treatment for all
  • Counter Extremism Project: Combats extremism by pressuring financial and material  support  networks; countering the narrative of extremists and their online   recruitment; and advocating for smart laws, policies, and regulations
  • RAND: Addresses national security and critical infrastructure needs through objective research that helps government agencies prevent and  mitigate terrorist activities and improves disaster preparedness,  response, and recovery
  • National Institute of Justice: NIJ is the research, development and evaluation agency of the U.S. Department of Justice
  • Wikipedia: Entry for domestic terrorism in the United States