William J. Tucker Counterintelligence Chat: Alexei Navalny & Alexander Ma William Tucker returns to look at the apparent poisoning of Alexei Navalny and yet another Chinese espionage case, this time involving Alexander Ma. It’s a classic case, with a Hawaii connection, and there’s likely more interesting details to come.
Covert Contact A Pardon for Edward Snowden? William Tucker returns to discuss the Edward Snowden case after President Trump made remarks on the case that sparked new speculation about a potential pardon.
Covert Contact Washington Takes Aim at the Confucius Institute Today’s decision to force the Confucius Institute to register as a foreign mission is the subject of my regular Thursday evening counterintelligence chat with Covert Contact regular William Tucker. We look at why it was necessary and where we, and China, might go from here.
Australia Australia’s Cyber Security Strategy Australian journalist Stilgherrian, returns to Covert Contact to discuss Australia's recently released 2020 cyber security strategy.
Covert Contact Online Security: Avoiding a Personal October Surprise Infosec professional and security blogger Scot Terban joins me to discuss the recent LinkedIn spying case, the degrading environment in social media, and strategies for improving your personal security.
Covert Contact Chinese Espionage in the United States William Tucker is back to discuss the scale of Chinese espionage in the United States and some of the misconceptions that have hampered our response to the threat.
Covert Contact Shaping Intelligence Products for Maximum Impact Dean Baratta returns for a discussion about the never-ending need to develop and refine intelligence products so that they meet customer needs, build trust, and land with the greatest possible impact.
Covert Contact What's Happening at the Chinese Consulate in Houston? Houston rarely finds itself at the center of geopolitical drama but that changed overnight as firefighters and police surrounded the Chinese consulate as staff there began burning massive amounts of documentation in the building's courtyard.
Counterintelligence The Entirely Predictable Subversion of the US IC I hear a lot of people saying that "the warning lights are blinking red" this week but the truth is that they were blinking in late 2015. The dismantling of institutions and norms has been systematic and if you think this is bad - it's just getting started.
Encryption The Future of Signal and Other Stories in Encryption Once information leaves your head it is at risk. There is always some level of risk when traversing other people's hardware, software, and networks. Always.
Counterintelligence A New Counterintelligence Strategy The National Counterintelligence and Strategy Center rolled out their roadmap for the next two years and, on paper at least, it looks good.
Intelligence Staying Sane in an Insane World We're not meant to be heads down in the worst content (and viewpoints) that man has to offer dozens of hours per week year after year. Our brains can't take it and if that's your job you have to acknowledge that. The sooner you do the better you'll be able to handle it.
Covert Contact The Poisoning of Sergei Skripal Fred Burton joined me shortly after the attack on Sergei Skripal. We look at the many implications of this brazen attack, security issues surrounding it, and the need for a serious response.
Covert Contact Team Leadership & Ethics Dean Baratta reflects on leadership, lessons learned, team building, and the challenge of public service after serving as Chief of the Analysis Bureau at New Jersey’s Office of Homeland Security and Preparedness
Covert Contact The Jerry Chun Shing Lee Case Jerry Chun Shing Lee, a former CIA case officer, is suspected by many to have compromised CIA activities in China but has only been charged with the less serious crime of unlawful retention of national defense information.
Covert Contact Bullets of Palestine Author Howard Kaplan returns to Covert Contact to discuss Bullets of Palestine (the second novel in his Jerusalem Spy Series), chronic tensions in the Middle East, the prospect for reconciliation, Abu Nidal, and his approach to writing.
Covert Contact Economic Espionage: No One Is Immune William J. Tucker, a regular contributor on counterintelligence and security topics for Blogs of War and Covert Contact, joins me for a deep dive on economic espionage.
Information Warfare Rise of the Politibots In June (which seems far more distant than it really is) I spent some time at Jigsaw (The Google-formed incubator focused on tackling tough global security issues) contibuting to critical discussions about bots.
Covert Contact The Crypto Wars: Update from the Australian Front Australian freelance journalist, commentator, and broadcaster Stilgherrian is back to discuss the battle over encryption and the seemingly irreconcilable differences between governments and privacy advocates.
Covert Contact From CIA Case Officer to Rookie Cop Former Air Marshall and CIA Case Officer Patrick Skinner has become a become a police officer in his community in an effort to drive change. We discuss the transition and what he is learning in episode 81.
Covert Contact Propaganda, Influence, and Disruption A look at recent developments in the social media component of the investigation into Russian meddling in the U.S. election and what the evidence says about our ability (or inability) to identify and address modern propaganda.
Covert Contact Understanding and Developing Resilience To Information Warfare Dr. Clint Arizmendi, an Adjunct Senior Research Fellow for the Australian Graduate School of Policing & Security's Terrorism Studies program at Charles Sturt University, joins me to discuss information warfare in episode 75.
Covert Contact Deep State Conspiracies Alex Finley, a former officer of the CIA’s Directorate of Operations, joined me to discuss the rise of deep state conspiracies that often feature a monolithic, highly partisan, intelligence community at their center.
Covert Contact Data, AI, and Ethics Entrepreneur Evanna Hu joins me to discuss our rapidly evolving relationship with data. The explosion of data streams and technologies that offload challenging analysis to machines are creating interesting national security challenges and opportunities at lightening speed.
Covert Contact Beyond Russia: Overlooked Counterintelligence Threats Russian intelligence presents a significant challenge for the United States but it is far from the only threat. There are dozens of nations and non-state actors actively collecting against us at any given time.
