Category Archives: NSA

Measures to address cross-border terror threat & presence of terror groups, spread of extremism & radical ideas from Afghanistan and political instability leading to economic troubles in Afghanistan will dominate the first meeting of regional national security advisers convened by India on November 10.

Besides growing threat from terror groups, a number of Afghanistan's neighbours in Central Asia and Russia are worried over political instability and economic woes within the Taliban-controlled country and they fear civil war and its spill over impact in the region, ET has learnt.

The lack of cohesiveness in the Taliban ranks that could contribute to intra-Afghan conflict has been a matter of concern for Afghanistans neighbours in Central Asia as well as Russia. Terror groups may take advantage of this situation to use Afghanistan as a haven.

The Regional Security Dialogue on Afghanistan will be chaired by NSA Ajit DovalTwo earlier meetings in this format have been held in Iran in September 2018 and December 2019. The third meeting in India could not be held earlier due to the pandemic.

While NSAs of Russia (Gen Nikolay Patrushev), Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan will attend the meet (for first time all Central Asian states & not just Afghanistans immediate neighbours are part of dialogue), Iran will be represented by its NSA Ali Shamkhani. It is not yet clear if China will attend the meeting physically or attend it virtually. Pakistans NSA has ruled out his participation.

Neither India nor Russia is in haste to provide official recognition to the Taliban even if they maintain contacts with the group. India has been categorical on its demand that the Afghan territory should not be used for third-country-sponsored cross-border terror. Tajikistan has been steadfast in its demand for an inclusive regime in Kabul. Iran has suggested polls to determine the next government in Afghanistan.

On Wednesday, Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova stated that Russia regretted that the terrorist and drug threat continues to come from Afghanistan after the Taliban returned to power.

"I can confirm that the terrorist and drug threats coming from Afghanistans territory, as well as the general situation in these areas in that country, are still a pressing problem for us. I can state with regret that the situation has not changed after the Taliban came to power," she said, adding that terror attacks staged by the Islamic State in Afghan cities were an example of that. Narcotics smuggling will also be on the agenda of the November 10 meet.

Zakharova also referred to the threat of increasing migration from Afghanistan. "Envoys of terrorist organisations, criminal elements, militants and so on may infiltrate into neighbouring countries under the guise of refugees," she said.

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Political instability & prospects of civil war in Afghanistan to figure high on Nov 10 NSA meet in New Del - Economic Times

Supporters of Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan, a radical Islamist party, take part in a protest march toward Islamabad, on a highway in the town of Sadhuke, in eastern Pakistan on Wednesday. (Photo: AP/PTI)

Pakistans National Security Adviser Moeed Yusuf on Thursday, October 28, said the banned Islamist group Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) had crossed the red line and exhausted the states patience.

Thousands of members of the TLP are protesting on the streets of Pakistan with various demands, including the release of their imprisoned leader Saad Rizvi, a ban on French goods, and the expulsion of the French Ambassador to Pakistan. This is TLP's third nationwide protest since 2017 over caricatures that are considered blasphemous by Muslims published in a French magazine.

ALSO READ | TLP supporters open fire during protest rally, killing 4 Pakistani police

They have martyred policemen, destroyed public property, and continue to cause massive public disruption. Law will take its course for each one of them and terrorists will be treated like terrorists with no leniency, Moeed Yusuf tweeted.

For all individuals and groups who think they can challenge the writ of the Pakistani state, do not test the proposition. As the basic principle of national security, the state will never shy away from protecting each and every citizen from any form of violence, he tweeted, adding There will be NO armed militias of any sort in our country.

TLPs founder late Khadim Rizvi's son Saad Rizvi was detained by the Punjab government in April last under the maintenance of 'public order' (MPO) following the partys protest against the blasphemous caricatures.

The death toll in the protests has risen to 18 now with 11 TLP workers and 7 policemen dying since the clashes broke out between the banned outfit and police over a week ago. A couple of days ago, the government had freed 350 TLP activists to placate the radical group.

The clashes between the armed TLP activists and police started at Sadhoke, some 50 km from Lahore, when thousands of the TLP protesters who had been camping between Muridke and Gujranwala along the GT Road for the last three days started the march towards Islamabad after getting a go-ahead from their leadership.

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No leniency: Pakistani NSA warns of action against TLP ...

Pakistans National Security Adviser Moeed Yusuf said on Tuesday that he will not attend a meeting of senior regional security officials being hosted by India to discuss the situation in Afghanistan.

Besides China and Pakistan, regional countries such as Iran, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan have been invited to the meeting which is expected to be held in New Delhi on November 10. There are no plans to invite the Taliban to the meeting in line with the Indian governments decision not to rush into recognising the current dispensation in Kabul.

I will not be going, Yusuf told a news briefing in Islamabad after a meeting with his Uzbekistan counterpart Victor Makhmudov. He was responding to a question from a reporter on whether he would attend the meeting in India.

A spoiler cannot try to be a peacemaker, he added, in an apparent reference to India.

In response to another question, Yusuf said Pakistan has identified India as a hurdle to regional efforts to establish peace and security.

Pakistan has said repeatedly that if India is prepared to move forward, then we will also be ready. But there are some prerequisites and an enabling environment for moving forward, he said.

Among the prerequisites is addressing the Kashmir issue, he said. He added he didnt see how the two sides could move forward in view of the Indian governments policies and ideology.

The Indian side had earlier planned to convene a similar meeting in April, with the participation of the former Ashraf Ghani government. However, this was scrapped due to the second wave of Coronavirus infections in India and the rapidly evolving situation in Afghanistan at the time.

India recently participated in a meeting of the Moscow Format that was also joined by senior Taliban leaders. Indian officials also held talks with the Taliban leaders on the margins of the meeting in Moscow.

Iran also convened a meeting of regional countries to discuss the situation in Afghanistan, though India was not invited to the meet.

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Pakistan NSA says wont attend meet on Afghanistan convened by India - Hindustan Times

RT published this video item, entitled This is a total fabrication of the government ex-NSA official William Binney on Assanges case below is their description.

The extradition trial of WikiLeaks co-founder Julian Assange made headlines worldwide last week, and his fate still hangs in the balance. RT talks to former NSA intelligence official and whistleblower William Binney, who says the governments involved want to silence the free media.

[Originally aired on 27/10]

#news #trending #currentevents

Freedom over censorship, truth over narrative.

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TikTok, known in China as Douyin, is a Chinese video-sharing social networking service owned by ByteDance, a Beijing-based Internet technology company founded in 2012 by Zhang Yiming. It is used to create short music, lip-sync, dance, comedy and talent videos of 3 to 15 seconds, and short looping videos of 3 to 60 seconds.

ByteDance first launched Douyin for the Chinese market in September 2016. Later, TikTok was launched in 2017 for iOS and Android in most markets outside of mainland China; however, it only became available worldwide, including the United States, after merging with another Chinese social media service Musical.ly on 2 August 2018.

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This is a total fabrication of the government ex-NSA official William Binney on Assanges case - The - The Global Herald

Islamabad, Oct 31 :Pakistans National Security Adviser (NSA) Moeed Yusuf has warned the proscribed Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) protesters of being mindful of the fact that the country will not tolerate or allow presence of any armed militia.

Yusuf stated that the TLP protesters had crossed the line by using force against security officials, that resulted in the death of at least three security officials, while dozens others were injured.

TLP had crossed the red line and exhausted the states patience, he said.

Do not test the proposition. As the basic principle of national security, the state will never shy away from protecting each and every citizen from any form of violence, said Yusuf, giving a clear caution to TLP from trying to taking matters into their hands.

The NSA went on to say that any outlaws, who target security personnel, damage public property and create widespread public disruption, would be treated like terrorists without any leniency.

While the NSA has come out with clear plans of not bowing down to the TLP demands, the Imran Khan-led government has initiated and resumed negotiations with the proscribed groups clerics, aiming to come down to a settlement and an arrangement, which would stop thousands of protesters, who have been marching towards Islamabad, causing massive chaos, violence and disruptions, leading to confrontation with the security forces.

As per details of the new round of talks, influential leaders were brought to Rawalpindi and Islamabad, where brief round of negotiations were held.

What seemed to differ in the new round of talks was the change of tone by the government officials, as senior ministers were directed to refrain from issuing strong statements against the banned TLP.

Details also revealed that the detained Saad Rivzi, the amir of TLP was brought to Islamabad along with at least three senior members of the TLP Shura, Maulana Shafiq Amini, Engineer Hafezullah and Pir Inayatul Haq for direct negotiations with the governments negotiation committee.

While the negotiations are underway, some TLP leaders are still angry over government ministers branding the outfit as Indian agents.

Why did they brand us Indian agents? The whole nation wants to know who is getting money from the enemies. We have asked the government to change the negotiating team which does not insult us after the meeting, said a TLP leader.

The issue has pushed the country into a non-time bound unrest as authorities have blocked road routes leading to Islamabad by digging bunkers, blocking roads with containers and deploying thousands of security personnel across the Punjab province, with an aim to stop the protesters from what they call the red line and move towards the federal capital.

Prime Minister Imran Khan has taken notice of the ongoing anti-government march and has given the mandate to the negotiating team to ensure that the matter does not aggravate into further chaos in the coming days. (IANS)

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No place for armed militia in the country: Pak NSA warns TLP protesters - The Shillong Times

Organisations need to have better plans in place to prevent cyberattacks but they should be more transparent about when they do fall victim to hackers in order to prevent others from meeting the same fate, according to the former head of the US National Security Agency (NSA).

As director of the NSA and Commander of US Cyber Command from 2014 to 2018, Admiral Michael S Rogers oversaw cybersecurity during a period of time when the threat of cyberattacks from criminals andforeign government-backed hacking operations grew significantly.

And while companies can act individually to improve their own cybersecurity, Rogers believes that for the best possible benefit companies need to share strategies, techniques and best practices for defending against common cyber threats, particularly when attackers seem to be able to deploy the same techniques again and again to go after different targets.

SEE:A winning strategy for cybersecurity(ZDNet special report)

"One thing that really frustrates me and I used to say this when I was in government with the senior leadership of our nation I wanted that the pain of one should lead to the benefit of many," said Rogers, now an operating partner at Team8, a cybersecurity venture group, in an interview withZDNet Security Update.

"Why do the same techniques keep working over and over and over again? We're talking years the same techniques literally used for years. One of my takeaways was because we don't talk or acknowledge this activity. Most companies do not want to publicly acknowledge a cyber penetration," he said.

It's still uncommon for organisations that are hit by cyberattacks to go into detail about what happened, such as by explaining how cyber criminals were able to enter their network or what needed to be done to secure it after an attack.

That means that there isn't the opportunity for other companies to learn useful information about the incident that they can then use to prevent attacks. That's something Rogers says has to change and he believes there's already a successful model to follow in the collaborative nature of how the aviation industry investigates incidents.

"In the US, we use a structure that says any time there is an aviation accident, the government steps in and there is a formal investigation," he said. "We determine the causes and the mitigating factors, we publish them and then we say, given that, what changes do we need to make?

"It's an indicator of the effectiveness of that methodology, they tend not to continue to recur, the same cause repeatedly over time, because we're able to address problems" Rogers continued

"That is not the case in cyber, so I'd like us to learn from some others," he said.

By learning from the mistakes of others, organisations can be provided with the information and guidance necessary to make their networks more resistant and more resilient to attacks. Because ultimately, if carrying out successful campaigns is more difficult for cyber criminals, they're going to find it harder to make money.

SEE: Ransomware: It's a 'golden era' for cyber criminals - and it could get worse before it gets better

"We've got to become much more resilient and able to continue to operate, because if we can continue to operate it buys us more time and, quite frankly, it also reduces disposition on the part of many companies to pay a ransom," said Rogers.

"If we make this less lucrative for criminals, you won't see as much criminal activity," he added.

For Rogers, the challenge now is for organisations to focus not just on keeping malicious intruders from gaining access to their network, but also on having plans in place to ensure they are able to continue operating in some capacity,even if hackers have breached the network.

"Cybersecurity needs to include, not only cyber defence, but we need to spend a whole lot more time thinking about cyber resilience. So if, despite my best efforts, an adversary is going to be able to penetrate my network structure, what are the tools, what are the methodologies, what are the capabilities, what can I do to try to maximize my ability to continue to operate?" he said.

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Businesses don't talk about being victims of cyberattacks. That needs to change - ZDNet

Afghans line up outside the Iranian Embassy to request travel visas in Kabul, Afghanistan. (Photo: AP)

India has proposed to host an in-person meet of the National Security Advisors (NSA) on Afghanistan in Delhi in November. Key stakeholders in the region, including Russia, China, and Pakistan, have been invited to the meet.

India has proposed two dates-- November 10 and 11 ---for the meeting in the national capital.

The invitation has been extended to Pakistans NSA Moeed Yusuf at a time when there is increased tensions at the border of the two countries. But sources emphasise that all stakeholders have to be engaged to defuse the impending humanitarian and security crises in Afghanistan following the Taliban's takeover of the nation.

Meanwhile, India will participate in the Moscow Format meeting on Afghanistan on October 20, the Ministry of External Affairs said on Thursday.

While India had its first formal contact with the Taliban in Doha on August 31, the Moscow Format is likely to be the first formal contact between New Delhi and the Taliban government after an interim Cabinet was announced by them.

ALSO READ: 'Little money, little food': Kabul orphanage struggles to feed children as cash runs low

On any humanitarian assistance India is extending or has extended to Afghanistan, Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said that India's policy towards Afghanistan is guided by its friendship with the Afghan people.

Earlier this month, Foreign Secretary Harsh V Shringla had said that India is willing to provide humanitarian assistance to Afghanistan and it has engaged with the representatives of the Taliban in Doha.

Speaking at the India Today Conclave 2021, the foreign secretary said, "We are willing to provide humanitarian assistance to Afghanistan and we have been a constructive partner in the development of the country, before the Taliban took over, investing over $3 billion."

Many Afghans pack their bags, hoping for chance to leave | See Pics

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India invites key stakeholders including Pakistan for NSA ...

National Security Advisor (NSA) Ajit Doval with his Kyrgyz counterpart Lieutenant General Marat Imankulov in New Delhi.

India and Kyrgyzstan held their first strategic dialogue on Tuesday in New Delhi and agreed to enhance security and defence cooperation to address common threats and challenges faced by both countries arising out of the situation in Afghanistan.

The Secretary of the Security Council of the Kyrgyz Republic, Lieutenant General Marat Imankulov, met National Security Advisor (NSA) Ajit Doval in New Delhi for the first India-Kyrgyzstan strategic dialogue.

The two sides held discussions on threats and challenges faced by both countries as well as the regional security environment with special reference to Afghanistan, a statement said.

The two sides welcomed the similarity of views on these matters, and agreed upon steps to enhance bilateral security cooperation between the relevant bodies, including in the fields of counter-terrorism, combating radicalisation, narcotics control and defence cooperation.

ALSO READ | India invites key stakeholders including Pakistan for NSA meet on Afghanistan

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India, Kyrgyzstan hold first strategic dialogue, discuss ...

A former Marine who conducted cyber missions for the U.S. military and the National Security Agency told CNBC on Monday the threat of a cyberattack on the U.S. chain supply keeps him awake at night.

David Kennedy, also the founder of cybersecurity companies TrustedSec and Binary Defense, told "Power Lunch" that an attack on the U.S. supply chain would disrupt the entire world.

"The thing that personally keeps me up at night as a cybersecurity professional are these supply chain attacks ... you're talking about impacting tens of thousands and hundreds of thousands of companies and organizations around the world from a single hack," Kennedy said.

The Russian-linked hacker group Nobelium has been attempting to attack parts of the global technology supply chain, according to cybersecurity experts atMicrosoft. Nobelium, as the hacking group is known, isinfamous for the SolarWinds hack in 2020, which compromised the IT firm and its customers including big U.S. companies and the federal government.

"They've had a lot of success," Kennedy said of Nobelium. "They targeted Ukrainian tax software, they then continued with Solarwinds and now we're seeing them target man-to-man service providers."

Successful attacks may lead other adversarial nations to wage a cyberattack against the United States, with aim taken at increasingly vulnerable cloud computing, Kennedy said. "Every other adversary that we have in the U.S. is looking at this and saying this is an area of opportunity, and cloud is definitely the next evolution of attack for us."

Security systems in place by many technology companies weren't designed to handle these levels of threats, according to Kennedy. "It's not just these high sophisticated level of adversaries like Russia or China, it's also ransomware now which is particularly alarming for us," he added.

Another thing that keeps Kennedy up at night is the United States' lack of offensive cybersecurity capabilities. "We have to do more going after these countries and holding them accountable, especially on ransomware."

Offensive actions should especially be considered when adversarial nations attack U.S. intellectual property and the private sector, according to Kennedy.

With other powerful countries using cyberattacks as a sign of force, the U.S. is at risk of appearing vulnerable and at risk for further attacks, he added. "It's time to go on the offensive."

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Ex-NSA hacker says a supply chain cyberattack is one of the things that keeps him up at night - CNBC

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, October 28

Addressing the issue of threats posed to national security in view of disasters and pandemics, National Security Adviser Ajit Doval on Thursday said, The new areas of warfare have shifted from territorial frontiers to civil societies. Wars are now fought with other means.

Doval was speaking at the 6th edition of the Pune Dialogue on National Security. The two-day seminar, titled National Security Preparedness in the age of Disasters and Pandemics, opened today. At the same event, Dr Soumya Swaminathan, Chief Scientist, World Health Organisation, spoke on pandemics occurring in future. Its not if it will happen, its about when it will happen? And its waiting to happen, she warned.

The Tribune Trust, Pune International Centre, Policy Perspectives Foundation of Delhi and Centre for Advanced Strategic Studies, Pune, are the partners to the event. Doval said transformative changes in global security landscape were taking place and actual wars were being substituted with wars fought with other means.

Disasters and pandemics cannot be tackled in isolation, Doval said, adding that the Covid-19 pandemic had brought science, data and economic security to the centre of national security.

The new genres of security threats present multi-level dilemma on a massive scale. At the micro-level, they include saving individual lives, providing medical care and supporting people, ensuring the supplies of food and essential commodities, and maintaining law and order, he added

Without naming any country or the origin of the Covid-19 virus, Doval said biological research and dual use of pathogens was a serious concern and had highlighted the need for bio security.

Dr Swaminathan said, We have seen some 5 million deaths globally due to Covid-19, but the real death rate is much higher for every country. About 1.5 million children have been orphaned.

Earlier, Dr RA Mashelkar, president, Pune International Centre, said disaster mitigation and prevention had to become an integral part of the national security policies. Ambassador Sudhir Devare opined that Covid-19 was now a foreign policy issue.

False info a bigger threat

Protecting people from false and motivated propaganda has become necessary in the age of information revolution. It should be part of national security planning. Ajit Doval, National Security Adviser

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Warfare areas shifting from frontier to civil societies: NSA - The Tribune India