Reposted from Security Management

The U.S. threat environment is an ever-changing one, and it has now reached a stage of unprecedented diversity, national security officials say.

“The threat of terrorism and targeted violence within our borders is more diverse than at any time since the 9/11 attacks,” then U.S. Acting Secretary of Homeland Security Kevin K. McAleenan said in a September briefing. “While the threat posed by foreign terrorist organizations like the Islamic State (ISIS) and al-Qaeda persists, we are acutely aware of the growing threat from enemies, both foreign and domestic, who seek to incite violence in our nation’s youth, disenfranchised, and disaffected, in order to attack their fellow citizens and fray at the seams of our diverse social fabric.”

Given these diverse threats, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is widening its counterterrorism mission scope beyond foreign terrorists. It will also focus on domestic extremists who are radicalized to the point of violence. DHS recently marked this expanded mission with the release of a new guidance document, Strategic Framework for Combating Terrorism and Targeted Violence, released 20 September 2019.

As DHS says in the new document, the Framework “places a new emphasis on our domestic prevention mission.” (The Framework’s official launch was held 20 September 2019, at The Brookings Institution, a nonprofit policy think tank in Washington, D.C., where McAleenan made his remarks.)

Combining domestic and foreign terror components in the Framework made sense to DHS, given the recognizable overlap in the tactics, techniques, procedures, and motivations of the attackers. “The threats of terrorism and [domestic] violence increasingly intersect with one another, and there is likewise some alignment in the tools that can be used to counter them,” the Framework says.

So besides foreign terrorism, the Framework addresses domestic attacks on soft targets such as schools, houses of worship, and public spaces, which it calls “targeted violence.” In doing so, DHS says the Framework “is the first national-level strategy to explicitly state that terrorism and targeted violence overlap, intersect, and interact as problems, and that they necessitate a shared set of solutions.”

This category of targeted violence includes racially, ethnically, and religiously motivated violence. “The continued menace of racially based violent extremism, particularly violent white supremacy, is an abhorrent affront to the nation…,” the Framework reads. “It has no place in the United States of America, and we will work to defeat it.”

The Framework provides an extended assessment of these types of domestic-based threats and offers a rundown on the preventive tools capable of deterring them, regardless of the particular ideology or other motivation that drives them.

Overall, the Framework sets out four goals. The first is to understand the evolving threat environment, and support partners with this knowledge. The second is to prevent terrorists from entering the United States. The third is to prevent actual terrorist attacks and targeted violence. The fourth is to improve community preparedness and infrastructure security.

To advance these goals, the Framework proposes some new initiatives. One is a new state-of-the-threat annual report aimed at educating the government and the public: “The report will enable DHS to educate government officials, policymakers, and the public about the types of threats the U.S. faces, while helping with policymaking and agency prioritizations.”

The Framework also calls for better data collection and dissemination of intelligence to local communities, and a greater unity of effort in dealing with disinformation and radical content sharing. “Social media companies, for instance, made great strides in keeping radical Islamic content hard to find and share online—if only they did as much for white supremacist material,” the Framework reads.

According to DHS, there will be a push to increase and expand existing prevention education and training efforts between the department and local communities and law enforcement agencies. The new initiatives might require additional money, so DHS has already begun its efforts to secure this funding.

Outside of government, another group that has weighed in on the need for new approaches to counter changing terror threats is the Brennan Center for Justice, a nonpartisan policy institute.

In a Brennan Center expert brief released 2 October 2019, Faiza Patel, codirector of the Brennan Center’s Liberty and National Security Program, says that it is reassuring that the U.S. government is taking the threat of domestic violence seriously.

Nonetheless, the Brennan Center is concerned that, after the August 2019 El Paso shooting, two members of Congress—Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) and Rep. Randy K. Weber Sr. (R-TX)—introduced two separate bills that would create a new crime of domestic terrorism, citing lethal white nationalist crimes as the justification.

“Such legislation is both unnecessary and creates serious risks of abuse,” Patel says. “…By creating a new crime of domestic terrorism, the proposed bills would give the Justice Department and FBI access to broad additional charges that could be used to target minorities and activists.”

For example, Patel argues that the Schiff proposal would be broad enough to allow the U.S. attorney general to file charges of terrorism against anyone who threatened to assault someone or damage property, if the attorney general determined the threat was intended to intimidate a population or influence policy.

Thus, instead of proposing broad legislation like this, members of Congress should be trying to ensure that the government, especially the FBI, allocates enough resources to properly address domestic terror, such as white nationalist violence, Patel argues. “For too long, the Justice Department and FBI have failed to track critical data, including the number of white supremacist attacks and the number of fatalities they produce,” she says.

To help do this, the Brennan Center is calling on the U.S. Justice Department to develop a strategy to combat white nationalist violence. Such a strategy should indicate where this type of violence ranks in the FBI’s list of priorities, and what resources will be used to deter it. Currently, fighting terrorism ranks as the FBI’s top priority, but hate crime investigations, which are generally used to target white nationalists, rank as the FBI’s fifth priority.

“How these crimes are categorized determines the amount of resources devoted to these investigations,” Patel declares.

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Reposted from RT

Three thieves cut a hole in a reinforced roof of a London warehouse, abseiled down 40ft, avoiding motion sensors en route, and stole 160 of the rarest books in the world valued at over £2 million, in possibly the most daring book heist in history.

The gang were filmed on CCTV which showed them ignoring everything else being stored in the warehouse located near London’s Heathrow airport, and throwing unwanted books away, checking the specific books stolen off a list as they went. Footage has not been released but the Metropolitan Police have confirmed the theft and are appealing for information from the public according to the Daily Mail.

The gang climbed back out, again avoiding detection, and made their getaway in a van that was waiting outside.

"It was clearly a robbery done to order. It was a specialized gang. They took only books, nothing else," one collector told The Mail on Sunday.

One collector, Alessandro Meda Riquier, told SkyNews that he had lost 51 books, with several dating back to the 15th and 16th centuries.

His second edition of Nicolaus Copernicus' 1566 “De Revolutionibus Orbium Coelestium,” in which the scientific pioneer proposed that the Sun and not the Earth was the center of our solar system, is reportedly worth around £215,000.

"It's impossible that these books will be on the regular market… Maybe you can go to someone and show him a book that has a value of £200,000 and ask him for £1,000 for that book."

The heist is unprecedented in the antique book industry with The International League of Antiquarian Booksellers publishing a detailed list of the books taken on their website in the hopes that buyers come forward in the unlikely event that the thieves try to fence one of the stolen books.

Brian Lake, President of the Antiquarian Booksellers Association, told the Mirror: "Nothing like this has hit the rare books trade before."

Other extremely rare works reportedly stolen in the raid include: Galileo’s 1656 “Opere di Galileo Galilei,” Isaac Newton’s “Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica” and an edition of Dante's “Divine Comedy” dating from 1506.

Police investigating the crime have yet to confirm whether they have any leads on who the bold bookworms are.

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Reposted from The New York Times

For almost two decades, the intelligence bureau of the New York Police Department has built a security apparatus designed to track international terror groups like Al Qaeda and the Islamic State.

Now, the department is aiming those resources at a different target: far-right and extremist hate groups.

Police officials say they have formed a new unit within the department’s intelligence bureau, known as “Racially and Ethnically Motivated Extremism,” or “R.E.M.E,” that will be primarily dedicated to investigating terror threats from far-right and neo-Nazi organizations, including groups like the Atomwaffen Division and The Proud Boys.

The unit became operational early this month, and already has dozens of open investigations, police officials said. 

John Miller, the commissioner of the intelligence division, said the far-right extremist groups are not that different in nature from Islamic extremist groups like Al Qaeda. “There’s no different recipe except our offenders are likely to be on the ground here,” he said in an interview.

Mayor Bill de Blasio announced the unit’s creation on Wednesday at City Hall, just a day after a gun battle in Jersey City, during which two people with guns opened fire at two different locations, including a kosher supermarket, killing three bystanders and a Jersey City detective.

“What we saw yesterday was a premeditated, violent, anti-Semitic hate crime,” Mr. de Blasio said. “In other words, you can say it was an act of terror.”

The two suspects, a man and a woman, were killed in a shootout with police. The man, who has been identified as David N. Anderson, 47, had a history of posting anti-Semitic and anti-police rhetoric online, one law enforcement official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss an open investigation.

The R.E.M.E. unit appears to be one of the first of its kind organized in a local police department, and its creation underscores the urgency with which law enforcement views the threat of far-right inspired attacks. According to the Anti-Defamation League, which tracks such incidents, 50 people were killed by extremists in the United States in 2018, and every one of the incidents was linked to far-right ideologies.

The unit will use the same tools that are applied in other terrorism investigations, said Thomas Galati, the chief of the department’s intelligence bureau. In an interview, Mr. Galati declined to go into specific detail. But police officials said those tools could include anything from tracking internet message boards to undercover operations inside far-right groups.

The city’s police department had previously investigated threats from such organizations across several different divisions. But one week this summer rattled police officials in New York: A gunman in El Paso, Texas, opened fire in a Walmart and killed 22 people; a separate shooter in Gilroy, Calif. shot and killed three at a Garlic festival; and another shooter in Dayton, Ohio opened fire in a bar and killed nine.

Those three incidents prompted the department to expedite creation of the new unit, the police said.

“You can wait for that terrible thing that has a terrible impact on human life to happen in New York City,” Mr. Miller said. “Or you can look at those things that are happening in all those other places and say, ‘Let’s organize a more focused effort to detect and prevent that now.’”

The size of far-right groups in New York City remains unclear. Katherine Sizemore, an intelligence analyst assigned to the new unit, said that while few of them are based in New York, the city is often mentioned as a target for attacks.

“Who do they see as being the threat to the society they want to create — this white ethnostate?” Ms. Sizemore said. “A city like New York City, where you have all of these races and ethnicities and religions all in one place. That’s the threat.” 

Last October, the Metropolitan Republican Club in Manhattan was the scene of a violent brawl between The Proud Boys, a far-right group that disdains liberals, feminists and Islam, and anti-fascist activists. The violence came shortly after the founder of the Proud Boys, Gavin McInnes, a former Brooklyn hipster and right-wing provocateur, spoke at the club.

Two members of The Proud Boys were convicted on charges of attempted gang assault and rioting in relation to the melee.

Not far outside the city’s boundaries, far-right militias operate in New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Connecticut, law enforcement officials said. Long Island has an active chapter of Oathkeepers, a right-wing militia group, and another militia group, the Three Percenters, has had a presence in New York State for years.

Police officials said they had seen groups like The Proud Boys and Patriot Front, a white supremacist group, put posters at college campuses in the city.

“There are people we’re definitely concerned with in the tristate area,” Chief Galati said. “It’s our job to identify them and make sure they’re not acting out.”

The R.E.M.E. unit will include representatives from New Jersey and Pennsylvania state police, and agents from the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

How to deal with threats from far-right groups has been a subject of debate at the highest levels of law enforcement. While supporters of groups like the Islamic State or Al Qaeda can be charged in federal court for supporting an overseas terror organization, critics say there is no comparable charge when someone supports a domestic group that endorses violence.

But the police department’s new unit will likely test how far state and local prosecutors can push local laws to fill gaps in federal statutes. New York State has its own terrorism charges, including a material support charge that could be used against proponents of domestic, far-right groups, Mr. Miller said.

“We’re essentially legally all set for our state charge,” Mr. Miller said. “Our state charge makes no differentiation between domestic terrorism and foreign terrorism, and there is a material support charge.”

The New York Police Department has drawn fire from civil liberties lawyers in the past for its monitoring of political groups. After the Sept. 11 attacks, the police department helped launch a secret surveillance program targeting the city’s Muslim population. In more recent history, the department has kept tabs on groups that protest police brutality, like Black Lives Matter.

Mr. Miller said that is within the intelligence bureau’s purview to monitor far-right groups.

“Well, we’re authorized to do that,” Mr. Miller said. “We’re the only entity in the N.Y.P.D. designated in the patrol guide to investigate quote-unquote political activity, meaning political activity that could lead to illegal activity.”

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Reposted from Dark Reading

Network segmentation is considered a key security control to prevent attackers from easily accessing critical assets from compromised, but unprivileged, computers. So why aren't more companies doing it?

Fewer than one in five companies is currently using network segmentation to slow intruders from moving around its network, mainly due to the difficulty of configuring and maintaining firewall rules, according to a survey conducted by network security provider Illumio.

The survey, based on interviews with 300 IT professionals, found that 19% of companies currently use network segmentation to reduce the risk of a data breach, while another 26% are planning a project in the next six months. Yet a whopping 55% of companies are not even considering deploying segmentation in that time frame, according to the survey. 

The responses suggest that companies understand the benefits of segmenting their applications and servers, but the difficulty of the project has dissuaded many IT professionals, causing them to put off efforts, says Matt Glenn, vice president of product management for Illumio.

"When we talked to people, they never say that they don't want to do segmentation," he says. "They ask how can they do it and what is the cost."

Network segmentation is one way of dispensing with trust and minimizing the impact that a user could have on the network. A variety of companies have touted the zero-trust model for security, labeling trust as weakness. By limiting access to specific critical assets and data, segmentation is one way of implementing zero-trust security and can harden networks against an intruder's efforts to laterally move after a breach. 

Last year, network segmentation appeared on the to-do lists of nine out of 10 companies, according to a blog post from network security firm Forescout. Illumio's survey suggests that companies still have to work to do, however. That's understandable, as network segmentation projects take a great deal of time and planning. Moreover, companies need to do it right — if done incorrectly, segmentation can create roadblocks for legitimate users. 

Because of these difficulties, two-thirds of respondents considered the process of segmenting using firewalls to be fairly challenging or even more difficult, the survey found.

"Among their most pressing concerns were cost, troubleshooting, deployment and making changes," Illumio stated in the report. "The difficulties respondents had with their firewalls ranged from deployment to obtaining budgets, implementing changes and verifying them."

Most companies have to deal with a large number of firewall rules. Almost two-thirds — 62% — of organizations have more than 1,000 rules per firewall, according to the survey.

Using firewalls as the basis of network segmentation can slow down the deployment of new rules for applications, the company says. The average time to deploy and tune a firewall is one to three months, and it takes an average of one to two weeks to accommodate a new application, according to the survey. Such delays make segmentation via the firewall not friendly to software development life cycles focused on DevOps, Glenn says.

"Most people when they think about doing segmentation, they are thinking about doing it with a firewall, and that it's like trying to put together Ikea furniture with a hammer," he says. "It's not going to work, but you only have one tool, so you use it, even if it is not the right one."

As agile development and techniques such as DevOps grow in popularity, companies are searching for methods of making security more responsive to application configuration. Software-defined networking has become one way that companies can quickly segment networks as well as add responsive security features, such as deceptive network architectures that can waste attackers' time.

Other companies — such as Cisco, Illumio, and VMware — focus on host-based segmentation, using the firewall of the application's host to enforce security segmentation on the application.

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Reposted from Smithsonian Magazine

Last Monday, thieves targeted Dresden’s treasure-filled Green Vault in a brazen heist, making off with a haul of precious jewels. Now, yet another German cultural institution has been hit by burglars: This time, the target was Berlin’s Stasi Museum, an institution dedicated to exploring the frightening history of East Germany’s secret police.

The break-in took place the morning of Sunday, December 1. Thieves scaled the roof of the museum—located on the grounds of the former headquarters of the Ministry for State Security, or Stasi—and broke through a first-floor window. Berlin police tell Claudia Otto and Sheena McKenzie of CNN that the perpetrators smashed several exhibition cases and stole multiple artifacts.

Among the missing goods are a pair of earrings, a ring laden with pearls and gems, a gold watch, and a gold timepiece. The stolen jewels, according to the Guardian’s Philip Oltermann, are primarily items confiscated from people who tried to escape Soviet-controlled East Germany. Since the collapse of the Soviet Union some 30 years ago, many such confiscated items have been returned, but the Stasi still houses a collection of valuables that could not be traced back to their original owners.

Also stolen were eight medals, including an Order of Karl Marx (the most important award given out in East Germany), an Order of Lenin and a Hero of the Soviet Union. Only one of these medals—a golden Patriotic Order of Merit—is an original; the rest are facsimiles.

Jörg Drieselmann, the museum’s director, tells Oltermann that even reproductions might find buyers among collectors of East German memorabilia. But “in terms of the value of the stolen items,” he adds, “you can almost lean back and relax.”

Speaking with BBC News, Drieselmann says the cost of the pilfered goods amounts to “a few thousand euros”—far less than the estimated value of the jewels stolen from the Green Vault, which have been described as “priceless.” (Local press estimate the trove’s value at around $1 billion, but the museum has declined to put a financial figure on the relics, instead deeming them “impossible to sell” because they are so well-known.)

Nevertheless, the loss of the Stasi’s artifacts came as a shock.

“It’s always painful when there’s a break-in. The feeling of security is considerably disturbed,” Drieselmann tells the German newspaper Der Tagesspiegel, as quoted by Naomi Rea of artnet News. “We are a historical museum, and don’t expect anyone to break into our premises. We are not the Green Vault.”

The building that houses the Stasi Museum was constructed in the early 1960s as the offices of Erich Mielke, the minister for state security who is credited with transforming the Stasi into an efficient and ruthless secret police organization. Using vast networks of informants and collaborators, the Stasi carried out both foreign espionage and domestic surveillance, encouraging friends and family members to spy on and report one another.

The organization earned a fearsome reputation for kidnapping and often executing officials who had fled the East German state. It was, according to Encyclopedia Britannica, “one of the most hated and feared institutions of the East German communist government.”

Jarred by the break-ins at two German institutions over the course of just a few days, the country’s culture minister, Monika Gruetters, has called for a national conference on museum security.

As reported by Agence France-Presse, she said, “We need to look at how museums can protect their objects from such brutal activities while still being accessible to the public in the normal way.”

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Reposted from The Washington Post

The National Zoo beefed up security after two young people were found shot outside its grounds in a weekend incident that disrupted an annual winter festival, officials said Sunday.

The zoo has increased the number of security guards and is working with D.C. police and Metro Transit Police to increase patrols nearby, a zoo spokeswoman said. Officials also plan to conduct bag checks and use handheld metal detectors at the three main entrances later this week, a measure the zoo also takes during busy days in spring.

The measures come after Saturday night’s commotion, when young people fought during the Zoo Lights festival and set off fireworks on the grounds. Two youths were found with gunshot wounds several blocks away, and authorities are investigating whether the incidents are connected.

Zoo spokeswoman Pamela Baker-Masson said violence was highly unusual for Zoo Lights, which for 13 years has drawn large crowds for an LED light display through New Year’s Day.

“We take security very seriously — security of our guests, security of the staff and security of the animals,” ­Baker-Masson said. “We want people to feel safe and secure, and we believe we are going to provide that experience.”

The people shot were initially reported in stable condition and conscious. Police said Sunday they were not aware of any changes and have not released the identities or ages of the victims.

D.C. Council member Mary M. Cheh (D-Ward 3), whose district includes the zoo, said she was talking to authorities about deploying “violence interrupters” to prevent any retaliation for the shootings.

“I want people in and around the zoo to know this was not a sort of random shooting, because these people were apparently known to each other, and police have a definite focus to make sure this won’t happen again,” Cheh said.

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Reposted from Allied Universal

Highways, train stations, bus ways and airports experience their own type of holiday bloat, packed to the gills with frantic travelers trying to get to their destination. It can be hectic, nerve-wracking and stressful. If you have ever seen any of National Lampoon’s Vacation movies and traveled cross-county during the U.S. holiday season, then you know first-hand how Griswold misadventures and shenanigans can quickly become a fiction-based reality starring your family and you.

With nearly an estimated one third of Americans traveling, the U.S. Department of Transportation reports the Thanksgiving , Christmas and New Year’s holidays as the busiest long-distance travel periods of the year. Whether you are traveling by plane, train, or automobile, some forethought and preparation can help you stay safe, healthy and sane on your travels. 

It doesn’t matter if your holiday “quest for fun” involves an exotic destination or you are making that annual trek to visit family for Thanksgiving, you can save yourself from a Griswold vacation with these travel safety tips:  

Before You “Hit the Road”

• Prepare your home to appear occupied if you will be gone for an extended period. Maintain the lawn, and make arrangements for someone to collect mail and packages, or arrange a temporary hold on your mail. If possible, use light timers. Ask a neighbor to park in driveway periodically—anything that makes it look you are not gone for an extended time period. 
• If you have an alarm system, make sure it is activated and you inform your alarm monitoring company how to contact you if a breach is identified. 
• Ensure water lines are not left on and unplug appliances. If there is chance of a freeze while you are out, insulate external pipes prior to departure. 
• Communicate your travel plans and contact information to family or close friends so if something unexpected happens, your whereabouts and itinerary are known.
• Leave or advise the location of current legal documents, such as will, power of attorney and insurance documents with a family member or friend. 
• Inform your bank, credit card and mobile phone providers of your travel dates and destination to avoid any interruption of service for perceived fraudulent activity. 
• If traveling internationally, ensure your passport or Visa and inoculations are order and that your phone is optimized for international voice and data plans. Bring copies of your passports with you and store them separately from the originals.
• Check weather and travel advisories pertaining to your route and pack and prepare accordingly.

If Traveling by Car

• Service your car prior to your departure. 
• Check tires, oil, and fluid levels and that your brakes are in good condition.
• Check that your emergency kit and car tools are complete and in working order.

Pack Like a Pro

• Traveling light will allow you to more easily manage baggage and move quickly through transit stations/terminals with less physical strain and distraction. Pack mix-and-match clothing that can be combined and layered.
• Pack necessary medication in their original labeled containers and bring prescriptions with you in case refills are needed or to prove their legality.
• Bring appropriate identification and insurance information.
• Stay connected. Remember your chargers and consider purchasing a mobile “hotspot” and charger in the event your battery runs low and you can’t find a charging station or Wi-Fi is unavailable. 
• Pack hand sanitizer, tissues, and hand-wipes to help keep germs at bay.
• Limit credit cards to one or two and only carry small amounts of cash.
• Pack a travel first aid kit and over the counter medication in case of an emergency.

What NOT to Pack

• Valuables such as expensive jewelry, clothing and irreplaceable or sentimental items should be left at home. 
• Do not wear expensive items of clothing or jewelry. If you are perceived as an affluent tourist, your travel risk increases.
• Leave unnecessary credit cards, Social Security card or other items you might normally carry. Only bring the essentials to minimize your risk of loss.

Best Travel Safety Practices

• Don’t wear headphones or walk through public, high traffic areas talking on your phone. Stay situationally aware at all times. 
• Keep your valuables close to your body in zipped, secured pockets or bags. Cross body bags worn under a jacket provides best protection.
• If you are lost find a safe place to get your bearings—whether in a public transit area or traveling by car. 
• Report any suspicious activity to local authorities or security as soon as possible.

Whether you stay home or hit the road, we wish you a safe and happy holiday season.

Stay vigilant!

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Reposted from the Insurance Journal

The management of Dresden’s Green Vault, where the biggest museum heist in post-World War II German history took place on Monday, has declined to estimate the market value of the stolen jewelry “because it is impossible to sell.” That, sadly, is not true. Stealing art and antique artifacts pays, and even seemingly well-secured museums like the Green Vault will be robbed from time to time.

The Green Vault, one of the world’s oldest museums, first opened to the public in the early 18th century. Unlike the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston, the scene of a $500 million art heist in 1990, it had a proper alarm system, but the thieves apparently disabled it by setting fire to a nearby electrical distribution hub (which should teach museum managers everywhere never to depend on a single power source). Then they acted fast, cutting through a fence, breaking a window and making off with a number of small but immensely valuable diamond-studded items that could be worth up to $1 billion. The jewels were not insured (which should teach museum managers everywhere not to skimp on insurance — at least the thieves could be tempted to blackmail the insurance company, as they sometimes do, making it easier to catch them).

In an interview with the weekly Der Spiegel, Dutch art detective Arthur Brand suggested that the thieves, if they were professionals, would probably break down the items and sell the diamonds separately. In March 2017, a similarly bold heist occurred in Berlin’s Bode Museum: After breaking through a window, the thieves grabbed a 220-pound gold coin worth more than $4 million. Four men, three of them members of a well-known Berlin crime family, went on trial for the theft early this year, but there’s still no verdict and the coin hasn’t been found, probably because it’s long since been melted down.

But then, Brand’s own professional history shows that this is far from the only possible scenario. This year, he recovered a gold ring that used to belong to Oscar Wilde, stolen in 2002 from an Oxford University college by a former cleaning-company employee. The thief had long maintained he’d sold it to a gold-scrap dealer, but Brand didn’t believe him and continued investigating with the help of a man with connections to the London underworld. The college is getting the ring back next month.

The market in stolen art and antiquities has been estimated at up to $6 billion annually. Around 50,000 thefts occur every year, and only a small fraction of the stolen artifacts are ever recovered. Some are lost forever, some resurface after many years like the Wilde ring or the two stolen Van Goghs that were put back on display in Amsterdam in April after a 17-year absence. The art and antique market has a dark underbelly that swallows up the stolen artifacts.

The market has a tradition of secrecy. As cultural-heritage law expert Gregory Day wrote in 2014, “These norms make it taboo for buyers to ask sellers questions about a work’s purchase history, prior owners and place of origin. Acceptable buyers must abide by this code, understanding that even million-dollar sales frequently occur informally, structured as an ‘as is’ transaction.”

This means many of those who buy art and antiques in good faith are getting stolen goods. But good faith is a nebulous notion in this market, where some dealers, known to researchers as “Janus figures,” provide an interface between legal and illegal layers of the trade. It’s hard to know when a collector is knowingly buying a stolen item or simply following the tradition of not asking enough questions. Even a stolen Vermeer or Rembrandt is relatively easy to hide: Museums only show slivers of their collections, and private collectors routinely keep their art troves in bank vaults and free ports, where hardly anyone ever sees them.

With jewelry, even involving pieces as notable as the ones stolen from the Green Vault, it’s even easier. It would take an expert to determine that this pearl necklace around a woman’s neck at a party or that diamond-encrusted brooch on an evening dress comes from the Dresden heist, and the expert probably wouldn’t summon the courage to ask — in the unlikely event that he was invited to that particular ball at all.

Apart from boosting security, which isn’t easy for museums since they need to remain accessible to the public, there’s not much that can be done about the prevalence of art theft. The optimal solution, perhaps, is a limited amnesty for collectors who end up with stolen items on their hands, coupled with a limited reward for returning them. After all, stolen artifacts usually sell for less than 10% of their full value on the black market, and a reward of up to 5% could be an attractive alternative to sitting on stolen goods for years or trying to sell them.

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Reposted from Security Management

As tragedies go, the 15 March terrorist attack in Christchurch, New Zealand, seemed particularly concerning for several reasons.

The country had experienced political bombings and other violent protest acts, but never anything to the extent of a mass shooting with 51 fatalities. “I’m 66. I never thought in my life I would live to see something like this—not in New Zealand,” a local woman told news outlets near the scene of the attacks. 

The suspect’s attempts to draw attention to the deadly acts also seemed unprecedented: he live-streamed the shootings via a head-mounted camera. Hours after the suspect’s arrest, some Internet users continued uploading the video to YouTube and other online services. “The rapid and wide-scale dissemination of this hateful content—live-streamed on Facebook, uploaded on YouTube, and amplified on Reddit—shows how easily the largest platforms can still be misused,” U.S. Senator Mark Warner (D-VA) said in a statement.

The suspect also self-identified as a white supremacist in a lengthy manifesto he posted on Twitter before the attack. In the manifesto, the suspect railed against cultural dilution, described nonwhite people as invaders, and advocated for the superiority of his race. Experts said he had clearly spent time scouring the Internet for sites where extremists from around the world vent their anger and discuss white nationalist concepts, such as replacement theory.

This too is troubling, experts say, because this type of activity, and its potential for violence, seems to be on the upswing. Erroll Southers, a former FBI agent who is a counterterrorism expert and homeland security scholar at the University of Southern California, recently said that white supremacy is no longer a movement on the fringes but “is being globalized at a very rapid pace.”

The Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism, a nonpartisan research center at California State University, San Bernardino (CSUSB), has found that the current atmosphere of worldwide political polarization and upheaval offers extremists an opportunity to present their views as an alternative to those who have soured on mainstream political choices. This can also lead to more violence. 

For example, the United Kingdom’s Home Office reported that hate crimes surged following the Brexit vote in 2016. Not long before the vote, a member of Parliament who opposed the referendum, Jo Cox, was murdered. Similarly, a recent analysis of FBI data conducted by the CSUSB center found that in the United States, the election period of November 2016 was the worst month for hate crimes since September 2002.

Earlier this year, a new report released by the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) found that the number of white nationalist groups surged by almost 50 percent from 100 groups in 2017 to 148 groups in 2018. The vast majority of U.S. hate groups, including neo-Nazis, the Ku Klux Klan, racist skinheads, neo-Confederates, and white nationalists, adhere to some form of white supremacist ideology, according to the SPLC. Also in 2018, right-wing terrorists killed at least 40 people in the United States and Canada, up from 17 in 2017. 

The extent of the violent far-right terror problem can differ from country to country, according to Chris Hawkins, senior analyst at Jane’s Terrorism and Insurgency Centre.

 “In the United States, far-right extremism is emerging as a significant terrorism threat, with attack incident rates and casualty numbers likely to rise more quickly than those of Islamist terrorism,” Hawkins says. As evidence, he cites FBI data which indicates that in 2017 and 2018 there were higher arrest rates of domestic terrorism suspects, including white supremacists and other far-right extremists, than those linked to international terror groups, such as jihadists.

In Western Europe, the threat posed by far-right extremism has also risen sharply in recent years, but it remains significantly smaller than the Islamist terrorism threat. For example, 64 counterterrorism operations against right-wing extremists in Western Europe were recorded in the two-year period between 2017 and 2018, almost triple the 22 operations in 2015–16, according to IHS Markit, an information and intelligence company. In comparison, 275 Islamist-related counterterrorism operations were recorded in 2017 and 2018.

Although right-wing extremism does not exceed Islamic extremism in Europe, it is becoming a key secondary consideration for security forces’ resources, given the rising number of right-wing incidents, according to Hawkins.

“The absence of an organized structure, or parent group, comparable with the Islamic State also makes far-right extremism more difficult for security services—which are mostly focused on the larger threat of Islamist terrorism—to detect and disrupt,” Hawkins explains. 

Another troubling factor about far-right inspired attacks, he adds, is that they are more likely to be lone wolf operations, which are harder to detect. “Far-right-inspired attacks are less predictable because perpetrators are unlikely to be affiliated with an organization with a persistent ideology and support network,” Hawkins explains.

However, it is still possible to detect a potential far-right attack before it happens, as one recent U.S. incident illustrated.

In February, U.S. authorities arrested Christopher Paul Hasson, a Coast Guard lieutenant who had been stockpiling weapons since 2017 and cultivating plans to attack prominent U.S. Democratic lawmakers, including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, and several high-profile television journalists from left-leaning outlets like MSNBC.

Court documents indicated that Hasson espoused extremist and white supremacist views online, including advocating for the establishment of a white homeland. He also studied a 1,500-page manifesto written by the Norwegian right-wing terrorist Anders Breivik. Hasson had worked at the U.S. Coast Guard headquarters in Washington, D.C., since 2016, and was an active duty member when he was arrested. In the charges, authorities alleged he was a drug addict who unlawfully possessed controlled substances, firearms, and an illegal gun silencer.

Josh Schubring, CPP, chair of ASIS International's Global Terrorism, Political Instability, and International Crime Council, says that from a security perspective, the type of insider threat that Hasson represented is “definitely a concern.”

Hasson used his office computer to conduct many suspicious Internet searches, such as, “do senators have Secret Service protection?” This set off red flags with the agency. “I think the Coast Guard saw a good return on its investment in the cyber tools that it utilized,” says Schubring, who is principal of security solutions at Schubring Global Solutions.

However, in some ways the suspect’s operation did not seem well thought-out, Schubring adds. Anyone who has received security training should be aware of the risk of conducting such searches. “He should have known he would be monitored,” Schubring explains.

And although Hasson allegedly stockpiled weapons and narcotics and did “a lot of internal ranting,” he never directly threatened anyone or took clear operational steps. “If he had started to surveil people or make statements in public, then that’s kind of moving it up on the next rung of the ladder, from thoughts to action,” Schubring explains. Overall, Hasson seemed to have an obsession “which he may or may not have acted on,” Schubring adds.

In the end, the Coast Guard succeeded in stopping this insider threat before he could act. “They did a great job on that,” Schubring says. 

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Reposted from The Chicago Tribune

Security is not subtle at the sprawling campus of human resources technology giant Paycom in Oklahoma City.

Off-duty police officers roam the grounds, bolstering the company’s own force of armed guards. A basement command center that looks like something out of a spy movie is filled with video screens showing feeds from hundreds of security cameras at company offices across the country.

While heavy security has become common at airports and stadiums to deter terrorism, extreme measures have been out of the ordinary at most companies eager to maintain a comfortable work environment and a welcoming atmosphere.

But that may be changing, as more are now hardening their defenses with new techniques, and even new legal authority, to deal with growing fears about violence on the job.

As mass shootings have become frequent, more company leaders have confronted an absence of clear plans for protecting workers from a disgruntled colleague, even after a threat is received.

Now, spurred by an incident at Paycom, the company has produced a formal threat assessment and response guide that serves as a national model for ways to keep a potentially dangerous person away from other workers.

The company’s approach also includes a new measure based on domestic violence laws.

“This is a huge leap forward in public policy for safety in this country,” said Larry Barton, a University of Central Florida professor who teaches courses in threat evaluation at the FBI Academy. “This is a case study, for me as an educator, that I believe will be taught in business schools and in criminal justice courses for decades to come.”

The guide was the product of brainstorming sessions convened by the company with workplace violence experts, law enforcement and civic leaders, after an ex-worker made threats against employees.

A new law, enacted by the Oklahoma Legislature this year with Paycom’s guidance, allows businesses to petition the court for a victim’s protective order much like one that a woman might obtain against a former boyfriend. A judge can order a potentially dangerous person to stay away from a business or its employees, which companies couldn’t do before.

Barton, a safety consultant for private companies, said dozens of businesses as well as policy makers have expressed interest in both the guide and the new law as a way to protect themselves.

Although the number of people killed in workplace violence has remained steady at between 400 and 500 per year, Barton said there has been an increase in the number of on-the-job shootings involving four or more victims.

“This has been an especially disturbing year,” Barton said. “We’re tracking now about a 19% increase in mass shootings, which is very noteworthy.”

Among the recent high-profile incidents are a mass shooting in Virginia Beach, Virginia, in May, in which a city engineer killed 12 people at his office, and the fatal shooting of five employees at an Aurora manufacturing plant in February by a co-worker.

Oklahoma has its own history of workplace violence. In 1986, a disgruntled worker shot 14 people at a post office in Edmond. Five years ago, a woman was beheaded at a food processing plant in Moore by a co-worker who had just been suspended.

In the case of Paycom, which employs about 3,200 people nationwide, the former worker was arrested last year and is facing felony charges in connection with threatening messages and social media posts. The case has been moved to mental health court, which is designed to divert individuals with a mental illness from jail or prison.

The new threat assessment guide lays out a series of factors that company officials should consider in judging a threat and how to respond.

Included are questions about whether an employee has been undergoing personality changes, has a troubled personal life, exhibits confused thinking, is abusing drugs or alcohol or has access to firearms.

Depending on how many questions are answered “yes,” responses can range from a one-on-one meeting, to termination to obtaining a protective order or calling 911.

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