Tag Archives: espionage

The Washington Post reports: A Navy nuclear engineer and his wife have been charged with repeatedly trying to pass secrets about U.S. nuclear submarines to a foreign country, in an alleged espionage plot discovered by the FBI, according to court documents. Authorities say Jonathan Toebbe, who has a top-secret clearance, “has passed, and continues to pass, Restricted Data as defined …

Axios reports: NATO has removed eight “undeclared Russian intelligence officers” and reduced the number of accredited members allowed to work for the Russian mission from 20 to 10, a NATO official confirmed to Axios. Why it matters: It’s the first time NATO has expelled Russians claiming to be diplomats since 2018, after Russian military intelligence officers were accused of poisoning …

Politico reports: U.S. officials suspect that a notorious Russian spy agency may be behind alleged attacks that are causing mysterious health issues among U.S. government personnel across the world, according to three current and former officials with direct knowledge of the discussions. The intelligence community has not reached a consensus or made a formal determination. However, officials have told lawmakers …

The Associated Press reports: President Joe Biden had his first call with Vladimir Putin on Tuesday, raising concerns about the arrest of opposition figure Alexei Navalny while pressing the Russian president on his nation’s involvement in a massive cyber espionage campaign and bounties on American troops in Afghanistan, two senior administration officials said. Biden has looked to establish a sharp …

Fox News reports: The Senate voted to confirm Avril Haines as director of National Intelligence, making her the first woman in history to lead the intelligence community. The Senate confirmed Haines 84-10, just hours after President Joe Biden was sworn into office. Haines had her confirmation hearing before the Senate Intelligence Committee Tuesday and vowed to “set a strategic vision” …

NBC News reports: WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has been denied bail, a U.K. court ruled on Wednesday, and will remain in prison while lawyers for the U.S. government try to secure his extradition from Britain. The bail ruling comes just days after the same judge found that Assange could not be legally extradited to the United States to face espionage …

The Guardian reports: Julian Assange cannot be extradited to the US to face charges of espionage and of hacking government computers, a British judge has decided. The ruling was delivered at the central criminal court by the district judge, Vanessa Baraitser. She said the WikiLeaks founder was likely to be held in conditions of isolation in a so-called supermax prison …

Politico reports: Secretary of State Mike Pompeo publicly blamed Russia for the monthslong cyber hack of agencies across the U.S. government. “This was a very significant effort, and I think it’s the case that now we can say pretty clearly that it was the Russians that engaged in this activity,” Pompeo told radio host Mark Levin in an interview released …

The Associated Press reports: Federal authorities expressed increased alarm today about a long-undetected intrusion into U.S. and other computer systems around the globe that officials suspect was carried out by Russian hackers. The nation’s cybersecurity agency warned of a “grave” risk to government and private networks. The hack compromised federal agencies and “critical infrastructure” in a sophisticated attack that was …

From a statement issued today by Joe Biden: I have instructed my team to learn as much as we can about this breach, and Vice President-elect Harris and I are grateful to the career public servants who have briefed our team on their findings and who are working around-the-clock to respond to this attack. A good defense isn’t enough; we …

Bloomberg News reports: The U.S. nuclear weapons agency and at least three states were hacked as part of a suspected Russian cyber-attack that struck several federal government agencies. The Energy Department and its National Nuclear Security Administration, which maintains America’s nuclear stockpile, were targeted as part of a larger attack by suspected Russian hackers. In an advisory Thursday that signaled …

Reuters reports: A team of sophisticated hackers believed to be working for the Russian government won access to internal communications at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, according to people familiar with the matter. The breach was part of the campaign reported Sunday that penetrated the U.S. departments of Treasury and Commerce. DHS is a massive bureaucracy responsible for border …

The Washington Post reports: The Russian government hackers who breached a top cybersecurity firm are behind a global espionage campaign that also compromised the Treasury and Commerce departments and other government agencies, according to people familiar with the matter, who requested anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter. The FBI is investigating the campaign by a hacking group working …

The Guardian reports: The US whistleblower Edward Snowden and his wife are applying for Russian citizenship in order not to be separated from their future son in an era of pandemics and closed borders, he said on Monday. Snowden’s wife, Lindsay, is expecting a child in late December, the Interfax news agency cited Anatoly Kucherena, his Russian lawyer, as saying. …

Just in from the Department of Justice: According to court documents, from December 1996 to January 2011, Peter Rafael Dzibinski Debbins, 45, a former member of the U.S. Army, allegedly conspired with agents of a Russian intelligence service. During that time, Debbins periodically visited Russia and met with Russian intelligence agents. In 1997, Debbins was assigned a code name by …

Mediaite reports: Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) did not mince words in a tweet about Edward Snowden Sunday evening, calling him a “traitor” and stating that granting him a pardon “would be unconscionable.” Cheney’s tweet almost certainly came in response to a comment by Trump on Saturday that he was apparently willing to consider pardoning Snowden. “I’m going to look at …

The Guardian reports: Donald Trump said on Saturday that he would look at the issue of giving a pardon to whistleblower Edward Snowden. Snowden disclosed highly classified information from the National Security Agency in 2013. He revealed the news covertly to the Guardian after he fled to Hong Kong, before flying to Moscow to avoid extradition back to America. He …

The New York Times reports: A divided Senate voted on Thursday to confirm Representative John Ratcliffe of Texas, a fierce conservative ally of President Trump’s with relatively little intelligence experience, to become the next director of the nation’s spy agencies. Democrats opposed the nomination en masse, but they agreed to dispense with the normal rules and accelerate Mr. Ratcliffe’s confirmation …

The New York Times reports: Mr. Trump, who has mounted a yearslong attack on the intelligence agencies, is particularly difficult to brief on critical national security matters, according to interviews with 10 current and former intelligence officials familiar with his intelligence briefings. The president veers off on tangents and getting him back on topic is difficult, they said. He has …

Via press release from the Justice Department: Mariam Taha Thompson, 61, formerly of Rochester, Minnesota, was charged today in the District of Columbia with transmitting highly sensitive classified national defense information to a foreign national with apparent connections to Hizballah, a foreign terrorist organization that has been so designated by the Secretary of State. According to the affidavit filed in …