Monthly Archives: October 2021

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

In a clear message of the states patience running out amid the protests by proscribed Tehreek-i-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP), National Security Adviser (NSA) Moeed Yusuf on Thursday said that the outfit has crossed a red line.

The NSA cautioned the TLP to be mindful of the fact that there will be no armed militias of any sort in our country.

The statement from the top security adviser came as the protesters created chaos in Punjab's cities, with the government holding talks with their imprisoned leader Saad Hussain Rizvi.

Yusuf took to Twitter to condemn and warn the TLP protestors for orchestrating extreme violence against the policemen during their protest march.

The NSA said that the proscribed organisations protestors had martyred policemen, destroyed public property, and continued to cause massive public disruption. He warned that the law would take its course for each one of them adding: and the outlaws will be treated like terrorists with no leniency.

He clarified that for all the individuals and groups who think they could 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 underscored.

The NSA said that the proscribed organisations protestors had martyred policemen, destroyed public property, and continued to cause massive public disruption.

He warned that the law would take its course for each one of them adding: and the outlaws will be treated like terrorists with no leniency.

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TLP has crossed a red line: NSA Moeed Yusuf - The Nation

Anonymous, 29 Oct 2021LOL Xiaomi will always be cry baby in its own country market Who let an 8yr old on a phone?

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[deleted post]U dont know or ignorant.of course they chose honor coz they think if they chose crapple they be spied..just like u...u dont chose huawei coz u think huawei spied on u.logic

A1367278

Anonymous, 29 Oct 2021Since Honor is similar to Huawei in form factor, specs, UI won't they switch to Honor? For midrangers but not so much for flagships. Honor's magic series hasn't done that well. The big selling points of Huawei flagships were the cameras and Kirin chips and Honor doesn't have the chips anymore

S28944

how tf Honor able to replace Huawei, in such short time period. it amaze me, seriously.

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Xiaomi have exclusive mi ultra and mix 4 china only Why to do this if you fail in sales ?

D2582736

Anonymous, 29 Oct 2021Edward Snowden was the only good nsa.Fun fact, Snowden was the one who leaked that Huawei was up to no good.

D2582736

Fanboy of All brands, 29 Oct 2021what is nsa? The agency who flagged Honor for a lot of suspect software decisions before they changed name from Huawei.

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MadMel, 29 Oct 2021good guys, you know, like Clint, Mel, John, Britney ...Edward Snowden was the only good nsa.

M734224

Fanboy of All brands, 29 Oct 2021what is nsa? good guys, you know, like Clint, Mel, John, Britney ...

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Aierlan, 29 Oct 2021Apple is the biggest gainer from the US Huawei restrictions. Many professionals in China will ... moreSince Honor is similar to Huawei in form factor, specs, UI won't they switch to Honor?

c735223

Fanboy of All brands, 29 Oct 2021what is nsa? National security agency. They're basically the American equivalent to what we have in UK, GCHQ (government communication headquarters) Mi5, Mi6, GCHQ, NSA, CIA they're intelligence agencies . Some would say responsible for keeping the country safe away from things such as terrorist attacks. Others would say they're responsible for spying on you and your data

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LOL Xiaomi will always be cry baby in its own country market

A1367278

Apple is the biggest gainer from the US Huawei restrictions. Many professionals in China will only buy Huawei or Apple when it comes to flagship phones. With Huawei unable to produce phones in large quantities, it's Apple who is gaining the most from previous Huawei customers in the more profitable flagship segment

G

I did own a Honor Play back a few years ago. Nice phone especially with EMUI. Best Chinese UI IMHO.

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X30 max is the first semi-decent phone from them i've seen. And the big screen is another advantage as there are rarely bigger than 6.7 phones.

D2582736

The "now independent" "brand" "brought over" users from "Huawei".

Yes, sure. The NSA will definitely fall for this.

c735223

Very poor numbers for Xiaomi, Considering in China they have alot of exclusive phones such as the 10 ultra and the civi and all the redmi phones . Looks like Xiaomi isn't that big in its home country .

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Canalys: Honor is the third-biggest smartphone maker in China for Q3 2021 - comments - GSMArena.com

Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan on Friday said the stringent National Security Act will be invoked against those who are selling fertilizers in the black market.

With farmers facing a shortage of urea and other fertilizers, opposition Congress is targeting the BJP government on the issue.

"I have reviewed the situation regarding fertilizers again. MP needs six lakh metric tonnes of fertilizer (urea),'' Chouhan told reporters at Chhatarpur. Farmers should be patient and must not panic, the chief minister said.

''Adequate stocks would be kept available. I will monitor the situation daily,'' he said. "NSA would be invoked against people who are indulging in black-marketing of fertilizers," he added.

In Bhopal, state Congress spokesperson Jitu Patwari said as per the government data, 3,18,000 tonnes of urea had arrived in Madhya Pradesh against the sanctioned 4, 99,000 tonnes.

''Then why just 2,31,000 tonnes of urea has been distributed? Where has one lakh tonnes of urea gone? In the godowns of BJP people....Release it,'' Patwari said in a statement.

The situation was so grim that trucks and warehouses were being looted and fertilizer distribution was being done from police stations, but state agriculture minister (Kamal Patel) was busy attending fashion shows, the Congress leader claimed, adding that ''such ministers should be sacked.'' PTI COR LAL KRK KRK

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

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MP CM says NSA will be invoked against black-marketing of fertilizers - Devdiscourse

With an evolving cyber threat landscape and adversaries that are growing more sophisticated by the day, National Security Agency (NSA) Director Gen. Paul Nakasone who also heads United States Cyber Command (CYBERCOM) today pointed to partnership and collaboration as the best way to protect the nation from cyber threats.

On the final day of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agencys (CISA) fourth annual Cybersecurity Summit Oct. 27, Gen. Nakasone said building private-public partnerships in the cybersecurity arena will help ensure that an attack on any allied entity is viewed and treated as an attack on all.

Our adversaries are exploiting gaps in government policies and authorities to gain and maintain access to our systems while evading detection or response, Gen. Nakasone said in his keynote remarks. As the scope of malicious cyber incidents and the sophistication of our adversaries grow, it will take a unified public-private sector strategy to gain the competitive advantage in this environment.

Partnership is where our power is, Gen. Nakasone emphasized. The combined talent of our partners is the greatest competitive advantage we have to confront these increasingly sophisticated threats to our nation. The general pointed to fallout from the Colonial Pipe Line hack earlier this year including panic buying of gasoline and unsafe storage of fuel as just one example of why the nation needs to collectively step up its cyber defense systems.

The CYBERCOM commander also pointed to CISAs new Joint Cyber Defense Collaborative as another opportunity for industry and the Federal government to collaborate on the nations cybersecurity.

For another example of how partnerships can work, Gen. Nakasone talked about the joint NSA CYBERCOM election security group that teamed up with the FBI, CISA, and private partnerships to create a force multiplier to protect the security of the nations elections in 2018 and 2020.

In this era of strategic competition, a threat to one is a threat to all, Gen. Nakasone concluded. If youre an adversary, youll need to defeat all of us to defeat one of us.

This is the vision of National Cyber Director Chris Inglis, and its one I share, he said. No single public or private sector entity has perfect visibility into the behavior of these advanced adversaries. But together we can achieve and maintain cyberspace superiority against our adversaries, build resilience at home, and defend forward.

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Gen. Nakasone: 'Partnership is Where Our Power Is' - MeriTalk

National Security Advisor Ajit Doval on Thursday said "deliberate weaponization of dangerous pathogens" was a matter of serious concern, and called for the need to build comprehensive national capabilities and bio-defence, bio-safety, and bio-security.

Expressing concern over the issue of climate change, he said disasters and pandemics are borderless threats that cannot be combated in isolation and there was a need to evolve strategies to maximise our gains and minimise the losses.

Speaking on 'National security preparedness in the age of disasters and pandemics', at the Pune Dialogue on National Security (PDNS) 2021 organized by Pune International Centre here, Doval said the most enduring message of the COVID-19 pandemic and climate change is that only the well-being of all will ensure the survival of all.

"The deliberate weaponization of dangerous pathogens is a serious concern. This has heightened the need to build comprehensive national capabilities and bio-defence, bio-safety, and bio-security," he asserted.

The pandemic has further reinforced the need to predict threats and while biological research has legitimate scientific purposes, its dual-use application can be misused, he said.

Dwelling upon climate change, Doval said that it is another "threat" that multiplies with unpredictable consequences.

"It impacts the availability of resources, which are increasingly becoming scarce and could become a source of conflict than the competition. Climate change can accelerate instability and cause massive population displacement," he said.

"By 2030, 600 million people in India are expected to live in urban areas. Migrations from low-lying coastal areas in South Asia due to climatic change can add to the already stressed urban infrastructure," he added.

Doval said that all these will pose problems to internal security management, economic security, water, and food security, just to name a few.

"As far as national security and environment are concerned, there is a need to reinvent and innovate ourselves as rapid industrial developments are taking place with fourth industrial revolution technologies such as AI, autonomous and unmanned systems and digital infrastructures," he said.

Social media is adding to the complexity of national security management, according to him.

"A full integration of science and technology and all aspects of development in security has therefore become essential. Advances in sciences and technology will help prevent hazards. The advanced technologies, lab prediction technology, and risk communication techniques are being applied to reduce the risk," he said.

According to him, India has initiated several steps for global and regional coordination.

"Forums like BIMSTEC, Indian Ocean Rim Association, Shanghai Cooperation Organization, and QUAD seamless exchange of information and intelligence, sharing experience and lessons learned, technology transfer and coordination are important for disaster management and mitigation," he said.

Doval said that climate change, environmental degradation, and pollution are realities that threaten survival. "Businesses and security apparatuses need to focus on disaster-resilient structure and preserving natural resources for our future generations," he said.

He added that decisions about maintaining strategic national stockpiles, ensuring the availability, smooth supply of critical equipment, materials, and fortifying early alert framework have all become important elements of national security planning.

He said that the important climate change summit is coming up in Glasgow in early November.

"India is committed to meeting its climatic goals and has already undertaken several measures. Harmony with nature has been a cornerstone of the Indian civilization. Preservation of the environment, while perceiving its ambitious goals is a guiding doctrine of present government development policies," he said.

With a population of 1,300 million, India's per-capita greenhouse emission is 2.47 tonnes of carbon dioxide, he added.

"As compared to the global average of 6.45 tonnes of CO2, this is 60 per cent lower than the global average. We have already met 50 per cent of our commitment to achieve 450-gigawatt renewable energy by 2030," Doval said.

A series of measures are being undertaken to de-carbonize India's economy, he said.

"These targets have been widely applauded at the global level. At the same time, while Indian is taking all the steps which are important for the world to understand that given our size, population, and unique developmental requirements, our commitment can not be compared with those of the western world," he said.

Those who have greater resources should expand their embrace so that it touches the lives of maximum people, Doval added.

(Disclaimer: This story is auto-generated from a syndicated feed; only the image & headline may have been reworked by http://www.republicworld.com)

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NSA Ajit Doval stresses need to build bio-defence to tackle 'deliberate weaponization of dangerous pathogens' - Republic World

The intelligence community is trying to shed a long-held persona that its unwelcoming to employees from diverse backgrounds, but like much of government, its still struggling to retain and promote women and minorities.

The top leaders at five agencies within the intelligence community on Wednesday detailed their plans to improve diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility within their workforces.

Slowly, the intelligence community workforce has become slightly more diverse in recent years, officials said.

Minorities made up 27% of the intelligence community workforce in 2020, a half-percentage more than 2019. Women made up 39.3% of the IC workforce, Avril Haines, director of national intelligence, told members of the House Intelligence Committee Wednesday.

Like many federal agencies, data shows minorities and women often struggle to reach the upper-level ranks of the intelligence community. Minorities, for example, made up 15.4% of the Senior Executive Service within the IC.Hispanics make up just 3% of the SES within the intelligence community.

Within the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, minorities made up 20.5% of the overall workforce, and 16.7% of the agencys senior executive leadership corps.

In many ways, the intelligence community does a better job recruiting and hiring talent from diverse backgrounds than it does in retaining and promoting them, Haines said.

Weve learned through pulse surveys, exit interviews and retention inquiries something about why people stay and leave, she said. Weve found that the most common reason people leave the organization is a lack of promotion opportunities. Other causes of low retention include lack of fairness and equity in the workplace, insufficient mentoring and guidance and a lack of identification with the greater organization.

Haines said the IC agencies are seeking out more data on where their employees get stuck trying to move up the ranks. Specifically, theyre looking for barriers that might be embedded inside the promotion board process.

Its an ongoing process, she said. We need more data. We need to better understand what is in fact happening, but were also trying to communicate with the workforce as much as possible in order to address issues that we are finding.

CIA officers now have diversity, equity and inclusion metrics as part of their performance plans, the agencys director, William Burns, said.

All of the agencies said theyve expanded their partnerships with historically Black colleges and universities, minority-serving institutions and other affinity groups to help them expand their recruiting pool.

The National Security Agency said it has recruited a more diverse group of employees with each passing year. But its actively expanding its talent pool.

We have had a tendency to only recruit from a certain part of the United States and emphasis on a certain part of the United States, Gen. Paul Nakasone, NSA director, said. While we have been very focused on the East Coast we have to be much broader.

The CIA said its urgently focused on reducing the time it takes onboard new candidates. Currently, it takes candidates more than 600 days from the time they complete their application to the time they receive a security clearance to work at the CIA, Burns said.

The goal is to whittle that time down to 180 days over the course of the next two years.

Longer waiting times have historically disadvantaged minority applicants, many of whom dont have the means to remain in lengthy pipelines, Burns said.

The agency also launched a new directorate analysis program, which will give annual tuition assistance of up to $37,000 to minority students who apply, Burns said.

Theres a lot more we can do but we need your help with changing policies that hinder program execution, Haines said. For instance in a community that priorities resources by mission we found that policies that govern how we can allocate our recruiting dollars can actually hinder recruiting. For example, when one of our IC mission partners lacks the resources to send a recruiter to an event with an outreach partner, ODNI is prohibited from using its resources to include them. This is an area where we could use help from Congress.

ODNI has also created two separate offices for its equal employment opportunity division and diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility functions. The directors of those offices will both report to Haines.

I wanted to have an absolute focus, frankly, on diversity, equity and inclusion, somebody who is 24/7 so to speak focused on that issue, Haines said. Thats the number one reason. Number two, I find that both the equal employment opportunity office director and the person focused on diversity will report directly to me. Neither one of them are, in a sense, getting down further in the org chart. But both of them have to work through partnerships with different parts of the IC for different purposes.

The IC also created an enterprise-wide chief accessibility officer for the entire intelligence community, Haines added.

Not all committee members wanted to talk about diversity and inclusion initiatives at the IC. Members peppered the panel with questions about the recent operations in Afghanistan, vaccines, the border, intelligence on the origins of COVID-19 and a recent inspector general report on Michael Ellis, who the previous administration appointed to the NSA and its general counsel.

Mr. Chairman, we are simply going to have to retitle what we call our hearings, Rep. Mike Quigley (D-Ill.) said. Next time we do this, we need to title it diversity and oh my God, anything but diversity.

In his opening statement, committee Ranking Member Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) dismissed the topic of Wednesdays hearing altogether. He said the IC was distracted by better pronoun usage and woke obsessions and urged IC leadership to focus exclusively on deterring our enemies and winning wars.

The IC leaders, however, repeatedly made the case for workforce diversity and inclusion as a mission imperative.

A diverse workforce provides us with an asymmetric advantage that other nations simply do not have, Ronald Moultrie, undersecretary of defense for intelligence and security, said. We must find the means to appeal to this population, hire them into our most challenging fields and set conditions where they enthusiastically want to remain in our government.

Haines acknowledged the IC has long been known as a place that didnt welcome diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility. She said many agencies had open and stated policies that barred members of the LGBTQ+ community from serving at the IC.

Those policies are long gone, Haines said. But the IC still has a ways to go to improve.

Ensuring that we have an IC workforce made up of people who think differently, see problems differently and overcome challenges differently is a prerequisite to our success, she said. Their creativity makes us smarter, more innovative and more successful, and that makes our nation safer and more secure against the array of adversaries and the foreign threats that we face.

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Intelligence community workforce is more diverse, but still struggles with retention and promotion - Federal News Network