North Korea

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Blue Ribbon Study Panel On Biodefense Receives $2.5 Million Grant To Reduce Risk of Catastrophic Bioweapon Disease Outbreaks

Press Release | Blue Ribbon Study Panel on Biodefense | February 15, 2018

The Blue Ribbon Study Panel on Biodefense announced today a $2.5 million grant from the Open Philanthropy Project. The grant allows the Panel to continue its leadership role in assessing our nation’s biodefense, issuing recommendations and advocating for their implementation, and identifying viable avenues for needed change to policy. The grant comes amidst heightened global tensions as North Korea and other regimes seek to develop biological weapons. It also arrives on the 100th anniversary of a catastrophic influenza pandemic that took the lives of millions around the world, a stark reminder of the dangers of biological events.

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Developing Nations Improving Health Communication Through the Use of DHIS2 (Part 1)

DHIS2 implementations are spreading steadily among national health services in developing countries as well as among international non-governmental organizations (NGOs) working to improving health in the developing world through the use of health information technology. As an open source solution, DHIS2 offers developing countries the advantage of adopting a cost-effective and flexible solution for aggregate statistical data collection, validation, analysis, management, and presentation as well as for data sharing between healthcare professionals and facilities. Organizations and individuals who work with humanitarian software solutions will need to know what DHIS2 is, how it works, and how it might be implemented by national health services and other health-related projects across the globe...

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Electromagnetic Pulse Caucus Battles Skeptics In Push To Protect The Planet

Billy House | Nextgov | March 11, 2013

Doomsday preppers or congressional visionaries? A small but growing cadre of House members is set to relaunch efforts to protect the nation against what they say is a very real threat: the unleashing of an electromagnetic pulse either by a solar storm or a nuclear-armed foe that could cripple much of the nation’s electrical infrastructure. Read More »

Forget The Sony Hack, This Could Be The Biggest Cyber Attack Of 2015

Patrick Tucker | Defense One | December 19, 2014

...[A]ccording to cyber-security professionals, the Sony hack may be a prelude to a cyber attack on United States infrastructure that could occur in 2015, as a result of a very different, self-inflicted document dump from the Department of Homeland Security in July...

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How The Iraq War Crippled U.S. Military Power

Nathan Freier | Defense One | May 1, 2014

...The decline of American military influence actually began with 9/11 and the reflexive response to a growing threat the U.S. government never completely understood. It was exacerbated by the impetuous decision to go to war against Iraq in March 2003....

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Medical Devices Hit by Ransomware for the First Time in US Hospitals

Thomas Fox-Brewster | Forbes | May 17, 2017

Is it possible that North Korea used a stolen National Security Agency hacking tool to infect medical devices at U.S. hospitals? Turns out, in today's topsy-turvy world, it is. When the NSA cyber weapon-powered WannaCry ransomware spread across the world this past weekend, it infected as many as 200,000 Windows systems, including those at 48 hospital trusts in the U.K. and so-far unnamed medical facilities in the U.S. too. It wasn't just administrative PCs that were hacked, though. Medical devices themselves were affected too, Forbes has learned...

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Medicine and Public Health in Nuclear War Diplomacy and Response

Press Release | University of Georgia | September 7, 2017

The world is not prepared to deal with the devastating effects of a thermonuclear attack, according to Cham Dallas, professor of public health and director of the Institute for Disaster Management at the University of Georgia. Dallas said that the development of a hydrogen bomb by North Korea is a transformative event, especially from the point of view of the medical and public health response to a thermonuclear detonation...

Obama Lets NSA. Exploit Some Internet Flaws, Officials Say

David E. Sanger | The New York Times | April 12, 2014

Stepping into a heated debate within the nation’s intelligence agencies, President Obama has decided that when the National Security Agency discovers major flaws in Internet security, it should — in most circumstances — reveal them to assure that they will be fixed, rather than keep mum so that the flaws can be used in espionage or cyberattacks, senior administration officials said Saturday.  But Mr. Obama carved a broad exception for “a clear national security or law enforcement need,” the officials said, a loophole that is likely to allow the N.S.A. to continue to exploit security flaws both to crack encryption on the Internet and to design cyberweapons.

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Reaction To The Sony Hack Is 'Beyond The Realm Of Stupid'

Jason Koebler | Motherboard | December 17, 2014

It's been a big day for news surrounding the massive, ongoing Sony hack saga.  First, major movie chains announced that they would not be screening The Interview after ​​a nonspecific threat of violence from the​ Guardians of Peace, the hacking collective that attacked Sony...

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So Much For Exporting Democracy: Afghanistan Is As Corrupt As North Korea

Catherine A. Traywick | Social Reader | December 3, 2013

After 12 years, nearly $700 billion, and more than 2,000 dead U.S. soldiers, here's what the United States has to show for its efforts in Afghanistan: a government that's perceived to be as corrupt as North Korea, according to a new report from the anti-corruption group Transparency International. Read More »

Successful Hacker Attack Could Cripple U.S. Infrastructure, Experts Say

Erin McClam | NBC News | February 19, 2013

A report tying the Chinese military to computer attacks against American interests has sent a chill through cyber-security experts, who worry that the very lifelines of the United States — its energy pipelines, its water supply, its banks — are increasingly at risk. Read More »

Why The Sony Hack Should Scare Feds

Mark Rockwell | FCW | December 12, 2014

As the fallout from the unprecedented electronic attack on Sony Pictures Entertainment continues, cybersecurity experts said federal IT managers -- while likely facing no immediate threat from the group that attacked Sony -- should be paying close attention...

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