High-profile Attacks Research Articles

Verbal attacks on terrorist groups increase violence against civilians

Abstract Terrorists and other transnational extremist groups are responsible for thousands of civilian deaths. In confronting extremists, governments have relied heavily on threats, demands, denunciations, and other forms of verbal conflict. Do these efforts at verbal coercion have any effect on terrorist behavior? This analysis focuses on the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS), which continues to be the world's deadliest terrorist group and was responsible for recent high-profile attacks in Baghdad, Vienna, Kabul, and Russia. We use Bayesian structural vector autoregression models to analyze daily event data on interactions between ISIS and foreign governments for the 2014–2020 period. We find that verbal conflict initiated by governments not only failed to deter ISIS but in fact increased the frequency of ISIS's attacks on civilians. Additional empirical analyses, combined with evidence from ISIS's publications and public statements, suggest that this effect resulted from a perceived credibility deficit. Extremists use terror attacks to signal that they have the capabilities and willingness to inflict pain and suffering on civilian targets. Government attempts to coerce extremist groups verbally, rather than militarily, reflect an underestimation of the group's capabilities and resolve. In an effort to solidify their reputations, extremists engage in further violence toward civilians, thus leading to worse humanitarian consequences. We extend the analysis to Al-Qaeda in Iraq and Boko Haram and find similar results.

Terrorism and Global Security: A Comparative Analysis of Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State (IS)

The transformation of terrorism from Al-Qaeda to the Islamic State (IS) has created new security challenges. This article examines the threats posed by these two groups by discussing their ideologies, structures and capabilities. Unlike local terrorist groups like the Afghan Taliban, the Islamic State and Al-Qaeda pose a global threat. The work looked at the origin of Al- Qaeda which cannot be separated from the soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979, and the objective of Al- Qaeda which main purpose is unifying and leading the jihad movement and providing its purpose and direction. The organization of Al- Qaeda was also discuss in this work, which is divided into four levels, which include, core Al- Qaeda, affiliated groups, allied groups and motivated persons and network. This work also assessed the impact of Al- Qaeda in global security, where some scholars argued that the group is not viable enough to pose global threat while others argued against it. On the other hand this work examined the origin of IS which started as a result of U.S military intervention in Iraq in 2003. It also examines resource base of IS and its objectives which is the destruction of the asymmetry status- quo existing for a long between Muslim countries and the Western allies. The impact and threat assessment of Al- Qaeda and IS on global security which we found out is that IS initially was fighting the near enemy in Iraqi and Syrian regimes, but latter changed its strategy by equally focusing on the “far enemy” as well, and manifested in its high profile attacks in Europe and other places beyond the Middle East. Lastly the researcher look at the differences between Al- Qaeda and IS in terms of their structure, brutality, popularity, conceptual difference etc. At the end, this paper recommends that a comprehensive global strategy is required to eradicate this growing menace of organized terrorism.

Antisemitism and polarization: the political dynamics of American Jewish concerns about traditional and Israel-related antisemitism

ABSTRACT Notwithstanding the increasing alignment between social and political identities, political divisions exist within social groups as well as between them. Despite their shared traditions, American Jews face similar political divisions as Americans in general. But could the perception of a common threat, such as antisemitism, alter the dynamics of political polarization within a social group? American Jews’ concerns about antisemitism might themselves be filtered through political identities, with liberal Jews more concerned about “traditional” antisemitism (long-standing anti-Jewish stereotypes) emanating from the political right, and conservative Jews concerned about “Israel-related” antisemitism (blaming individual Jews for the actions of Israel) associated with the political left. Using a sample of over 2000 Jewish young adults, we find that, although liberal and conservative Jews are equally concerned about traditional antisemitism, conservatives are significantly more concerned about Israel-related antisemitism than liberals. We also find that, after a series of high-profile attacks on American Jews related to the 2021 Israel–Hamas conflict, liberal and conservative Jews’ concerns about Israel-related antisemitism increased at similar rates. These results suggest that, although concerns about antisemitism are influenced by political identity, rising antisemitism is unlikely to exacerbate political polarization between liberal and conservative Jews.

BoostedEnML: Efficient Technique for Detecting Cyberattacks in IoT Systems Using Boosted Ensemble Machine Learning.

Following the recent advances in wireless communication leading to increased Internet of Things (IoT) systems, many security threats are currently ravaging IoT systems, causing harm to information. Considering the vast application areas of IoT systems, ensuring that cyberattacks are holistically detected to avoid harm is paramount. Machine learning (ML) algorithms have demonstrated high capacity in helping to mitigate attacks on IoT devices and other edge systems with reasonable accuracy. However, the dynamics of operation of intruders in IoT networks require more improved IDS models capable of detecting multiple attacks with a higher detection rate and lower computational resource requirement, which is one of the challenges of IoT systems. Many ensemble methods have been used with different ML classifiers, including decision trees and random forests, to propose IDS models for IoT environments. The boosting method is one of the approaches used to design an ensemble classifier. This paper proposes an efficient method for detecting cyberattacks and network intrusions based on boosted ML classifiers. Our proposed model is named BoostedEnML. First, we train six different ML classifiers (DT, RF, ET, LGBM, AD, and XGB) and obtain an ensemble using the stacking method and another with a majority voting approach. Two different datasets containing high-profile attacks, including distributed denial of service (DDoS), denial of service (DoS), botnets, infiltration, web attacks, heartbleed, portscan, and botnets, were used to train, evaluate, and test the IDS model. To ensure that we obtained a holistic and efficient model, we performed data balancing with synthetic minority oversampling technique (SMOTE) and adaptive synthetic (ADASYN) techniques; after that, we used stratified K-fold to split the data into training, validation, and testing sets. Based on the best two models, we construct our proposed BoostedEnsML model using LightGBM and XGBoost, as the combination of the two classifiers gives a lightweight yet efficient model, which is part of the target of this research. Experimental results show that BoostedEnsML outperformed existing ensemble models in terms of accuracy, precision, recall, F-score, and area under the curve (AUC), reaching 100% in each case on the selected datasets for multiclass classification.

A Study on Cryptography

With the internet having reached a level that merges with our lives, growing explosively during the last several decades, data security has become a main concern for anyone connected to the web. Data security will ensure that our data is only accessible by the intended receiver and prevents any modification or alteration of data. In order to achieve this level of security, various algorithms and methods have been developed. High-assurance cryptography leverages methods from program verification and cryptography engineering to deliver efficient cryptographic software with machine-checked proofs of memory safety, functional correctness, provable security, and absence of timing leaks. Traditionally, these guarantees are established under a sequential execution semantics. However, this semantics is not aligned with the behavior of modern processors that make use of speculative execution to improve performance. This mismatch, combined with the high-profile Spectre-style attacks that exploit speculative execution, naturally casts doubts on the robustness of high-assurance cryptography guarantees. I Cryptography can be defined as techniques that cipher data, depending on specific algorithms that make the data unreadable to the human eye unless decrypted by algorithms that are predefined by the sender.

MITRE ATT&CK Based Evaluation on In-Network Deception Technology for Modernized Electrical Substation Systems

In recent years, cyber attacks against critical infrastructure have been increasing and are becoming stealthy and persistent. Attackers or malware may be hiding in the system after penetration to collect system information. They would further make lateral and vertical movement to seek target devices under the radar of existing cybersecurity measures. In order to counter such emerging attack vectors, in-network deception technology is attracting attention. In-network deception technology utilizes an apparently real but dummy (often virtual) devices deployed throughout the infrastructure to capture the attackers’ reconnaissance activities. In this paper, we pick one concrete design and implementation of in-network deception technology for IEC 61850 standard compliant smart substation systems in smart grid, named DecIED, and discuss its effectiveness in countering high-profile attacks that were recently witnessed in the real world. The evaluation is conducted based on the MITRE ATT&CK Matrix for industrial control systems, which tabulates phases and tactics of cyberattack against industrial control systems.

The evolution of Al-Qaeda: between regional conflicts and a globalist perspective

The article analyzes the prospects for the evolution of the odious terrorist group of modern times, «al-Qaeda». This topic is relevant, since the ongoing conflicts in the middle East, Africa and Asia continue to serve as an «ideal» environment for the development of radical groups and ideologies. Based on a detailed study of the history of the formation of this organization, its ideology, goals, objectives and strategy, the authors consider the possibility of «al-Qaeda» becoming the dominant force in the global extremist movement in the coming years. The article examines the main stages of activity of this group, presents the results of a comparative analysis of the tactics of «al-Qaeda» and its main competitor «ISIS». It is concluded that the strategic goal of «al-Qaeda» is to strengthen unity among foreign fighters of the global extremist movement. By engaging in some conflicts that are both fundamental and highly symbolic, «al-Qaeda» can further strengthen its image as the «true» vanguard of Islamist insurgents. The article focuses on the relationship between «al-Qaeda» and its affiliates in Iraq, Algeria, Yemen, and South Asia. The authors ' conclusions are based on the analysis of publications and speeches in the media space of the radical leader, A. al-Zawahiri. The authors conclude that modern «al-Qaeda» is a decentralized, networked transnational terrorist organization. The conclusion is made about the possibility of «al-Qaeda» entering a new phase of activity, which will include strengthening territorial control, expanding recruitment and high-profile terrorist attacks around the world.

Economic Impacts of Spillover Effects of Terrorism Countermeasures at Public Assembly Sites

Abstract In recent years, there have been many high-profile attacks on large, relatively unprotected venues, including entertainment and shopping complexes in the U.S. and around the world. Public and private decision-makers can choose from a wide array of terrorism countermeasures. A question arises as to whether patrons’ complaints about delays, inconvenience and invasion of privacy actually translate into decisions to attend fewer such events. This paper presents the bottom-line economic impacts of terrorism countermeasures on business revenue at three public assembly venues and on their surrounding regional economic activity. These venues include an MLB Stadium, an NBA/NHL Arena, and a Convention Center. The analysis is based primarily on survey responses relating to changes in attendance that stem from public perception of the implementation of four major types of countermeasures. The surveys indicated that the majority of patrons were not affected either way by the presence of the countermeasures, but nearly all of the remainder felt more secure in the presence of the countermeasures to both terrorism and ordinary crime, which resulted in an increased likelihood of attendance. The economic impact estimates yield a small but notable positive impact on business revenues, though this outcome varies significantly across venue types.

SOMALIA: High Profile Attacks

Africa Research Bulletin: Political, Social and Cultural SeriesVolume 58, Issue 7 p. 23243C-23244B National Security SOMALIA: High Profile Attacks First published: 19 August 2021 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-825X.2021.10104.xRead the full textAboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditWechat No abstract is available for this article. Volume58, Issue7August 2021Pages 23243C-23244B RelatedInformation

Sea piracy and maritime security challenges in the gulf of guinea, 1999 - 2018

This study has examined sea piracy and maritime security challenges in the Gulf of Guinea, 1999 – 2018. Available literature and secondary data confirms that Gulf of Guinea continues to remain an area of high concern in the area of sea piracy and maritime security challenges. High profile attacks in the Gulf of Aden, off the Horn of Africa waters, and in the Gulf of Guinea (GG), are mostly caused by Nigerian pirates and thus have elicited renewed international attention to the problems of piracy in the waters of Africa.This study was carried out to ascertain the extent to which hostage taking, oil theft and armed robbery at sea affected the security of vessels in the Gulf of Guinea. The data was analyzed using the quantitative descriptive method; also logical data framework was inclusive that shows the entire study at a glance. Consequently, empirical literature and various analyses in this study revealed that hostage taking, oil theft and armed robbery at sea, have affected the security of vessels in the Gulf of Guinea. The study also found that maritime insecurity in the region have adversely affected investment in the area particularly Nigeria; such as shipping of cargo goods, fishing trawlers, crude oil tankers among other; this allows the development of illegal offshore trade in crude oil and refined petroleum; consequently. Therefore, on the basis of the above analysis, the study concludes that hostage taking, oil theft and armed robbery at sea have significant effect on the security of imperative for Gulf of Guinea states to elect a proactive and pre-emptive leadership that would leverage on their oil affluence to address the problems of unemployment, poverty and deprivation especially in riverine communities, which incubate maritime afflictions.

Oral-Maxillofacial Surgery Anesthesia Team Model at a Crossroads Safety in Office-Based Anesthesia – Lessons We Can Learn from Aviation

Throughout its history, the American Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons (AAOMS) has raised the bar for patient safety. This article addresses new initiatives under consideration by the AAOMS House of Delegates that are consistent with a desire to assure patient access to safe and effective care. The anesthesia team model in oral-maxillofacial surgery is under attack on multiple fronts, and persistent criticism has intensified over the last few years. Dental office anesthesia tragedies that have occurred with every type of anesthesia provider and every model of anesthesia delivery have disproportionately triggered high-profile attacks on the safety of the oral-maxillofacial surgery model both from within and outside healthcare. Critics have alleged repeatedly that our model of anesthesia delivery is unsafe, we have inadequate skills to manage an airway during a crisis and we employ poorly prepared team members monitoring our anesthesia.

The policy of the separatist regime of Chechnya in relation to the war in Dagestan in August-September 1999

This article attempts to analyze the policy of the Chechen separatist regime in relation to military actions between the Federal Center and radical Islamist groups in Dagestan and the high-profile terrorist attacks in Russian cities in August-September 1999. It was based on the data of typical articles of the central periodical print, as well as the memories of key participants of those events on both sides and research literature. As the militants invaded Dagestan from the territory of Chechnya, the Russian side first hinted, and then demanded from the official Grozny immediate take decisive measures to curb this activity. However, the president of the self-proclaimed republic A.A. Maskhadov behaved contradictorily. On the one hand, his government denied or downplayed the Chechens' involvement in the war, and blamed Russia itself for the tragedy and publicly suggested that the Kremlin wanted to take advantage of Dagestan's and a surge of terrorism to disrupt parliamentary elections. On the other hand, Grozny sought to deflect any accusations of political extremism or involvement in terror, and therefore demonstrated a willingness to compromise with the central authorities. However, due to the separatist sentiments of the leaders of Chechnya, the bombing of its territory and the rigid mood of the Russian military and most of society, dialogue between Moscow and Grozny was impossible, and the parties were involved in a new war.

Protecting religious liberties? Security concerns at places of worship in Chicago

Following a number of high-profile attacks, security has become a key concern for diverse places of worship in the United States and abroad. However, the impacts of these threats on religious practice and community, and their relationship with questions of citizenship and belonging, remain under-explored. Through interviewing a range of religious leaders in Chicago, this investigation seeks to fill this gap in the literature. It first highlights the ways in which security issues now represent a proxy for religious groups’ place in American society, with Muslim and Jewish communities feeling especially vulnerable to attack and accordingly operationalizing a number of security policies. It subsequently demonstrates how these strategies are helping to reshape religious practice today, as congregating as a religious community becomes increasingly private and additionally requires members to both relinquish a degree of personal freedom and accept paying increased dues in order to cover the costs necessitated by security. The article concludes by addressing the unevenness of security concerns among religious communities, revealing how attending a place of worship confident of one’s safety has become a privilege not available to all.

Relaxing Integrity Requirements for Attack-Resilient Cyber-Physical Systems

The increase in network connectivity has also resulted in several high-profile attacks on cyber-physical systems. An attacker that manages to access a local network could remotely affect control performance by tampering with sensor measurements delivered to the controller. Recent results have shown that with network-based attacks, such as man-in-the-middle attacks, the attacker can introduce an unbounded state estimation error if measurements from a suitable subset of sensors contain false data when delivered to the controller. While these attacks can be addressed with the standard cryptographic tools that ensure data integrity, their continuous use would introduce significant communication and computation overhead. Consequently, we study effects of intermittent data integrity guarantees on system performance under stealthy attacks. We consider linear estimators equipped with a general type of residual-based intrusion detectors (including, e.g., widely used $\chi ^2$ detectors) and show that even when integrity of sensor measurements is enforced only intermittently, the attack impact is significantly limited; specifically, the state estimation error is bounded or the attacker cannot remain stealthy. Furthermore, we present methods to: 1) evaluate the effects of any given integrity enforcement policy in terms of reachable state estimation errors for any type of stealthy attacks; and 2) design an enforcement policy that provides the desired estimation error guarantees under attack. Finally, on three automotive case studies, we show that even with less than 10% of authenticated messages, we can ensure satisfiable control performance in the presence of attacks.

High-Profile Criminal Violence: Why Drug Cartels Murder Government Officials and Party Candidates in Mexico

AbstractThis article explains a surprising wave of lethal attacks by drug cartels against hundreds of local elected officials and party candidates in Mexico, 2007–2012. These attacks are puzzling because criminal organizations tend to prefer the secrecy of bribery over the publicity of political murder. Scholars suggest that war drives armed actors to attack state authorities in search of protection or rents. Using original data on high-profile attacks in Mexico, the authors show that war need arguments underexplain violence. Focusing on political opportunities, they suggest that cartels use attacks to establish criminal governance regimes and conquer local governments, populations and territories. The study presents quantitative and qualitative evidence showing that cartels took advantage of Mexico's political polarization and targeted subnational authorities who were unprotected by their federal partisan rivals. Cartels intensified attacks during subnational election cycles to capture incoming governments and targeted geographically adjacent municipalities to establish control over large territories. The findings reveal how cartels take cues from the political environment to develop their own de facto political domains through high-profile violence. These results question the widely shared assumption that organized criminal groups are apolitical actors.

Securitizing Xinjiang: Police Recruitment, Informal Policing and Ethnic Minority Co-optation

AbstractFollowing a series of high-profile attacks in Beijing, Kunming and Urumqi by Uyghur militants, the Chinese party-state declared a “war on terror” in 2014. Since then, China's Xinjiang region has witnessed an unprecedented build-up of what we describe as a multi-tiered police force, turning it into one of the most heavily policed regions in the world. This article investigates the securitization of Xinjiang through an analysis of official police recruitment documents. Informal police jobs, which represent the backbone of recent recruitment drives, have historically carried inferior pay levels. Yet, advertised assistant police positions in Xinjiang now offer high salaries despite low educational requirements, thereby attracting lesser-educated applicants, many of whom are ethnic minorities. Besides co-opting Uyghurs into policing their own people, the resulting employment is in itself a significant stability maintenance strategy. While the known numbers of violent attacks have subsided, China's heavy-handed securitization approach risks alienating both minority and Han populations.

ISIS Cohort Transnational Travels and EU Security Gaps: Reconstructing the 2015 Paris Attack Preplanning and Outsource Strategy

ABSTRACT We explore the underappreciated role of organizational tactics in terrorist violence in an understudied single case: ISIS’s execution of the November 13, 2015 Paris attacks. It is one of the first systemic reconstructions of the journeys made by two ISIS strike cohorts in the coordinated attacks, as teams traveled from the Levant to Europe. In contrast to other high-profile attacks, terrorism scholars have not undertaken a detailed reconstruction of this event, even while open source information is now available. By examining the transnational travels of foreign terrorist fighters, we identify ISIS’s distinctive terrorist outsourcing strategy in which operatives used their experiences to adapt to changing security conditions, while EU governments revealed limited responses. Both elements in this tightly-knit dynamic—terrorist outsourcing savvy using FTFs and EU security policy failures—were necessary to achieve this high-profile attack. The essay contributes to descriptive empirical and theoretical knowledge of terrorist tactical innovation and adaptive operational learning, as these capacities are enhanced by on-the-ground organized networks to increase organizational (versus lone-wolf) campaign success. By using a single case interdisciplinary and exploratory framework, terrorism studies can delve deeper into superficially understood phenomena to isolate concepts with future cross-case value, such as cohorts and tactical adaptation.

Trends and Characteristics of Security Incidents Involving Aid Workers in Health Care Settings: A 20-Year Review.

In recent years, several high-profile attacks on hospitals providing medical aid in conflict settings have raised international concern. The International Humanitarian Law prohibits the deliberate targeting of health care settings. Violation of this law is considered a war crime and impacts both those delivering and receiving medical aid. While it has been demonstrated that both aid workers and health care settings are increasingly being targeted, little is known about the trends and characteristics of security incidents involving aid workers in health care compared to non-health care settings. Data from the publicly available Aid Worker Security Database (AWSD) containing security incidents involving humanitarian aid workers world-wide were used in this study. The security incidents occurring from January 1, 1997 through December 31, 2016 were classified by two independent reviewers as having occurred in health care and non-health care settings, and those in health care settings were further classified into five categories (hospital, health clinic, mobile clinic, ambulance, and vaccination visit) for the analysis. A stratified descriptive analysis, χ2 Goodness of Fit test, and Cochran-Armitage test for trend were used to examine and compare security incidents occurring in health care and non-health care settings. Among the 2,139 security incidents involving 4,112 aid workers listed in the AWSD during the study period, 74 and 2,065 incidents were in health care settings and non-health care settings, respectively. There was a nine-fold increase from five to 45 incidents in health care settings (χ2 = 56.27; P < .001), and a five-fold increase from 159 to 852 incidents in non-health care settings (χ2 = 591.55; P < .001), from Period 1 (1997-2001) to Period 4 (2012-2016). Of the 74 incidents in health care settings, 23 (31.1%) occurred in ambulances, 15 (20.3%) in hospitals, 13 (17.6%) in health clinics, 13 (17.6%) during vaccination visits, and six (8.1%) in mobile clinics. Bombings were the most common means of attack in hospitals (N = 9; 60.0%), followed by gun attacks (N = 3; 20.0%). In health care settings, 184 (95.3%) were national staff and nine (4.7%) were international staff. Security threats are a growing occupational health hazard for aid workers, especially those working in health care settings. There is a need for high-quality data from the field to better monitor the rapidly changing security situation and improve counter-strategies so aid workers can serve those in need without having to sacrifice their lives.

A micro-sociological analysis of homegrown violent extremist attacks in the UK in 2017

ABSTRACT The academic literature on terrorism largely ignores micro-sociological explanations of violence. This is especially true in relation to the research concerning Homegrown Violent Extremists (HVE). This article provides a micro-sociological analysis of four high-profile terrorist attacks that occurred in the British cities of London and Manchester in 2017, which were carried out with deadly effect by HVE. The main focus of the article is the micro-dynamics surrounding each violent episode, although the article also recognizes the importance of the meso factors and macro motivations underpinning these violent acts. One of the central assertions of this article is that most humans dislike and are not particularly good at violence. As such, it seeks to understand how the individuals involved in these attacks could partake in such violence. It argues that most individuals must employ what we refer to as the principle of Attacker Advantage to commit violent acts, regardless of other factors and motivations.

Hobby hackers to billion-dollar industry: the evolution of ransomware

In recent months, ransomware has become a mainstream topic across the world, thanks to a string of high-profile attacks. There is a sense that no one is immune to attacks from a persistent and organised community of cyber-criminals who use ransomware as their main modus operandi. Ransomware has become a mainstream topic across the world recently, thanks to a string of high-profile attacks. But this form of malware has been with us for a while. Srinivasan CR of Tata Communications examines the history of ransomware, tracing its evolution from crude beginnings in the 1980s to its global impact today. And although it is proving to be a pernicious threat, he explains how we are also developing effective countermeasures.