RUTHFULLY YOURS

https://www.digitalfirstmagazine.com/accelerating-innovation-security-education-in-the-digital-age/

Chuck Brooks, President of Brooks Consulting International, is a globally recognized thought leader and subject matter expert Cybersecurity and Emerging Technologies. LinkedIn named Chuck as one of “The Top 5 Tech People to Follow on LinkedIn.” He was named as “Cybersecurity Person of the Year by Cyber Express, as one of the world’s “10 Best Cyber Security and Technology Experts” by Best Rated. Chuck received two senior Presidential appointments, including as Legislative Director of The Science & Technology Directorate at the Department of Homeland Security and as Special Assistant to the Director of Voice of America. He has also served in executive roles for Fortune 500 companies. Chuck has an MA in International relations from the University of Chicago and a BA in Political Science from DePauw University.

Recently, in an exclusive interview with Digital First Magazine, Chuck shared his insights on the future of cybersecurity landscape, his career trajectory, what sets Brooks Consulting International apart from other market competitors, the key qualities required to be a successful security leader, future plans, pearls of wisdom, and much more. The following excerpts are taken from the interview.

What are your thoughts on where the cybersecurity industry is heading?

The Cybersecurity industry is heading toward the right paths and it along many divergent paths. First, there is more focus by the C-Suite on the importance pf protecting digital assets. It is being taken more seriously in budgets, responsibilities and in planning. Compliance and policy recommendations from The US Security Exchange Commission (SEC) and The U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s CISA, and in the EU, the GDPR have reinforced the need for enhanced cybersecurity and privacy. Private/public cooperation is expanding as is global cooperation. Also, emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence and early quantum computing algorithms are impacting the landscape in terms of automation, threat detection, and analytics. The Cloud is becoming more competitive and secure, and managed cybersecurity providers are helping close gaps for small and medium businesses that do not have the resources to hire expertise and procure top of the line solutions. However, having said all that, it is still a game of catch up as internet connectivity continues to expand. In addition, the sophistication of criminal hackers (also employing AI and ML tech) that are often abetted by nation states is becoming more brazen and successful with ransomware and DDoS attacks. Cybersecurity is in a state of flux and there will always be gaps to fill but the challenges and opportunities for the cybersecurity industry certainly have not been lessened.

https://nypost.com/2023/07/18/nypd-names-new-counter-intel-boss/

The NYPD has named a new counterterrorism chief after the top post sat vacant for the better part of a year.

Rebecca Weiner, a 17-year NYPD veteran, was sworn in Tuesday as deputy commissioner of intelligence and counterterrorism — becoming the first woman to serve in the role on the department’s executive team.

“This pick is again a history-making pick at the NYC police department,” Mayor Eric Adams said at a ceremony announcing the appointment at One Police Plaza.

“The incoming deputy commissioner is an impressive and experienced intelligence analyst who has spent 17 years with the NYC police department, during which she has held nearly every civilian title in her field,” he added.

Weiner fills the role left empty by John Miller, who retired in June 2022 after nearly a decade in the civilian position.

The Harvard-educated attorney, joined in the NYPD in 2006 as a civilian employee and rose to assistant commissioner in the department’s Counterterrorism Operations and Analysis sections. She was joined by her husband and their two young boys as she took her oath of office Tuesday.

Noting the position is one of the city’s “most important aspects” in combatting terror attacks, Adams told reporters it took more than a year to fill the spot because his administration had to “get it right.”

“Even without a deputy commissioner in that position… you still have professionals that are still in place,” Adams said of the unfilled role, touting the NYPD’s “deep bench,” including Weiner, who continued to run the day-to-day operations.

Chief Thomas Galati stepped in to run the division in December as a three-star chief, the uniformed equivalent of the civilian role. He announced his retirement in March. 

https://amgreatness.com/2023/08/08/house-committee-focuses-on-chinese-efforts-to-steal-agriculture-ip/

The House Select Committee on China is turning its focus on efforts by the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP) to steal intellectual property from the American agriculture industry.

According to Fox News, the ranking members of both parties – Chairman Mike Gallagher (D-Wisc.) and Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-Ill.) – traveled to Dysart, Iowa to speak with farmers about the systematic theft of agricultural technology by the CCP, and how these plans are undermining the sovereignty of American agriculture.

“Our country is filled with invisible factories and invisible farms — those that would have been built or planted here if we’d chosen to protect American technology and resources,” said Gallagher in a statement. “Both the Trump and Biden administrations have oriented U.S. strategy around ‘competing’ with the Chinese Communist Party. But we’re not “competing” if we’re letting the CCP steal hundreds of billions of dollars from Americans–we’re throwing the game from the outset.”

One example of agricultural technology that has been sought by the Chinese is seed engineering. In 2011, a field manager in Iowa discovered and exposed a Chinese seed smuggling ring. In 2018, the Department of Justice (DOJ) prosecuted and convicted a Chinese scientist for conspiring to steal rice seeds from a biopharmaceutical research facility in Kansas; the scientist was sentenced to 10 years and one month in prison.

In 2022, Chinese national Xiang Haitao pled guilty to conspiracy to commit economic espionage; he was sentenced to two years in prison. The technology he sought to steal was a central algorithm for a software platform that aimed to help farmers visualize and analyze field data.

In his own statement, Krishnamoorthi said that the threat must be taken “very seriously,” and that the U.S. must “show the CCP some consequences for these actions.”

The rise in attempted agricultural espionage coincides with another alarming tactic being employed by the CCP, in which Chinese-linked companies and other entities have been purchasing many acres of American farmland, often located near military bases and other strategic points of interest.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/china-and-russia-eye-alaska-aleutian-naval-ships-sullivan-a652c8b0?mod=opinion_lead_pos2

Americans who think the next major war won’t touch American territory might want to take note of the news that China and Russia conducted a joint naval operation last week near the coast of Alaska.

U.S. officials said 11 ships participated in the patrol near the Aleutian islands. It was the largest such operation analysts can recall and follows a smaller one in September 2022. The joint patrol underscores the cooperation between the two countries, which is extending to military operations beyond Beijing’s help for Moscow in Ukraine. (See Seth Cropsey nearby.)

The U.S. responded with dispatch, sending four destroyers and reconnaissance aircraft to shadow the foreign warships. That’s an improvement from the September episode, when a tepid U.S. response was criticized by Alaska Sen. Dan Sullivan.

A spokesman for U.S. Northern Command said the Sino-Russian patrol wasn’t perceived as a threat, but one day soon it could be. In the new era of great power competition, Russia, China and Iran are building an axis to challenge U.S. power. The naval patrol is best understood as a warning that U.S. territory isn’t safe, as well as a test of how the U.S. will respond.

The world is getting more dangerous, and a complacent U.S. political class isn’t educating the public about the growing threats.

https://www.frontpagemag.com/while-navy-pushes-dei-37-of-attack-subs-are-out-of-order/

On June 16, 2023, a date which will live in infamy, the Pearl Harbor base featured the story of Lt. Nick Grant, an “out gay cisgender man” who was a co-chair of the Naval Medical Force Pacific Transgender Care Team (NMFP TGCT).

The title of the Pride Month feature was “serving with pride”.

The Navy’s medical service, which can’t seem to do anything about active duty personnel killing themselves, has multiple “transgender care teams” for different regions composed of multiple specialists for different areas to “oversee and, in many cases, provide mental health, hormonal, and surgical interventions as needed to facilitate the gender transition process.”

There are some who say that the Navy ought to be focused on other things. Like getting its submarines to work. In the latest numbers, nearly 40% of attack subs are out of commission.

With only 31 subs operationally ready, the US Navy is more unready than ever to face off against the People’s Liberation Army Submarine Force of Communist China.

In 2017, 28% of submarines were out of commission. By 2022, it was 33%, and now it’s 37%. At the rate that the woke Naval brass are going, most subs will soon be out of order.

Under Biden, the number of operational nuclear powered attack subs has never gone above 33 out of 49. A third of our submarine attack fleet being out of order has become the new normal.

If only the Navy could repair subs as quickly as its transgender care teams castrate sailors.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-u-s-navy-needs-more-attack-submarines-china-aukus-missile-repair-9f5965f?mod=opinion_lead_pos7

Mr. Wicker, a Republican, is a U.S. senator from Mississippi and ranking member of the Senate Armed Services Committee.

The United States, Australia and the United Kingdom formed a pact in 2021 to boost the three nations’ collective deterrence in the Indo-Pacific. That Aukus agreement is vital but there is more work to do: The U.S. should double its submarine production.

Under the first pillar of the Aukus agreement, the U.S. would sell our attack submarines to Australia. In exchange, Australia would expand basing for U.S. submarines. In the second pillar, all three nations would share advanced technology.

Attack submarines are among our most effective weapons and the crown jewels of U.S. military power. Undersea warfare is one of the few areas in which we retain a competitive advantage over the Chinese military.

Aukus has bipartisan support because of its potential to improve the national security of all three nations. Implementing this deal will require a historic amount of cooperation and trust among the three countries and, here at home, between the executive and legislative branches.

As it stands, the Aukus plan would transfer U.S. Virginia-class submarines to a partner nation even before we have met our own Navy’s requirements. The U.S. Navy’s military requirement is 66 nuclear attack submarines. Today, there are only 49 in the fleet. And the Navy projects its inventory will decline to 46 by 2030 as older nuclear submarines retire faster than they are replaced.

https://thefederalist.com/2023/07/13/is-america-losing-the-battle-for-naval-superiority-to-red-china/

The U.S.’ ongoing naval challenges give Red China an opportunity to accumulate more power throughout the Indo-Pacific.

It’s no secret Red China has spent the past several decades heavily investing in its armed forces. In a matter of decades, the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) has evolved into the largest military in the world, retrofitted with some of the latest and most advanced weapons systems.

Such developments have prompted Beijing to take more aggressive actions throughout the Indo-Pacific region in recent years. Just last month, a U.S. destroyer was abruptly cut off by a People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) vessel during a transit through the Taiwan Strait. The incident occurred a few weeks after a Chinese fighter jet came within 400 feet of a U.S. reconnaissance aircraft while the latter was conducting a patrol of the South China Sea.

China has also made it a habit of conducting regular intrusions into Taiwan’s air defense identification zone and has, at times, carried out naval operations in the Taiwan Strait. Beijing has furthermore issued numerous threats to invade Taiwan if the island refuses to abdicate its sovereignty to the Chinese government. Taken collectively, these actions demonstrate growing confidence among Xi Jinping and the Chinese Communist Party in their nation’s military capabilities.

While the U.S. currently maintains its status as global hegemon, its ongoing naval challenges give Red China an opportunity to accumulate more power throughout the Indo-Pacific. Persistent failure to maintain a sizeable fleet and meet recruiting targets is hampering the Navy’s ability to fulfill its operations, which are necessary for upholding U.S. national security and peace throughout the world.

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/19799/china-attack-america-within

It is way past time to end the ability of the Chinese regime to conduct political warfare against the United States from American soil. America’s defense begins with closing down the America ChangLe Association.

American presidents for decades have known that China’s diplomats and agents were violating American sovereignty and did either nothing or virtually nothing to stop these activities. Therefore, China’s Communists naturally thought they could get away with even more blatant conduct.

Americans may think they are at peace, but the Communist Party believes it is locked in an existential struggle with America. People’s Daily, speaking for the Party, declared a “people’s war” on the United States in May 2019. The Chinese regime has been conducting “unrestricted warfare” against America for decades.

“While it is fair to say that the CCP prefers to win this war without fighting, it is more accurate to say that the CCP intends to win without us fighting back. Through political warfare, the CCP disarms us intellectually and psychologically as it co-opts, corrupts, and ultimately controls key American elites, particularly political and foreign policy decision makers.” — Kerry Gershaneck, NATO fellow for Hybrid Threats, to Gatestone Institute, July 11, 2023.

Beijing has almost certainly purchased most of the Biden family. In March, a spokesperson for Hunter Biden’s legal team admitted that Hunter had received “good faith seed funds” from an energy company in China. That was essentially an admission of bribery… no Chinese business in these circumstances would pay seed money.

In addition to the Bidens, China has purchased hundreds — if not thousands — of politicians, academics, businesspeople and law enforcement officials at the federal, state, and municipal levels.

How do we know this?

“The Chinese Communist Party uses three color-coded ‘political-interference tactics’ to gain influence over American citizens at home as well as those who naively travel to China. Blue refers to sophisticated cyberattacks on target computers, smartphones, and hotel rooms for possible blackmail. Gold refers to bribes, while yellow means ‘honey pots,’ sexual seduction.” — Charles Burton, of the Ottawa-based Macdonald-Laurier Institute, to Gatestone Institute, July 10, 2023.

China’s agents work out of, among other places, Beijing’s four consulates and large Washington, D.C. embassy as well as nine or so police stations, many state banks and enterprises, Confucius Institutes and Confucius Classrooms, and organizations such as the Chinese Students and Scholars Association. China’s regime, over the course of decades, has penetrated just about every organization of influence in the United States.

The United States faces a challenge it is now seriously underestimating.

What should the United States do in the face of such challenge? The regime uses every point of contact to destroy America, so America needs to sever every point of contact with the regime.

Americans cannot afford to leave any Communist Party member or any Chinese saboteur, agent, official, banker, or corporate officer in America. There should be no Chinese consulates in the U.S., and the embassy staff of hundreds should be cut down to the ambassador, his personal staff, and family.

Extreme? By no means. Why should we ever allow China to attack America from America?