Homeland Security News

Rebels in Mali cut short an uneasy peace on Wednesday, seizing control of two towns in the desert north.  The sequence of events represented an alarming relapse for a country whose desert hinterland was occupied by al Qaeda allies in 2012, before French troops intervened last year.

The rebels—from an ethnic group called the Tuareg—seized control of the towns of Kidal and Menaka on Wednesday, said the Chief of Staff Adghaimar ag Alliousseni for a local rebel group called the National Liberation Movement of the Azawad that wants to create a new Tuareg nation. Several Malian soldiers had been killed, leaders of the rebel group told Reuters.  "We're going to go all the way to Timbuktu," said Mr. Alliousseni, referring to the medieval caravan city in the heart of the Malian desert.  Malian military officials couldn't immediately be reached for comment.

The attacks formed the biggest sign to date that a French mission to Mali —hailed as one of the west's most successful interventions against terrorist groups—is far from accomplished.

Read more:  Wall Street Journal

The Islamist group Boko Haram has been accused of killing at least 26 people in attacks on two villages in north-east Nigeria, close to where hundreds of schoolgirls were seized.  Gunmen killed nine in the village of Shawa and a further 17 in Alagarno, police and witnesses said.

The area is near Chibok, where the schoolgirls were abducted last month.  On Tuesday 118 people died in a double bombing in the central city of Jos, also blamed on Boko Haram.  The abductions of more than 200 girls caused international outrage and prompted foreign powers to send military advisers to assist Nigeria's army.

People in north-east Nigeria are extremely vulnerable to attacks because many areas are no-go zones for the military and the insurgents operate freely, correspondents say.

Source: BBC News

A sophisticated hacking group recently attacked a U.S. public utility and compromised its control system network, but there was no evidence that the utility's operations were affected, according to the Department of Homeland Security.  DHS did not identify the utility in a report that was issued this week by the agency's Industrial Control Systems Cyber Emergency Response Team, or ICS-CERT.  "While unauthorized access was identified, ICS-CERT was able to work with the affected entity to put in place mitigation strategies and ensure the security of their control systems before there was any impact to operations," a DHS official told Reuters on Tuesday.

Such cyber attacks are rarely disclosed by ICS-CERT, which typically keeps details about its investigations secret to encourage businesses to share information with the government.  Companies are often reluctant to go public about attacks to avoid potentially negative publicity.  ICS-CERT said in the report posted on its website that investigators had determined the utility had likely been the victim of previous intrusions. It did not elaborate.

The agency said the hackers may have launched the latest attack through an Internet portal that enabled workers to access the utility's control systems. It said the system used a simple password mechanism that could be compromised using a technique known as "brute forcing," where hackers digitally force their way in by trying various password combinations.  Justin W. Clarke, an industrial control security consultant with security firm Cylance Inc, said it is rare for such breaches to be identified by utilities and even more rare for the government to disclose them.

Read more: Reuters

A series of al Qaeda-based threats to attack American and Western targets in Europe, as well as threats to launch attacks inside the United States, has caused significant concern inside the U.S. intelligence community, CNN has learned.  Officials are trying to determine the extent to which the threats may be linked and determine what it may mean about the strength of al Qaeda in several countries. While the "threat stream" has evolved during the past six months, according to a senior U.S. official, none of the threats has been corroborated.

The official said the threats appear to detail "a lot of activity where intelligence suggests there are operational cells," but so far, "we do not see operational cells of al Qaeda inside the United States," the official said, although he emphasized it could not be ruled out.  U.S. officials as well as analysts have long said they believe al Qaeda is focused on attacking outside the United States because of the difficulty in penetrating U.S. homeland security. But these latest threat streams suggest domestic U.S. targets also continue to be looked at by al Qaeda.

Read more: CNN