Homeland Security News

It’s been a month since Baltimore City Council President Brandon Scott established a special committee focused on cybersecurity and emergency preparedness as City Hall recovers from a ransomware attack that still cripples several city payment functions.

One of the committee’s co-chairmen, Councilman Isaac “Yitzy” Schleifer, said the panel’s efforts will not begin until after the current cyber attack — which began May 7 — is resolved.

“We are waiting until the situation is under control before proceeding with the committee,” Schleifer said in a text message.

But seven experts from the Maryland Cybersecurity Council and the University of Maryland University College notified Scott’s office up to three weeks ago that they are ready to provide free, volunteer assistance to the committee right away.

Several of them have not been contacted by the city yet.

“I haven’t heard a word,” said Kevin Kornegay, chair of Morgan State University’s Electrical and Computer Engineering Department and a state cybersecurity council member.

Michael Greenberger, another state council member who volunteered, praised the City Council for being proactive but said they should move forward now.

“I don’t think they should wait,” said Greenberger, director of the Center for Health and Homeland Security at University of Maryland’s law school. “They should be doing it ASAP, no matter how busy they are.”

Scott said he wants the council committee to begin its work after the ransomware attack is resolved because the city’s information technology officials need to be focused only on that task.

Read more: Baltimore Sun

A pair of explosions rocked Somalia’s capital and left 11 people dead, the country’s police chief said Saturday, as the al-Qaida-linked extremist group al-Shabab claimed responsibility.

Another 25 people were wounded, Gen. Bashir Abdi Mohamed told reporters in Mogadishu. He said the first car bomb went off near a security checkpoint for the presidential palace and was responsible for nine deaths.

The second car bomb killed the driver and his accomplice near a checkpoint on the road to the heavily fortified airport, he said.

Al-Shabab, which often targets the capital, said the blasts were meant to strike the first line of security checkpoints for the airport and palace. The airport is home to a number of diplomatic offices. The palace is a frequent al-Shabab target.

Read more: AP

Islamic State's recruitment and use of women to support its extremist cause could pave the way for more front-line roles for women in jihadi groups in the future, the European Union's police agency said in a report published Friday.

In the 34-page report entitled "Women in Islamic State Propaganda," Europol said "female jihadis are as ideologically motivated as their male counterparts and their sense of empowerment lies in contributing to the building of an Islamic state."

It concludes that "numerous examples" of women, who either carried out extremist attacks or were arrested preventively, "prove that women are willing to use violence if the ideology allows them to do so. For now, it is not yet their role, but this balance may easily shift according to the organization's strategic needs and developments on the ground,"

Read more: AP

At least 30 people were killed in a triple suicide bombing in northeastern Nigeria, emergency services reported on Monday, in an attack bearing the hallmarks of the Boko Haram jihadist group.

Three bombers detonated their explosives late Sunday outside a hall in the town of Konduga, where soccer fans were watching a game on television. Konduga is about 22 miles southeast of Maiduguri, the capital of Borno State.

Usman Kachalla, the head of operations for the Nigerian emergency management agency, said on Monday: “The death toll from the attack has so far increased to 30. We have over 40 people injured.”

Read more: New York Times

Indian police said they have arrested a Facebook friend of the suspected mastermind of the Easter Sunday bomb attacks in Sri Lanka for spreading Islamic State group ideology on social media to recruit young people to participate in a terrorist attack in southern India.

A criminal case was filed against Mohammed Azarudeen after authorities raided his home in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu on Wednesday, according to the National Investigation Agency, which oversees counterterrorism efforts.

Authorities conducted six other raids and took five other people in for questioning, it said in a statement Friday.

Read more: Stars and Stripes