CTG's Threat Intelligence Podcast

In a forthcoming Special Report, CTG analyzes the importance of foreign fighters joining terrorist movements in Central Asia. The history of foreign fighters arguably dates back to the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in December 1979. Fighters from all across the world, including Osama bin Laden and others, joined to fight the invading imperialists. The same inspirations have been used throughout the first two decades of the 2000s. Many jihadists use the invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan by the U.S. as a call to arms. Alberto Suarez from CTG’s CENTCOM team joins Adam Stevens to discuss how these wars impacted the foreign fighter movement, as well as tell us what the foreign fighter movement looks like today.

In the events of Russia versus Ukraine, Cyber threats have been just as much the story as physical attacks. In a security brief, CTG assessed and analyzed two different instances of Russian cyber attacks. When bombs and guns go off, the world responds in a relatively predictable way. When a cyber-bomb blows however, the world can react in sporadic, unpredictable ways. Marina Tovar from CTG’s CICYBER team joins Adam Sevens to discuss the real-world impacts that cyber attacks have in a world at war.

ISIS has claimed its first attack in Israel roughly five years, meanwhile in Iraq, funding has begun on a border wall in vulnerable locations along the Iraq-Syria border in response to ISIS fighters using these routes to enter the country and wreak havoc. Meanwhile, on the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan, the Afghani Taliban regime attempts to rid themselves of Pakistani Taliban forces, otherwise known as TTP. The TTP has been using the borderlands in Afghanistan to launch attacks in an attempt to overthrow the current Pakistani regime. Alberto Suarez Sutil from CTG’s CENTCOM team joins Adam Stevens to break down these events.

Over the last several years social media companies like Facebook and Twitter have been criticized by seemingly everyone. Many argue that social media companies have an obligation to call out or de-platform accounts producing disinformation on their platforms. Others decry it as a slippery slope to government censorship if they don’t call it outright censorship as is. In response to this many alt-right groups and personalities have taken to other social media sites, which promote free speech, and censor-free zones. Adam is joined by Brianna Corrie, from the Counter Threat Strategic Communications team to try and better understand the real impacts this transition to niche social media platforms has.

Russia’s war in Ukraine is a multilayered, multifaceted quagmire. Obviously, the face we see in the news is conventional warfare, resulting in the deaths of combatants and non-combatants alike. The Biden administration has stood firm on its stance of utilizing crippling economic sanctions against the invading Russians. Less talked about, but no less important is the cyber layer. Cyber bullets are flying every-which-way in this conflict. Notable hacktivist or cyber-vigilante group Anonymous is currently utilizing their skills to take their pound of flesh from the Putin regime, including DDoS attacks against Russian Banks. Helping to break down the different facets of this story, is Keanna Grelicha from CTG’s CICYBER team.

Conspiracy theorists jump at any opportunity to pervert the narrative around a given situation, even when the situation or event results in dozens, if not hundreds of grieving families. This is the case for many families who have become victims, not only of mass murder in their communities but of dangerous and vicious conspiracy theories regarding how and why their family and friends were killed. Brianna Corrie from CTG’s Counter Threat Strategic Communications team joins Adam Stevens to discuss these issues.

In this episode of the Threat Intelligence podcasts’ round table discussion. Our panelists joined Adam to discuss Russia and Ukraine. We discuss refugees, weapons and tactics, and where and how China may fit into all of this. This week Adam is joined by CTG’s own Becca Stewart as well as Semaj McDowell, host of his own podcast, the Geopolitical Pivot.

Between China and Russia, the world's eastern powers are out to reconstruct their empires of old. Currently, we are seeing this play out in Ukraine on televisions across the globe. As focus shifts back to Russia, China continues to subtly and deftly expand its own power and influence. China’s debt diplomacy, and their aggressive economic ‘Belt and Road’ initiative threaten to cripple beleaguered nations in Asia and Africa. Taiwan is the headline… a headline at least… but flying under the radar is how China’s soft power moves threaten neighbors like Cambodia and Vietnam.  CTG’s Alberto Suarez joins Adam Stevens to discuss the machinations of this new Cold War.

At the time of recording, Russia had amassed nearly 130,000 troops at the Ukrainian border. Since then estimates put the number at nearly 190,000. Russia has effectively surrounded every inch of Ukraine including to the south along the Black Sea. Should war break out in earnest, it would be the largest, most sophisticated war effort in Europe since V.E. Day.

The Taliban is firmly entrenched as the ruling party in Afghanistan since seizing power late last summer. Between the Taliban, ISIS-K, and a thoroughly crippled economy, largely run by illicit markets, Afghanistan is in the midst of a human trafficking epidemic.