Heena Sharma Blog

The US counter-spy agency has said that cyber and surveillance technology advances have multiplied the intelligence threat to the country, putting hacktivists and online manipulators on a par with venerable foe Russia. The biennial National Counterintelligence Strategy on Monday for the first time singled out anti-secrecy organizations, independent hackers and Islamic extremist groups as espionage threats requiring close attention. "The United States is facing increasingly aggressive and complex threats from foreign intelligence services, as well as state and non-state actors," said William Evanina, director of the National Counterintelligence and Security Center, which issued the report. Previous editions of the report singled out Russia, China, Iran and North Korea, along with transnational crime groups, as the central spying threats to the United States. The new strategy report adds Cuba, Hezbollah, Islamic State and Al-Qaeda as groups able to undertake intelli...

The Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) has arrested nine people from Thane and Aurangabad for their alleged links with banned terror outfit ISIS, police said Wednesday. The nine terror suspects , all part of a group, were nabbed by ATS teams over the last two days, an ATS official said. The ATS, acting on specific inputs, kept a watch on the nine men for several weeks and gathered relevant information about them, he said. They were arrested when it came to light that they were likely to "swing into action", the official said. The arrests followed searches in Amrut Nagar, Kausa, Moti Baug and Almas Colony areas in Thane's Mumbra township and in Aurangabad's Kaisar Colony, Rahat Colony and Damdi Mahal areas on Monday late night and Tuesday early morning. During the searches, the ATS sleuths seized certain chemicals, acid bottles, sharp knives, mobile phones, hard disks and some SIM cards from the group, the official said. Read More Business S...