As much as the government is keeping on top of the cyber aspect of the voting system, I feel that its evolving. Least with the most recent election with Biden, there was no discrepancy despite the opposing party asking for a recount.

This was an interesting report to read. I have heard the stories about the rigged elections to read up on how the Intelligence Community reacted to this and tried to find something tangible was interesting to say the least. What is puzzling to me is that the Intelligence Community or the IC of the United States is in the top tier of the Intelligence echelon, and they went on based rumors alone. There were no solid leads. The recommendations that the report provided were excellent. I think that each of them can be built upon in their own way, its tough to pick just one or two that would be satisfactory to use. Each of the recommendations help defend against outside interference in some way. If I had to single out one of the recommendations that need more attention, I would pick the physical security and cyber hygiene. Because we are in a modern era of technology that is expanding week by week, this area needs to be ahead of the trend.

A case study is a research approach that is used to generate an in-depth, multi-faceted understanding of a complex issue in its real-life context. It is an established research design that is used extensively in a wide variety of disciplines, particularly in the social sciences. For today’s article, it delved into China and a United States citizen looking to further his career there. He joined the Chinese Academy of Science (CAS) and as part of his initiation, his superiors asked him to provide them U.S. documents as his way in. The structure of this case study is a good example to keep for later. You have a quick summary of the person in question and the problem that was cause and then the lessons learned from the incident. With this case study it offers the indicators in a very blunt way. It shows that United States citizens that have key information about the state, their job, or livelihood, anything that could be used as leverage. Being on the fence of loyalty to one country over the other is another point of focus. What I like about this report is that they do offer up recommendations on how to counteract this or deter this. Most of what I saw what they are recommending are programs that can be started to deter future civilians from turning on their U.S. employers.

Hey Dylan! I feel that where you're coming from is the right mindset. If the system we have is flawed, terrorists can take advantage of it and strike overnight if they wanted to. We need to be more proactive in our fight in cyberspace and cybersecurity.

Hi Chris I have been looking forward to your post as you’re in domestic terrorism. I do agree with you on that information and intelligence is key. What you do with that is so crucial in the next steps. The police now have been seen more as a reactive force rather than proactive. This strategy saying that the agencies are going to be more proactive in their fight against domestic threats is good to see. The federal and law enforcement agencies have the power and resources necessary to diminish the threat greatly, so that with the next generation, this threat will be on its last legs.

In the first part of this strategy, the report covered the threats, motives, methodology, as well as the groups involved in Domestic Terrorism. For the second part of this report, it dives into the goals that the government wants to achieve. To summarize the goals of the government: 1. Enhance domestic terrorism–related research and analysis. This will come in the form of multiple agencies working together and sharing information. Withholding information can prove fatal due to conflicts between agencies. 2. Bring to light the fact that domestic terrorism is not in one place anymore. Its stretches across the board and over boundaries that we can’t see such as the internet. Especially in a time of COVID-19, as much as we want to go back to a life of normalcy, we can’t. Everything is online now and so are these groups. I think that intercommunication between agencies as well as our community is the key to preventing any threats coming to fruition from domestic terror groups.

Something that I have learned from my classes at FIU this semester is the difference between Domestic terrorism and HVE’s or Homegrown Violent Extremists. There was a misconception that they were one in the same, but they are not. Homegrown Violent Extremists are civilians born or belonging to one country but pledging their allegiance to an outside party that has extremist beliefs. Domestic Terrorism is defined as groups within a country that use extremist views to change their country to their belief systems. Because America is so diversified now, its causing tension amongst these white supremacist groups looking to have their ideologies projected onto American society. The purpose of this strategy is to address the factors that lead to violence and the result of the violence that violates human rights such as public safety and expressions of opinion and ideas. To summarize the aspects of domestic terrorism threats 1. from racially or ethnically motivated violent extremists and networks whose racial, ethnic, or religious hatred leads them toward violence, as well as those whom they encourage to take violent action. 2. Violence is focused targeted towards people of color, specifically the African American community as well as immigrants, Jews, Muslims, and LGBTQ members. 3. Anti-government or anti authority violent extremist groups, self-proclaimed militias During my research on counterterrorism, one thing that I have come across is the notion of how we understand the groups. Yes it is important to identify them, the big players and what their goals are. But it is even more crucial to understand as to why they’re doing what they’re doing. Why are United States civilians somehow finding this avenue as the only way for their voice to be heard by the government. Why are they endangering not just themselves, but their families and loved ones as well as the public when they’re just trying to get their own agendas heard by the government.