September News: START awarded targeted violence & terrorism prevention grant

Sep 26, 2022

NEWS

This month, we’re offering a slightly altered version of our newsletter while we make improvements to our website. If you have any questions, please reach out to us at infostart@umd.edu.

Targeted Violence and Terrorism Prevention (TVTP) Grant
START, alongside veteran service organization We the Veterans, has been awarded the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Targeted Violence and Terrorism Prevention (TVTP) Grant, which provides funding for nonprofits and governmental and educational institutions to establish or enhance capabilities to prevent targeted violence and terrorism. This project aims to build on the strengths and capabilities of the veteran and military family community to sustainably reduce targeted violence and terrorism risk affecting this population, as well as the anti-democratic effects of misinformation. START and We the Veterans will bring together relevant entities to form a steering group comprised of representatives from the veteran and military family community, and three multisectoral working groups on Civic Engagement, Mitigating Mis/Dis/Malinformation (MDM), and Extremist Violence Prevention (EVP) to create a prevention ecosystem.

United We Stand Summit
Earlier this month, START Director William Braniff spoke alongside American University Polarization and Extremism Research and Innovation Lab (PERIL) Director Dr. Cynthia Miller-Idriss at the “United We Stand: Countering Hate-Fueled Violence Together” Summit at the White House, by invitation of the National Security Council (NSC). Their remarks can be seen at this link beginning at 1:04:35. Based primarily on data and insight from the Bias Incidents and Actors Study (BIAS) and associated research briefs produced by START’s Radicalization and Disengagement (RaD) team, Braniff argued that hate crime should be considered as a national security issue alongside terrorism, and that resources should be allocated considering data on the totality of the ideologically-motivated crime that occurs in the United States.

Eradicate Hate Summit
Last week, START Director William Braniff co-chaired a three-day track for the Eradicate Hate Global Summit, “Building on the Strengths of Veterans and Military Families to Address Violent Extremism,” in partnership with board members from We the Veterans. He and Radicalization and Disengagement (RaD) Senior Researcher Michael Jensen participated in several panels on topics such as domestic violent extremism among service members and veterans, and strategies for protecting the election process and democracy more broadly such as the Vet the Vote initiative. This Summit was a unique opportunity to experience a broad and diverse range of more than 250 experts from around the world who are combatting hate and violent extremism.

FEATURED PUBLICATION

When the Levee Breaks: A Global Trend of Cyber-Physical and Cyber-Operational Attacks Against Critical Infrastructure and Future Implications on the Great Power Competition
Sin, Steve and Rhyner Washburn

Cyber-physical systems (CPSs) refer to systems that connect computers, communication channels, and physical devices. CPSs are currently one of the most targeted systems of adversarial actors operating in the cyber domain. Cyber-physical and cyber-operational attacks on critical infrastructures via attacks on CPSs have the potential to damage physical infrastructure assets and have widespread consequences for national security as well as the society. We analyzed 427 publicly reported cyber-physical and cyber-operational attacks conducted against critical infrastructures globally between January 1, 1992, and July 9, 2021. We find that of the attacks that can be attributed to an actor type, state actors (including state-affiliated and state-supported actors) were found to be the predominant actors that conduct cyber-physical attacks while state and non-state actors occupied approximately same ratio of attacks for cyber-operational attacks. We also find espionage to be the most statistically significant motivation for the state actors to conduct cyber-physical and/or cyber-operational attacks.

EVENTS

Virtual Information Session: Internship Program (10/18/22)
3 p.m. ET October 18, Online This info session will be led by START’s Experiential Education Specialist, Eva Coll. The first half of the session will discuss how the internship program currently works, what students or recent graduates have to gain from their experience in the program, application requirements, the projects offered within the center that interns will be working on, followed by Q&A. The second half of the session will include a 30-minute session dedicated to resume and cover letter guidance.

Virtual Information Session: Internship Program (10/26/22)
3 p.m. ET October 26, Online This info session will be led by START’s Experiential Education Specialist, Eva Coll. The first half of the session will discuss how the internship program currently works, what students or recent graduates have to gain from their experience in the program, application requirements, the projects offered within the center that interns will be working on, followed by Q&A. The second half of the session will include a 30-minute session dedicated to resume and cover letter guidance.

Hybrid Information Session: Global Terrorism Studies Minor Program (10/27/22)
6 p.m. ET October 27, University of Maryland and Online
START has developed an undergraduate minor in Global Terrorism Studies, a cross-disciplinary program housed in the College of Behavioral and Social Sciences at the University of Maryland. The minor is designed to train the next generation of terrorism analysts, including students who plan to pursue graduate study related to terrorism as well as employment in the federal, state, local, non-profit, and/or private sectors. This will be a virtual information session at Tydings Hall 0101 and Online at the same time.

Political Violence Across Ideological Categories
11 a.m. ET November 3, Online
START Founding Director and current University of Maryland Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice Chair Dr. Gary LaFree will provide a virtual talk on his recent co-authored article exploring differences in the use of political violence across different ideological categories both worldwide and in the United States, with research done using both the Global Terrorism Database (GTD) and the Profiles of Individual Radicalization in the United States (PIRUS) dataset.

Alternatives in Mobilization: Ethnicity, Religion, and Political Conflict
12 p.m. ET November 30, Online University of Maryland Professor of Government and Politics Dr. Jóhanna Birnir will provide a virtual talk on her co-authored book, which explores why most identity conflicts in the world are between ethnic groups that share religion. This book helps illustrate a more accurate and improved picture of the ethnic and religious tapestry of the world and addresses an increasing need for a better understanding of how religion contributes to conflict.