In Geopolitics Today - Friday, May 14th
US Drive to Boost Arctic Capabilities, The Conference on the Future of Europe, and Colonial Pipeline Co. Pays $5M Ransom
US Coast Guard Proposal to Renovate Seattle Port is another Step in the Race to the Arctic
In December 2020, the US Congress adopted a bill coauthored by Dan Sullivan of Alaska (R), Maria Cantwell of Washington (D), and Roger Wicker of Mississippi (R) that authorised the Coast Guard Polar Security Cutters for use as icebreakers.
These would be armed with an MK38 25mm autocannon, with the US Coast Guard (USCG) Headquarters declining to comment on any additional armament such as remote weapons mounts or the possibility of Anti-Ship Missile capabilities. The USCG did say that the concept for a nuclear-powered icebreaker, as requested by the Trump Administration, could not go forward after conducting an analysis of the viability of such a project.
And now, the USCG is proposing an expansion of its Seattle waterfront base. the USCG says that over the course of the next decade the port will have a higher profile role as the U.S. ramps up its presence in the Arctic. Dan Sullivan said that the U.S. needs a persistent presence in the Arctic to hold off adversaries. Lt. Russ Tippets, a USCG spokesperson, said that the Coast Guard is looking for cost-effective options for accommodating a modernized icebreaker fleet.
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The Conference on the Future of Europe
The Conference on the Future of Europe begun today with an opening speech from French President Emmanuel Macron. Announced by the European Commission and the European Parliament at the end of 2019, the conference is dubbed as “a citizen-led series of debates and discussions that will enable people from across Europe to share their ideas and help shape our common future.”
The conference comes at a critical time for Europe, a time when it is desperately seeking a more unified political mandate on its vision, values, and interests going forward, and it will be interesting to follow how the debate develops. Failure to make at least some strides toward this goal would amount to a major missed opportunity.
To be candid, I had anticipated it would be delayed due to disagreements regarding the format and representation, but as it turns out those disagreements have been resolved. Good news for the European Project.
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Colonial Pipeline Co. Pays $5M Ransom As Shortages Remain
As the Georgia-based Colonial Pipeline reportedly said it was making “substantial progress” in restoring full service, Bloomberg reported that the company had paid the cyber-criminals a ransom of roughly $5 million in cryptocurrency in order to obtain the software decryption key required to unlock their data.
But severe shortages remain as a consequence of the ransomware attack. A tracking service showed 88% of gas stations were out of fuel in Washington D.C., 45% of stations in Virginia and 39% of Maryland. About 65% of stations were without gas in North Carolina, and nearly half were out in Georgia and South Carolina. Such is the power of cyber-attacks today.
So how should institutions deal with ransomware attacks? The discussions on how best to approach this challenge can vary. For example, the FBI discourages payment when a system is held hostage by ransomware, it views the threat of normalising such attacks as reckless. But an outright ban would also be complicated, and some organisations think a ban would be a mistake as long as many potential targets remain “woefully unprepared.”
A public-private task force set up by Microsoft, Amazon, the FBI, and the Secret Service has suggested ransomware actors need to be named and shamed, and those that harbor them need to be punished. It calls for mandatory disclosure of ransom payments and the creation of a federal “response fund” to provide financial assistance to victims in hopes that it will prevent them from paying ransoms.
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