Prof.dr. Paul Abels Dr. Abels is professor by special appointment of Governance of Intelligence and Security Services at the Institute of Security and Global Affairs (ISGA) at Leiden University. Before that he worked as an analyst for the Domestic Security Service (Binnenlandse Veiligheidsdienst - BVD), the...
The COVID-19 Pandemic has changed the nature of crime. With more and more people staying at home and having to resort to online shopping, cybercrime has experienced a meteoric rise. In the sphere of online scams, social engineering is the umbrella term coined to describe...
Less than a month ago, Armenia and Azerbaijan agreed on a ceasefire, brokered by Russia. This ceasefire has halted fighting in the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region, claimed by both Armenia and Azerbaijan. The conflict over the status of Nagorno-Karabakh had been lingering for decades but erupted...
On November 17, the JASON Institute hosted its second webinar of the academic year. This time the topic was the secret world of social engineering from a hacker’s perspective.” We talked about the relationship between COVID-19 and cybercrime; the types of cybercrime; cybercrime as a...
By Taima Brown Why is it a struggle for us to give out personal information? The root of our behaviour is our belief in privacy and anonymity. Strangely, this awareness changes in the digital sphere. The average internet user shares his personal data from the opening of...
By Franziska Kuehl Instagram is a safe space for aesthetically pleasing pictures, videos, or otherwise humorous content. Sure, politicians use the platform to communicate with their constituents and push their political agenda - but this can be easily avoided. The objective of the platform’s algorithm is...
On the 20th of October, the JASON Institute organized its first event of the academic year. The topic of this webinar was the Islamic State. We spoke about the current state of IS, their operations, and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the terrorist group....
Over the Mirage and into the Mountain: Why Turkey’s drone victory in Libya need not presage another in Nagorno-Karabakh By Giles Longley When the frozen conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan over the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region erupted once more this September, it opened up a testing ground for...
By Franziska Kuehl The difficulty of prosecuting individuals who return to western liberal democracies from ISIS territory is well-known; due to the burden of proof lying with the prosecution, the challenge of proving someone’s crimes committed in a conflict zone beyond a reasonable doubt appears absurdly...
Corona-virus conspiracy theories: Just a marginal bunch of crazies or an actual threat to national and international security? By Anoek Zijderveld Conspiracy theories are phenomena that have been around for a long time. In essence they are theories that explain how a certain group of people work...