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The attorney-general of the federation and minister of justice, Mr Abubakar Malami, SAN, has withdrawn the N1.84 billion corruption charges filed against Nicholas Ashinze, a former military assistant to then National Security Adviser (NSA), Sambo Dasuki, and eight others.

Malami withdrew the case at the Federal High Court in Abuja, immediately after taking over the trial from the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).

The lawyer who represented him in court, David Kaswe, gave no reason for the withdrawal.

The EFCC had called seven prosecution witnesses in the trial that started over five years ago. The commission was to proceed with hearing when a lawyer from the AGF office, Mr Kaswe, announced the decision to take over the case.

The counsel to EFCC, Offem Uket, said he was unaware that the AGF was taking over the matter. He, however, did not oppose the application.

After obtaining the judges permission to take over the suit, Mr Kaswe prayed for the withdrawal of the criminal charge against the defendants.

It has become customary of the AGF office on the watch of Mr Malami to terminate EFCCs cases once it takes over such criminal proceedings. The office does this in exercise of the AGFs constitutional power to take over and institute a nolle prosequi (terminate trials).

The EFCC, which is under some supervisory control of the AGF, hardly opposes such move even when it is uncomfortable with it.

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Federal Gov't Withdraws Corruption Charges Against Ex NSA's Aide - Leadership News

Iranian NSA Ali Shamkhani has pitched for using national currencies for trade with India including in oil during his meeting National Security Advisor Ajit Doval in Tehran on Monday.Shamkhani said using national currencies in bilateral trade between Iran with India would help the two countries achieve their joint economic objectives, officials said.

During the meeting, Shamkhani and Doval discussed economic, political, and security issues concerning Iran and India as well as the most important regional and international developments.

Doval, for his part, said that the deep influence of Iranian culture in the daily life of the Indians is a sign of deep ties between the two nations.

Emphasizing the need for cooperation between Iran and India to boost stability in Afghanistan, the Indian NSA said the two countries should work together to combat terrorism.

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Iranian NSA pitch for trade in national currencies in his meeting with Doval - The Economic Times

DOD wants more visibility into the commercial cloud service provider side, rather than just the customer side.

The Defense Department said the companies that received contracts to support the agency's Joint Warfighting Cloud Capability (JWCC) in December of last year are "receptive" to red teaming and providing more visibility into the service provider side, not just the customer side.

"We have some work to do probably on the visibility of the service provider side of the equation. We've had some incidents recently that have shown that we probably need to shore some visibility issues where maybe we do some outside in looks at the clouds that they built for us," Dave McKeown, acting principal deputy CIO at DOD, said at AFCEA's TechNet Cyber conference in Baltimore, Maryland.

Earlier this year, CIOs from each military service traveled to the West Coast to tour all four cloud service providers that were awarded the JWCC contract.

"I have taken all of my CIOs in the department on field trips to each one of the cloud service providers where we can ask the tough questions about their architectures and their technologies and how they're securing specific aspects of their applications," McKeown said. "We know we are in a partnership with them. We have to both be successful cybersecurity-wise in order for us to continue to succeed together."

Around the time of the trip, it was reported that the DOD secured an exposed server hosted on Microsoft's Azure government cloud that was spilling internal military emails publicly after a misconfiguration left the server without a password and allowed access to sensitive government information, a lot of which was related to U.S. Special Operations Command.

McKeown said it's important to continue developing a close partnership with the cloud service providers and emphasize that the department wants to work with them, not "scare them off" or "bring the lawyers in." He added that the department is adopting the industry's best practices and products into its environment, something they would not be able to do on their own all the while satisfying customer demand.

"Let them believe that they're part of the team because they are and work together on securing these environments," McKeown said. "I see every time there's an incident. There's a lot of disparaging comments about putting all of our eggs in a cloud service providers' basket. I'll tell you what, I've witnessed when we are in charge of building things and securing them and defending them, we haven't historically done that great of a job either."

Meanwhile, the National Security Agency (NSA) is launching a series of attacks on the zero-trust security systems of the four cloud service providers to determine whether the companies implement zero trust correctly and are able to withstand attacks from the NSA red-team hackers.

These tests are not required for the JWCC contract, but are conducted as an independent experiment.

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Companies Awarded JWCC Contract are 'Receptive' to Red ... - GovernmentCIO Media & Research

New Delhi: National security adviser (NSA) Ajit Doval assured his Russian counterpart Nikolay Patrushev of Indias support for Russia in multilateral venues during a meeting at Moscow on February 22 this year, leaked classified US intelligence assessments show, according to a Washington Post report.

Doval, as per the leaked documents, also told Patrushev that New Delhi was working to ensure the Ukraine war did not come up during a Group of 20 meeting chaired by India, despite considerable pressure to do so. He also cited Indias resistance to pressure to support the Western-backed UN resolution over Ukraine, saying India would not deviate from the principled position it had taken in the past.

The documents were among a trove of US intelligence secrets leaked online through the Discord messaging platform. Several sensitive files were released by a 21-year-old IT specialist of the US Air National Guard, revealingUS concern over Ukraines military capacity against Russian forces and also instances ofalleged spying by Washington on its allies Israel and South Korea.

It is not clear how US intelligence agencies gained access to Dovals discussions with Patrushev.

Patrushev, a close confidante of Russian President Vladimir Putin, had officially met Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on March 29, when he was in Delhi for a Shanghai Cooperation Organisation meeting. Russias Security Council said in a readout cited by Russian news agencies after the meeting that Patrushev and Modi discussed issues of Russian-Indian bilateral cooperation and mutual interest, without providing further details.

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A week after Dovals meeting, the Modi government had suggested removing any reference to the Ukraine war from a joint statement to be issued at the end of the meeting of G-20 foreign ministers in New Delhi. It claimed that this was in line with its neutral stance on the issue and a reiteration of its view that diplomatic channels should be employed to resolve the crisis.

However, the Western countries did not agree to that suggestion and this disagreement resulted in a failure to forge a consensus on broader global challenges. In place of a joint statement, aG20 Chairs Summary and Outcome Documentwas released, underlining the positions expressed by member countries in relation to the Russia-Ukraine war.

Analysing leaks about positions that developing countries have taken regarding the USs rivalry with Russia and China, the Washington Post report says that JoeBidens global agenda faces significant challenges as major developing nations seek to evade the intensifying standoff and in some cases exploit that rivalry for their own gain.

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NSA Doval Assured Russian Counterpart of Indias Support in Multilateral Fora: Leaked US Intel - The Wire

UNC Pembroke recently signed an articulation agreement with Southeastern Community College (SCC) to provide a seamless pathway for information technology students seeking to further their education in the cybersecurity field.

The new partnership will increase the pipeline of cybersecurity professionals across the region. Cybersecurity is among the most in-demand professions and fastest-growing career areas nationally. The partnership with SCC will address the national workforce shortage.

This pathway is the latest example of the long-standing relationship between our two institutions and another opportunity to change lives through education, Chancellor Robin Gary Cummings said during a signing ceremony at SCC on April 28.

It is vitally important for the continued growth of southeastern North Carolinas economy that we fully leverage the power and potential of SCC and UNCP to improve the lives of students, the lives around them, and move our region forward.

Through this new opportunity, a four-year degree in an extremely in-demand field becomes even more accessible for students to pursue, and that is the result of strong partnerships, Dr. Cummings said.

The agreement eases the transition for students who complete an Associate in Applied Science in information technology to transfer and complete a bachelors degree in information technology with a cybersecurity track.

According to national statistics, there were 600,000 cybersecurity job openings between April 2020 and March 2021. The new partnership will specifically target workforce development, according to SCC President Chris English.

Everything we do at SCC is about workforce development, Dr. English said. We take pride in knowing that we have this great partnership with UNCP, and it is evident that we keep leaning on UNCP, and you keep stepping up to the challenge. You understand our students needs and Columbus Countys needs.

I reassure you that our strong partnership with Whiteville City Schools and Columbus County Schools will be extended through this so that we can develop our youth into a great career, English continued.

UNCP offers cybersecurity tracks with undergraduate programs in computer science and information technology. These programs have shown significant growth since their inception. In fall of 2022, UNCP began offering a Bachelor of Science in cybersecurity.

The new degree program includes a strong math and computer science foundation, combining lectures with real-world case studies, hands-on experience in cyber labs and collaborative faculty-student research opportunities.

To further bolster the universitys cybersecurity programs, UNCP was recently designated as a National Center of Academic Excellence in Cyber Defense by the National Security Agency (NSA). UNCP also partnered with state and federal entities and established the Cyber Defense Education Center.

The designation opens the door for scholarships and internships with collaborative agreements established under NSA partnerships. Students will be eligible to participate in cyber competitions and work on NSA-funded research projects.

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UNCP launches cybersecurity pathway with Southeastern ... - The Pine Needle