Author Description

Director of National Intelligence Daniel R. Coats presented the 2018 annual U.S. intelligence community worldwide threat assessment in Congressional testimony on February 13, 2018. In the published report, Coats provides a thorough review of the status of possible threats from a wide variety of nations and terror groups. In addition to the 2018 assessment, this compilation includes the 2017 assessment for comparison and historical reference, plus a report of the Select Committee on Intelligence, United States Senate.Topics covered in this report include: Global Threats * Cyber Threats * Weapons Of Mass Destruction And Proliferation * Terrorism * Counterintelligence And Foreign Denial And Deception * Emerging And Disruptive Technology * Technology Acquisitions And Strategic Economic Competition * Space And Counterspace * Transnational Organized Crime * Economics And Energy * Human Security * Regional Threats * East Asia * Middle East And North Africa * South Asia * Russia And Eurasia * Europe * Africa * The Western HemisphereRussia. We expect that Russia will conduct bolder and more disruptive cyber operations during the next year, most likely using new capabilities against Ukraine. The Russian Government is likely to build on the wide range of operations it is already conducting, including disruption of Ukrainian energy-distribution networks, hack-and-leak influence operations, distributed denial-of-service attacks, and false flag operations. In the next year, Russian intelligence and security services will continue to probe U.S. and allied critical infrastructures, as well as target the United States, NATO, and allies for insights into U.S. policy.China. China will continue to use cyber espionage and bolster cyber attack capabilities to support national security priorities. The IC and private-sector security experts continue to identify ongoing cyber activity from China, although at volumes significantly lower than before the bilateral U.S.-China cyber commitments