White Hate Groups Pose Highest Threat To NJ, Homeland Security Says

NEW JERSEY — White supremacists and homegrown extremists with ties to foreign organizations remain New Jersey’s top threat in 2022, according to an annual report released by NJ’s homeland security department.

“The COVID-19 pandemic and instances of civil unrest over the past few years exacerbated a threat landscape that continues to grow more diverse and innovative,” New Jersey Office of Homeland Security and Preparedness Director Laurie R. Doran said in a statement.

In a detailed 2022 Terrorism Threat Assessment released earlier this month, the state homeland security department listed cybersecurity attacks such as ransomware, along with homegrown violent extremists and white racially motivated extremists, as New Jersey's highest-level threats.

“Homegrown violent extremists (HVEs) remain a high threat to New Jersey in 2022, as they are driven to conduct attacks domestically, provide financial and messaging support, or attempt to travel overseas to fight on behalf of foreign terrorist organizations,” the report reads.

While the preliminary number of identified HVEs have decreased since 2020, “HVE support for foreign terrorist organizations is constant despite a decrease in arrests,” the report said.

In 2021 alone, 10 HVEs were arrested, including a New York couple who attempted to board a Newark cargo ship to travel to Yemen with the prospects of joining ISIS, the assessment said. Authorities also arrested an active-duty soldier and a Tennessee-based leader of a pro-ISIS group after both allegedly provided material support to the extremist group.

But while homegrown violent extremist identification is down from last year, the rate of white racially motivated extremists (WRMEs) remains on the rise.

The demographic “will likely produce personal manifestos, collect extremist literature and stockpile weapons while aspiring to conduct lone offender attacks,” the state homeland security department said. In fact, a departmental review revealed that U.S.-based WRMEs conducted at least 28 attacks over the last five years, resulting in 52 deaths and 79 injuries.

WRMEs are expected to organize as small cells or groups under separate national banners, using social media as an avenue to spread their ideology, recruit new members and communicate. Unaffiliated lone offenders may engage in isolated attacks against a specific facility or government target that they have a personal grievance toward, the assessment said.

Domestic Terrorism

In the state’s 2022 terrorism threat assessment, experts noted that domestic terrorists will likely return to pre-pandemic operating norms, “shifting their focus toward local expansion, participating in demonstrations, and engaging in low-level criminal activity. Over the last two years, domestic extremists leveraged multiple national events to mobilize and justify violence throughout the United States.”

In a breakdown of risk threats to state security, the state homeland security department classified anti-abortion extremists, anti-government extremists, anarchist extremists, Black racially motivated extremists, militia extremists and sovereign citizen extremists as “moderate” threats.

In fact, there are nearly 800 federal cases currently against persons involved in the Capitol Hill insurrection on Jan. 6, 2021. Charges have been filed against 26 people from New Jersey (22 men and four women). Most were unaffiliated with a group or ideology, and three were confirmed former military members, the assessment said.

Domestic terrorists in the U.S. will likely continue to use encrypted messaging platforms and alternative social media applications such as Telegram, Parler and Gab “to amplify extremist rhetoric, communicate and coordinate among like-minded individuals, and maintain followers across platforms,” the report said.

Low-level threats in the 2022 assessment include al-Qaida, animal rights extremists and environmental extremists, as well as ISIS, Hamas and Hezbollah. The report added that foreign terrorist organizations are likely to encourage U.S. attacks via cybersecurity or intellectual property theft.

Cybersecurity Threats

The overall cyber threat to New Jersey is high, according to the New Jersey Cybersecurity and Communication Integration Cell (NJCCIC). In 2021, cyber attacks affected organizations, governments, businesses and private citizens in the state via ransomware, credential theft and social engineering.

Many of those attacks highlighted “supply chain issues and interdependencies that increase the vulnerability of these attacks,” the report said. Over 3,100 ransomware attacks reported in the state compromised high-profile businesses such as Colonial Pipeline and JBS Foods, as well as small- and medium-size businesses, “further challenging their ability to operate amid shutdowns and staffing shortages.”

Read more: Risk Of Russian Cyber Attacks Is Now Much Higher, State Of NJ Warns

The 42-page assessment can be viewed here.

If someone witnesses suspicious behavior in New Jersey, experts say it’s imperative that it be reported.

“It is important to note that the public is often our first line of defense in the fight against terrorism,” Doran said. “I ask everyone to “See Something, Say Something” by reporting terrorism-related suspicious activity to our Counterterrorism Watch Desk at 1-866-4-SAFE-NJ and tips@njohsp.gov.”

This article originally appeared on the Holmdel-Hazlet Patch