Congressional pressure builds for White House to share classified cyber authorizations

Almost one year after President Donald Trump issued a classified memorandum that has made it easier for the Pentagon to run offense cyber-operations against U.S. adversaries, lawmakers still haven’t seen the details of the memorandum, and they want the White House to change course. Thursday evening the House of Representatives added a provision to the National Defense Authorization Act that would compel the White House to turn over the memorandum as well as any others relating to the Pentagon’s cyber-operations.  The amendment was part of an “en bloc” package, meaning both sides accepted by voice vote without debate, signaling to the White House just how much interest there is — on both sides of the aisle — in allowing the legislative branch to see the memorandum. Part of the concern is that with increased authorizations to run offensive operations against adversaries, the administration runs the risk of escalating tensions with adversaries in cyberspace without proper Congressional oversight, […]

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Lawmakers look to fortify federal cyber defenses ahead of 2018 midterms

A bipartisan pair of House lawmakers have introduced legislation aimed at strengthening U.S. infrastructure ahead of midterm elections this fall. The bill from Reps. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., and Val Demings, D-Fla., is an effort to shore up U.S. cyber defenses by, among other measures, urging agencies to fully implement an executive order on cybersecurity that President Donald Trump issued last year. The president’s directive makes agency heads accountable for cyber risk – such as nation-state hacking – that can affect the entire government. Within 60 days of the legislation’s enactment, Trump would owe a report to Congress on what steps agencies had taken to “better detect, monitor, and mitigate cyberattacks.” Stefanik and Demings’s “Defend Against Russian Disinformation Act,” would also boost U.S. military cooperation with NATO. Cybersecurity analysts have held up Estonia, a neighbor of Russia and NATO member, as a model of cyber resiliency. The U.S. intelligence community concluded that […]

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