Category Archives: Gary Peters

Feds aren’t well prepared to spot SolarWinds-style hacks at agencies, CISA official says

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In one of the bluntest assessments of U.S. government security shortcomings around the SolarWinds hack, a top Department of Homeland Security official told senators on Thursday that federal defenses simply aren’t aligned properly to detect advanced attackers. The testimony before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee on federal cybersecurity weaknesses points to a forthcoming reorientation of how DHS’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency protects agencies from threats. It’s a shift resulting from the fallout from the hack at federal contractor SolarWinds that resulted in breaches at numerous federal agencies and major technology companies. And it’s a shift that Congress is aiding with $650 million that it recently appropriated for CISA. “Part of the challenge is that you can only secure what you can see,” Brandon Wales, acting director of the agency, told committee Chairman Gary Peters, D-Mich. “Over the past decade our system of protection has largely relied […]

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Senators warn YouTube to buck up on misinformation

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YouTube has found itself in the crosshairs of a group of Democratic senators who want the Alphabet-owned video platform to take down misinformation about elections, false claims of voter fraud and content that could fuel civil unrest. In the buildup to the 2020 U.S. presidential elections, YouTube chose to not take down content that promotes false claims about the election or that challenges the credibility of election’s results. That policy is not enough to curb misinformation, the senators warned in a letter they sent Tuesday to YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki. “[T]he platform is now home to an ‘onslaught of videos aiming to undermine the legitimacy of the election,’” wrote senators Bob Menendez of New Jersey, Mazie Hirono of Hawaii, Gary Peters of Michigan and Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota. “These videos seek to undermine our democracy and cast doubt on the legitimacy of President-elect Biden’s incoming administration. Moreover, because the current president has […]

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Voting-machine vendors have some serious questions to answer, senators say

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While the security of the 2020 election remains a prominent topic in Washington, a group of Democratic senators is raising alarms about longer-term issues that will resonate after voters are done choosing a president about 20 months from now. The three companies that make most of the voting technology used in the U.S. must be more transparent about their plans to improve their products to meet current expectations about security and performance, says a letter Wednesday by Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota and three other top Democrats. In particular, the senators say every machine should reliably produce paper records, and the companies should do far more to upgrade their products. “The integrity of our elections is directly tied to the machines we vote on — the products that you make,” says the letter from Klobuchar, Mark Warner of Virginia, Jack Reed of Rhode Island and Gary Peters of Michigan. “Despite shouldering such a massive responsibility, there has been […]

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