With a mysterious surveillance target identified, calls for Congress to change course

Civil liberties advocates want to narrow the scope of an amendment to a controversial surveillance law.

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House hurtles toward showdown over expiring surveillance tools

At issue is Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which authorizes snooping that some consider vital to security and others view as an out-of-control privacy threat.

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House Intel Chairman vows to put ‘greater emphasis’ on fighting spyware

Spyware such as NSO Group-produced Pegasus is proliferating quickly and poses a threat to privacy and national security, experts said.

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Cyber Command chief tells Congress chip shortage has national security implications

China’s march toward chip independence is of “great concern” and could have “broader impacts,” he said. It’s an issue that dovetails with the Russia-Ukraine war.

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As FireEye grapples with breach investigation, questions remain

FireEye’s announcement this week that hackers breached its systems has sent shockwaves through the cybersecurity community, raising new questions about how one of the most influential security firms in the U.S. grappled with an apparently state-sponsored attack. It also has triggered policy discussions about whether the U.S. government should do more to protect cyber industry titans like FireEye, one of the top cybersecurity firms in the world with customers that counts Fortune 500 companies among its clients. The hack adds FireEye to the list of cybersecurity companies that have experienced their own breaches, a roster stretching back to at least the beginning of the last decade. “This news has rocked the cybersecurity industry to our core, unlike anything since the RSA hack” from 2011, said Tom Bossert, president of Trinity Cyber and the former homeland security adviser to President Donald Trump. “It’s a pretty big deal.” FireEye revealed on Tuesday […]

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Russia is planning to interfere in 2020 presidential election: report

Russia is working to interfere in the 2020 presidential election in an effort to get President Donald Trump re-elected, according to a briefing delivered to the House Intelligence Committee last week. According to a report in the The New York Times, the briefing detailed evidence that Moscow is trying to duplicate its efforts during the 2016 presidential elections, where Russia developed a “clear preference” for Trump and sought to “denigrate” the candidacy of the potential Democratic nominee. The briefing, delivered by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence’s election security lead Shelby Pierson, reportedly upset Trump because he suspected Democratic committee members would use the information against him, according to the Times and The Washington Post. Trump mistakenly thought that the information was supplied exclusively to Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., despite the fact that multiple committee members from both parties were briefed. Trump was so infuriated by the briefing […]

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Twitter shutters accounts linked to US election hacking

The move comes after special counsel Robert Mueller’s indictment of 12 Russians believed to have used the accounts as fronts in US election hacking. Continue reading Twitter shutters accounts linked to US election hacking

Intel Committee blasts FBI for not notifying Russian hacking victims

The FBI is catching heat from Congress again. In a report released Friday by the House Intelligence Committee about their own investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election, lawmakers argued that the FBI didn’t do enough to notify victims that were targeted by Russian cyberattacks. “The Federal Bureau of Investigation’s notification to numerous Russian hacking victims was largely inadequate,” the committee wrote. “The Committee is also concerned that many, perhaps even a majority, of Russia’s known victims were never contacted by the FBI.” Much of the committee’s notes on this subject are redacted, but the panel appears to base its assessment at least partially on reporting from the Associate Press in November 2017. The AP reported that the FBI was aware of Russian hacking group Fancy Bear attempting to break into scores of U.S. officials’ Gmail accounts, but only notified a small fraction. The committee also highlighted the fact that Hillary Clinton campaign staffer […]

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