Category Archives: Jim Langevin

A look inside Congress’ biggest cyber bill ever

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Congress this week is slated to pass what just might be the most significant cybersecurity legislation ever. This year’s annual defense policy bill, known as the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), is loaded with provisions that would reshape the federal bureaucracy on cybersecurity. It would create a national cyber director in the White House and strengthen the Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity and Information Security Agency (CISA), among other changes. “I believe it’s safe to say that this is the most important piece of cybersecurity legislation ever passed” should the final bill advance this week, said Sen. Angus King, I-Maine, who co-chaired the Cyberspace Solarium Commission that produced many of the proposals in the legislation. Mark Montgomery, executive director of the commission, called it “the most substantive” cyber legislation Congress will have passed. Others agree. “I think that’s true, 100%,” said Jonathan Reiber, a former Defense Department cybersecurity official during […]

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Lawmakers back CISA chief Krebs after report that he expects to be fired

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Multiple Democratic U.S. lawmakers on Thursday reacted with concern to a media report that a senior Department of Homeland Security cybersecurity official has told associates that he expects to be fired by the White House. Rep. Jim Langevin, D-R.I., and Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va, the ranking member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, were among those who hailed the work of Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Director Chris Krebs, who has been at the forefront of federal agencies’ efforts to protect the 2020 election from hacking and disinformation. “It would not be a surprise [but] would disappoint me profoundly if he were to be fired,” Langevin, who is co-founder of the Congressional Cybersecurity Caucus, said in an interview. “I think Chris Krebs has served in his role as director of CISA with great professionalism, with passion, in a nonpartisan way. He’s someone who is respected on both sides of the aisle.” Krebs, […]

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Lawmakers call for cyber leadership as they introduce bill that would create White House post

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After then-national security adviser John Bolton eliminated the position of White House cybersecurity coordinator in the spring of 2018, Democratic lawmakers quickly introduced a bill to restore the position, arguing that it was crucial for the White House to show leadership on the issue. The bill never went anywhere. But two years later, the push for creating a top White House cybersecurity post is gaining fresh traction, with support from Republicans. A bipartisan group of House members on Thursday introduced new legislation that would create a “national cyber director” at the White House. The director would serve a similar role to the coordinator, but have more authority to examine cybersecurity budgets and oversee national incident response. Instituting a national cyber director was a key recommendation put forth by the congressionally mandated Cyberspace Solarium Commission, which released a report in March arguing for big changes to U.S. cybersecurity policy. Two leading members […]

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DHS memo: ‘Significant’ security risks presented by online voting

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The Department of Homeland Security has told election officials and voting vendors that internet-connected voting is risky to the point that ballots returned online “could be manipulated at scale” by a malicious attacker. The advisory that DHS’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency sent states on Friday is perhaps the federal government’s sternest warning yet against online voting. It comes as officials weigh their options for conducting elections during a pandemic and as digital voting vendors see an opportunity to hawk their products. While the risk of election officials delivering ballots to voters via the internet can be managed, the return of those ballots by voters “faces significant security risks to the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of voted ballots,” CISA said in the guidance, which CyberScoop reviewed. “These risks can ultimately affect the tabulation and results and, can occur at scale.” The guidance, which is marked “For Official Use Only” and […]

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Congressional pressure builds for White House to share classified cyber authorizations

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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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Shutdown erodes feds’ ability to set cyber strategies, say lawmaker and ex-DHS officials

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A top House lawmaker, along with former Department of Homeland Security officials, say the partial government shutdown is hampering federal officials’ ability to anticipate and proactively address cyberthreats. “We can kind of address things as they come, but we can’t look forward and do additional mitigation and other kinds of things that we normally do,” Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., told reporters Thursday at an event on Capitol Hill on the security implications of the shutdown. “So if somebody tells us about something or we identify it, we can go after it,” added Thompson, who is chairman of the Homeland Security Committee. “But we can’t plan for the next month or the next three months because we don’t have the capacity to do it with the shutdown.” Former DHS officials agreed that the partial shutdown, which began Dec. 22 and has 800,000 workers across all agencies furloughed or working without pay, […]

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Rep. Langevin: We need a DHS briefing to understand extent of DNS hijacking threat

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A key House Democrat wants the Department of Homeland Security to brief lawmakers “as soon as possible” on a new domain name system hacking threat to federal computer networks, and the emergency order the department issued in response. DHS should brief members of the House Homeland Security Committee on the cyberthreat because “we need to understand the scope of this action and how many agencies were actually affected,” Rep. Jim Langevin, D-R.I., said in an interview Wednesday. Langevin was reacting to a rare emergency directive that DHS issued Tuesday ordering civilian agencies to tighten security controls in the face of a suspected Iranian hacking campaign. DHS issued the order out of concern that civilian agencies could be vulnerable to cyberattacks on platforms for managing domain name system (DNS) records, which help ensure that a computer user reaches an intended website. By manipulating DNS records, hackers could direct unwitting users to malicious websites. At least […]

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DHS supply chain and CDM bills pass the House

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The House passed two bills Tuesday that aim to bolster the Department of Homeland Security’s cybersecurity efforts as they relate to securing the agency’s own vendor supply chain as well as securing other federal agencies’ networks. Both bills now head to the Senate. One of them, the Securing the Homeland Security Supply Chain Act of 2018, would give the secretary of Homeland Security authority to block IT vendors deemed to pose a supply chain risk from contracting with the agency. “There is no question that nation-states and criminal actors are constantly trying to exploit U.S. government and private sector systems to steal information or insert potentially harmful hardware or software,” said the bill’s sponsor, Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., on the House floor before a voice vote. King cited recent and ongoing U.S. government scrutiny of Russian cybersecurity company Kaspersky Lab and Chinese telecommunications companies Huawei and ZTE as justification for […]

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Private sector isn’t sharing data with DHS’s threat portal

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For years, U.S. government officials have been trying to provide firms with actionable threat data in time for corporate officials to block hackers from compromising their networks. The 2015 Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act (CISA) gave firms legal cover to provide threat data to the government; the Department of Homeland Security rolled out an automated threat-sharing program in 2016; and Republican and Democratic administrations have preached the information-sharing gospel at conferences across the country. But today, amid consistent nation-state cyberthreats to U.S. companies, there is a growing consensus in Congress and in the private sector that these federal efforts are falling way short of expectations and needs. Two years after DHS established its Automated Indicator Sharing (AIS) program, just six non-federal organizations are using it to share threat indicators with the government, a DHS official told CyberScoop. “That’s unacceptable and it surely doesn’t reach the threshold I hoped it was going […]

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House defense bill would usher in cybersecurity changes at DOD

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The House of Representatives this week overwhelmingly passed a defense policy bill with several cybersecurity measures aimed at better securing Pentagon networks. The legislation — the fiscal 2019 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) — seeks closer collaboration between the departments of Defense and Homeland Security in defending against hackers, asks for quick notification of data breaches of military personnel, and continues to crack down on foreign-made telecom products that are deemed security threats. The NDAA is an annual ritual that lawmakers use to shape Pentagon policies and budget plans while throwing in some pet projects to boot. The House bill — a $717 billion behemoth — eventually will be merged with the Senate’s version, which that chamber’s Armed Services Committee also approved this week. It’s unclear when the Senate bill will have floor votes. One key provision of the House bill, according to the Rules Committee print, would set up a pilot program for […]

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