Category Archives: Mark Warner

Dem lawmakers want FBI briefing on foreign interference efforts in 2020 election

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Four senior Democratic lawmakers have asked the FBI to brief all members of Congress on foreign efforts to interfere in the 2020 presidential election, citing an ongoing disinformation campaign. “We are gravely concerned, in particular, that Congress appears to be the target of a concerted foreign interference campaign, which seeks to launder and amplify disinformation in order to influence congressional activity, public debate and the presidential election in November,” wrote Speaker of the House Rep. Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer in a letter to FBI Director Christopher Wray last week. Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, and Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, also signed the letter. The four lawmakers did not elaborate on the nature of the foreign interference campaign targeting Congress, but they did include a classified addendum to the letter that draws on the Trump administration’s […]

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Senators want Cyber Command and CISA to do more to deter coronavirus-focused hackers

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A bipartisan group of senators sent a letter to both the Department of Defense and Department of Homeland Security on Monday urging them to take more action to defend the U.S. healthcare sector against hackers that have been exploiting the coronavirus pandemic. The senators warned that if Gen. Paul Nakasone, the commander of U.S. Cyber Command, and Christopher Krebs, Director of Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), don’t take more action to deter hackers, they will continue to pummel the U.S. healthcare sector will continue to get pummeled with coronavirus hacking campaigns. “Unless we take forceful action to deny our adversaries success and deter them from further exploiting this crisis, we will be inviting further aggression from them and others,” Sens. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn.; Tom Cotton, R-Ark.; Mark Warner, D-Va.; David Perdue, R-Ga.; and Edward Markey, D-Mass. write. “The cybersecurity threat to our stretched and stressed medical and public health systems should […]

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DHS official briefs senators on state ransomware threats in classified meeting

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The head of the Department of Homeland Security’s cybersecurity division on Wednesday provided senators with a classified briefing on ransomware attacks, the latest indication of the threat the file-locking malware poses to state and local governments. Chris Krebs, director of DHS’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), briefed the Senate Cybersecurity Caucus, a bipartisan group of lawmakers led by Sens. Mark Warner, D-Va., and Cory Gardner, R-Colo. The newest member of the caucus, Sen. Maggie Hassan, D-N.H., confirmed the briefing in a statement. “From ransomware attacks on local hospitals to a hack of federal government records, cyberattacks pose a serious threat to our communities and national security,” Hassan said. In the last few years, poorly secured U.S. businesses, schools, and local governments have lost millions of dollars after ransomware infections. Over 100 public-sector ransomware attacks have been reported in 2019 alone, double the amount in 2018. This classified briefing followed an unprecedented, closed-door summit held by […]

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Citing security concerns, senators call on White House to appoint coordinator for 5G issues

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A bipartisan group of senators wants the Trump administration to appoint a top official to coordinate policy for issues related to 5G communications, saying the current marketplace for the technology poses an “unprecedented security challenge” to the U.S. and its allies. “China’s leadership [in 5G], combined with the United States’ increased reliance on high-speed, reliable telecommunications services to facilitate both commerce and defense, poses a strategic risk for the country,” the senators wrote Tuesday to White House national security adviser Robert O’Brien, advising him to tap a senior official to coordinate 5G policy across federal agencies. The chairman and ranking member of Senate committees dealing with intelligence, foreign relations, defense and homeland security all signed the letter. U.S. officials have long fretted that Chinese telecommunications companies like Huawei are in prime position to shape 5G deployments around the world. Those networks, which promise must faster connectivity, would be ripe for Chinese […]

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Sen. Warner says hacking, disinformation are the future of war, and urges the U.S. to keep up

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Cyberwarfare and information operations now are the primary ways in which countries assert themselves on the world stage, Sen. Mark Warner said in a speech Tuesday, pointing to a new geopolitical reality in which traditional military strength may be less urgent. The Virginia Democrat portrayed hacking, social media manipulation, and other digital techniques as affordable options for smaller countries that don’t have the financial resources to invest in modern military hardware like tanks and fighter jets. U.S. leaders need to more urgently recognize this transition, he said, and prioritize processes and technology that stifle future attempts from adversaries to interfere in U.S. elections and markets. Warner, vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, for years has urged Congress to authorize more funding for cybersecurity. “I worry at times we may be spending too much time [and] resources on 20th century stuff when increasingly conflict in the 21st century will be cyber, will be misinformation, disinformation,” Warner […]

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‘This isn’t IAD 2.0’: NSA’s new Cybersecurity Directorate plots its mission

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The National Security Agency has started to lay the groundwork and select the leadership for its new Cybersecurity Directorate, which will be focused on fusing together signals intelligence with the agency’s cybersecurity protection mission, CyberScoop has learned. Neal Ziring, who most recently served as the NSA’s technical director for capabilities, will be the Cybersecurity Directorate’s technical director, an NSA spokesperson tells CyberScoop. Dave Frederick, the NSA’s chief of strategic counter cyber operations, will be the new deputy director, an NSA spokesperson said. In his most recent role, Ziring was responsible for acting as a liaison to both private industry and other government agencies. Ziring previously served as the technical director of the agency’s defensive operations directorate, the Information Assurance Directorate (IAD). Frederick was responsible for coordinating defensive and offensive cyber missions. NSA Director Gen. Paul Nakasone announced the new Cybersecurity Directorate earlier this week. It will be run by Anne […]

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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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Security ills of health care sector draw senator’s attention

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A vocal senator on U.S. cybersecurity matters wrote on Monday to four government agencies, seeking more information about how they are working to mitigate cyber risk in the health care sector. Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., asked the agencies how they were working to resolve apparent security vulnerabilities and urged them to provide strategic recommendations on how to fend off attacks in the medical sector. Warner’s office wrote to the Food and Drug Administration, the Department of Health and Human Services, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and National Institute of Standards and Technology. The letter comes amid ongoing scrutiny over an apparent lack of security at many health care organizations. Hackers have haunted the industry for years, leveraging medical devices to steal valuable personal information or launch highly publicized ransomware attacks. The senator last week asked a number of health care organizations how the federal government can more effectively help rectify […]

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D.C. Metro system beefs up supply-chain cybersecurity provisions for new railcars

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The Washington, D.C., area’s Metro system, in response to U.S. senators who raised security concerns about a new line of railcars, now says it will use the National Institute of Standards and Technology’s cybersecurity framework to vet software and hardware proposed for the project. Bidders on the railcar procurement, worth an estimated $1 billion and covering up to 800 railcars, also will have to show evidence that a third party tested their software or hardware, Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority CEO Paul J. Wiedefeld said Wednesday. The NIST framework — used widely throughout other industries and government agencies — is a key part of the  updated request for proposal, Wiedefeld wrote in a letter to Democratic senators from Virginia and Maryland. “We are confident that these approaches will impose appropriate controls that limit any malicious actor’s ability to embed malware and for WMATA to monitor and enforce security requirements,” Wiedefeld wrote to […]

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Cyberthreats rise to the top at Senate hearing on worldwide dangers for U.S.

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In yet another sign that the hacking abilities of Russia, China, Iran and North Korea are drawing intense scrutiny from U.S. spy agencies and law enforcement, top federal officials focused on cyberspace Tuesday as part of a broader hearing on the global threats facing the United States. The digital tools and techniques deployed by U.S. adversaries and competitors are “growing in potency and severity,” Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats told the Senate Intelligence Committee. “As the world becomes increasingly interconnected, we expect these actors and others to rely more and more on cyber capabilities” to advance their interests, Coats said. FBI Director Christopher Wray told lawmakers that nation-states are increasingly collaborating with criminal hackers in a “form of outsourcing that makes it even more of a menace.” The annual hearing gives the public a snapshot of the threats at the forefront of U.S. intelligence chiefs’ minds, and hacking allegedly backed by […]

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