Category Archives: ODNI

National intelligence strategy seeks better insight into adversaries’ cyber capabilities

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A national intelligence strategy released Tuesday calls on U.S. spy agencies to improve their understanding of what is driving foreign adversaries’ growing cyber capabilities. The strategy, published by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, pledges that intelligence agencies will “increase our awareness and understanding of adversaries’ use of cyber operations—including leadership plans, intentions, capabilities, and operations— to inform decisions and enable action.” The stakes are high; America’s spies must keep pace with growing list of hacking capabilities at adversaries’ disposal, according to the ODNI. “As the cyber capabilities of our adversaries grow, they will pose increasing threats to U.S. security, including critical infrastructure, public health and safety, economic prosperity, and stability,” the document says. There has been no shortage of recent foreign hacking threats to U.S. public and private organizations, from suspected Iranian targeting of domain name systems to alleged Chinese economic espionage. The new strategy recognizes that the […]

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Federal insider-threat programs get a dose of ‘Maturity’

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A government task force hopes to improve federal agencies’ ability to identify insider threats and avoid the leak of sensitive or classified information. The National Insider Threat Task Force (NITTF) — run by the FBI and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence — released the “ Insider Threat Program Maturity Framework” on Thursday. It complements a set of standards the task force released in 2012 that set the “minimum elements necessary to establish functional insider threat programs.” The aim with the new framework is to help federal agencies go beyond the minimum guidelines issued six years ago and be “more proactive, comprehensive, and better postured to deter, detect, and mitigate insider threat risk.” It can be used to start an insider threat program or augment an existing one. The framework comprises 19 “maturity elements,” such as the ability to adapt a program to comply with changing laws; educating employees […]

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Coats: ODNI has seen ‘no evidence’ of supply chain hack detailed in Bloomberg story

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Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats told CyberScoop on Thursday that he’s seen no evidence of Chinese actors tampering with motherboards made by Super Micro Computer, becoming the latest national security official to question a Bloomberg report that stated the company was the victim of a supply chain hack. “We’ve seen no evidence of that, but we’re not taking anything for granted,” Coats told CyberScoop. “We’ve haven’t seen anything, but we’re always watching.” The comments came before a speech Coats delivered at CyberTalks, where the director touched on supply chain threats as one facet the administration is focused on when it comes to cybersecurity threats. “Be aware of supply chain threats,” Coats said in his speech. “Understand that cyberthreats to your supply chain are an insidious problem that can jeopardize the integrity of your products.” The remarks come after a cover story in Bloomberg Businessweek stated that Chinese intelligence agents […]

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Economic cyber-espionage is here to stay, U.S. counterintelligence report says

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A new report from a U.S. counterintelligence agency details persistent efforts by China, Iran, and Russia to steal U.S. trade secrets, warns that those campaigns are here to stay and raises concerns about the software supply chain as a vector for economic espionage. China, Iran, and Russia are “three of the most capable and active cyber actors tied to economic espionage,” and they will “remain aggressive and capable collectors of sensitive U.S. economic information and technologies, particularly in cyberspace,” the report from the National Counterintelligence and Security Center (NCSC) states. Last year was a “watershed” year in public reporting of big software supply-chain operations, with seven incidents reported compared to just four between 2014 and 2016, according to the NCSC, which is part of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI). The counterintelligence agency cites the seminal NotPetya attack, which U.S. officials blamed on Moscow, and the CCleaner backdoor, which […]

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Private sector played critical role in WannaCry attribution, ODNI official says

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Private sector security companies had a key role in the U.S. government’s attribution of last year’s WannaCry ransomware epidemic to North Korea, an official at the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) said on Friday. Speaking at a Washington Post Live event, Tonya Ugoretz, director of ODNI’s Cyber Threat Intelligence Integration Center (CTIIC), said that the small agency she leads acted as a liaison to get critical information about the global attack from the private sector to U.S. intelligence agencies. Ugoretz said that CTIIC learned of information about WannaCry that had been fed to Department of Homeland Security by its private sector partners. The information would play an important role in the attribution to North Korea months later, Ugoretz explained. CTIIC comprises staff from intelligence, law enforcement and other federal agencies with the goal of helping coordinate responses to cyberthreats. “DHS had that by virtue of their private sector relationships, and we asked […]

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Trump’s refusal to call out Russian hacking provokes swift, sharp backlash

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President Donald Trump drew sharp criticism Monday from former intelligence officials and lawmakers after refusing to acknowledge or condemn Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election while standing alongside Russian President Vladimir Putin. Following a closed-door tête-à-tête in Helsinki, Finland, the two leaders held a joint 45-minute press conference. During the wide-ranging session, among other things, the sitting U.S. president publicly declined to back the unanimous findings of his own U.S. intelligence community – that Russia interfered in the 2016 presidential election, through a series of cyberattacks and carefully orchestrated information campaigns. “They said they think it’s Russia; I have asked President Putin, he just said ‘It’s not Russia,” Trump said. “I have great confidence in my intelligence people, but I will tell you that President Putin was extremely strong and powerful in his denial today.” Within an hour, former intelligence chiefs were panning Trump and his statements at the press […]

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U.S. intelligence chief lays out threats to U.S. infrastructure, efforts to protect it

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The top U.S. intelligence official painted a grim picture on Friday of the many types of cyber threats the U.S. faces across critical infrastructure sectors and highlighted the ways the government is countering them. “These attacks come in different forms. Some are tailored to achieve very tactical goals, while others are implemented for strategic purposes, including the possibility of a crippling cyber attack against our critical infrastructure,” said Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats, speaking at the Hudson Institute, a Washington, D.C. think tank. “But all of these desperate efforts share a common purpose to exploit America’s openness in order to undermine our long-term competitive advantage.” Coats said that U.S.’s digital infrastructure is under constant attack from foreign entities including China, Iran and North Korea, but he singled out Russia as the “most aggressive” one, highlighting the country’s reported efforts to use hacking and information campaigns to influence U.S. elections. The […]

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Inside the U.S.’ new state-of-the-art cyberwarfare bunker

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The command post for any future U.S.-backed cyberwar is now officially open. Last week, NSA and U.S. Cyber Command leaders posed together and smiled for pictures during a ribbon-cutting ceremony to celebrate the completion of a new, state-of-the-art spy bunker named the “Integrated Cyber Center,” or ICC. Bland in name alone, the groundbreaking facility located inside Fort Meade in Maryland represents the latest step taken by the federal government to equip U.S. spies and a growing force of “cyberwarriors” with the physical infrastructure necessary to combat foreign threats online. Hackers linked to Russia, China, North Korea and Iran have each respectively penetrated important U.S. political groups, government agencies, entertainment studios and U.S. energy companies in recent years. These types of breaches have led lawmakers to openly question whether the federal government is doing enough to deter hackers. “Today we are at the dawn of a new era, facing the reality of wars […]

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Trump administration may throw out the approval process for cyberwarfare

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Members of the White House’s National Security Council are pushing to rescind Presidential Policy Directive 20, an important policy memorandum that currently guides the approval process for government-backed cyberattacks, three current U.S. officials familiar with the matter tell CyberScoop. The effort is driven in part by a desire from some NSC staff to create a more streamlined channel for military leaders to get their offensive cyber operations greenlit, insiders familiar with the matter said. The sources spoke under the condition of anonymity to freely discuss sensitive national security matters. The move comes as lawmakers openly question whether U.S. Cyber Command, the nation’s premier cyber warfare unit, is hamstrung from responding to Russian meddling due to bureaucratic red tape. CyberScoop previously reported that multiple congressional committees are considering policies that could empower the military’s cyber mission. But the push for change faces resistance from the intelligence community and several other federal agencies involved in cybersecurity. Senior […]

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ODNI holds classified briefings on election security for all 50 states

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State election officials from all 50 states are to receive classified briefings from intelligence officials Friday and Sunday about threats to election security. The Office of the Director of National Intelligence announced on Thursday that it will hold the briefings in conjunction with the Department of Homeland Security and the FBI “as part of an ongoing effort to ensure the integrity and security of the nation’s election infrastructure.” The briefings coincide with annual conferences for the National Association of Secretaries of State and the National Association of State Election Directors being held through the weekend in Washington, D.C. Since the 2016 presidential election, lawmakers have been calling on the intelligence community to expedite the security clearance process for state election officials in order for them to review information about election threats. Several bills have been introduced in Congress in recent months with involvement from both parties that would set requirements around this issue. The […]

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