Collaborate Disseminate
The crackdown on foreign commercial surveillance comes in the wake of high-profile attacks on diplomats and government officials abroad.
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Critics say that in its quest to break up big tech, the legislation also opens the door to cyber and national security risks.
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Laura Galante comes to the role after several years of running her own cybersecurity firm. The Ukrainian government was one of her clients.
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The U.S. is “more likely” to end up in a “real shooting war with a major power” over a cyber incident than other kinds of conflict, President Joe Biden suggested on Tuesday. “We’ve seen how cyber threats, including ransomware attacks, increasingly are able to cause damage and disruption to the real world,” he said at a speech at the Office of the Director of National Intelligence’s National Counterterrorism Center in McLean, Virginia. “And it’s increasing exponentially — the capabilities.” While Biden delivered his speech before intelligence personnel, at least one of his intended recipients appeared to be Russian President Vladimir Putin. The Biden administration has been talking tough about Russia providing safe haven for ransomware gangs believed to be responsible for headline-making attacks on Colonial Pipeline, JBS and Kaseya. Biden has pressed that message to Putin directly as recently as July. Russia has rejected U.S. suggestions of wrongdoing. “I can’t […]
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A federal grand jury has charged an FBI employee for stealing classified documents and keeping them in her home between 2004 and 2017, the FBI announced Friday. The employee, Kendra Kingsley, allegedly took documents that detailed the FBI’s sources and methods the FBI uses to counter cyber threats, as well as those it uses in its counterterrorism and counterintelligence work, according to the indictment. Some of the documents detail specifics of investigations in multiple field offices, details on human sources and gaps in intelligence about foreign intelligence services, according to the indictment. The documents also detail technical capabilities the FBI uses in counterintelligence and counterterrorism work. In some cases, the documents contained information on al Qaeda members and emerging terrorism threats in Africa, as well as a suspected associate of Osama bin Laden, the FBI said. Kingsley worked for the FBI’s Kansas City division as an intelligence analyst, but was […]
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When companies become aware they have been targeted by criminal or nation-state hackers, they need to fess up and come to the U.S. government with information to help feds get a better handle on foreign nation-state hacking, FBI Director Chris Wray emphasized during testimony on Capitol Hill Wednesday. Wray noted that companies coming forward when they are impacted in cyberattacks is a crucial part of developing a sort of early-warning system for foreign hackers working to conduct sweeping cyber-operations against multiple American companies and government entities. “We need that first company [impacted]. Someday you’re going to be the first company, if you’re the CEO and someday you’re going to be the second, third or fourth company,” Wray told the Senate Intelligence Committee during the intelligence community’s global threats briefing. “We need in every instance those companies to be stepping forward promptly and reaching out to government so that we can […]
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Over the course of the next 20 years, nation-states will see a rise in targeted offensive cyber-operations and disinformation in an increasingly “volatile and confrontational” global security landscape, according to a new U.S. intelligence assessment. The U.S. intelligence community’s Global Trends report, issued on Thursday, notes many of theses offensive cyber-operations will likely target civilian and military infrastructure. Nation-states will likely increasingly favor tools that allow them to operate below the level of armed conflict in order to avoid the geopolitical and resource costs that come with violence and traditional warfare, the report adds. Countries also will leverage proxies such as hackers or military contractors to disrupt their adversaries, according to the assessment, which is issued by the National Intelligence Council, which reports to the Director of National Intelligence. “Proxies and private companies can reduce the cost of training, equipping, and retaining specialized units and provide manpower for countries with […]
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U.S. government agencies investigating a sophisticated espionage operation that uses tampered software made by SolarWinds said for the first time Tuesday that the hacking is “likely Russian in origin,” calling it “a serious compromise that will require a sustained and dedicated effort to remediate.” The statement from multiple federal agencies — one of the most detailed official comments yet from investigators — also indicated that the espionage operation was targeted. While the malicious software update went to 18,000 government and private-sector customers, U.S. officials said “a much smaller number have been compromised by follow-on activity on their systems.” That includes “fewer than” 10 U.S. government agencies, said the statement from the FBI, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, Office of the Director of National Intelligence and the National Security Agency. The alleged Russian hacking operation has roiled Washington, prompting investigations on Capitol Hill and federal cybersecurity officials to work over the […]
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Former Department of Homeland Security chiefs cautioned Tuesday that President Donald Trump is endangering national security by blocking the transition to Joe Biden’s presidency, as the standoff stretched days after news organizations declared Biden the victor. “At this period of heightened risk for our nation, we do not have a single day to spare to begin the transition,” said the four former DHS secretaries Tom Ridge, Michael Chertoff, Janet Napolitano and Jeh Johnson. “For the good of the nation, we must start now.” Biden nonetheless plowed ahead with his plans to take over the executive branch, announcing agency review teams sprinkled with former U.S. government cybersecurity officials. But the Trump administration is so far making it difficult, and the dispute potentially stands to hamper cybersecurity on multiple fronts. One of those fronts: The Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) indicated that it would not work with the Biden transition until after […]
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By trying to quickly resolve concerns about an apparent Iranian influence operation, and bolster Americans’ confidence the country’s electoral process, U.S. officials have sparked an entirely new set of questions: Why were they able to connect Iran to the attack so quickly, and how? During a briefing announced to reporters 10 minutes before it began Wednesday, John Ratcliffe, the director of national intelligence, said the U.S. government had determined Iran was behind an email campaign meant to intimidate American voters. Neither Ratcliffe nor FBI Director Christopher Wray, who was also at the briefing, provided any technical evidence to support the allegation that the emails, purported to be sent by the Proud Boys as threats to Democratic voters in Florida to vote for President Donald Trump, in fact were sent by Iranian attackers. The disclosure came quickly after Motherboard on Tuesday reported on a surge of suspicious emails that seemed to use technical means to try to hide their […]
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