Category Archives: Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI)

List of 2020 election meddlers includes Cuba, Saudi Arabia and North Korea, US intelligence official says

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Cuba, Saudi Arabia, and North Korea are working to influence U.S. elections by running information operations, according to the top counterintelligence official in the Trump administration. All three seek to sow discord as Election Day looms, according to Bill Evanina, the Director of the National Counterintelligence and Security Center at the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. He did not specify the nature and duration of the operations. “I believe we’re going to have a lot of things that occur in the next 70 days that are going to impact and influence those issues, from nation-state threat actors, whether it be Iran, China, and obviously Russia. We have other countries getting in the nexus because they think it works,” Evanina said during a U.S. Chamber of Commerce virtual event Wednesday. “They want to be able to provide their optics for discord in the United States … countries like Cuba, and […]

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Senate Democrats push feds to stand up disinformation ‘response center’ ordered in NDAA

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With the presidential election just four months away, 15 Senate Democrats have asked national security agencies to step up their efforts to counter foreign disinformation aimed at undermining the vote. The Trump administration should ensure that political candidates and the public are promptly notified of foreign efforts to interfere in U.S. politics — and set up a congressionally mandated federal office for countering foreign influence, the senators wrote in a letter Friday to the heads of the Department of Defense, Homeland Security, the FBI, the National Security Agency and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. “[W]e urge you to take additional measures to fight influence campaigns aimed at disenfranchising voters, especially voters of color,” wrote the senators, including Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota and Cory Booker of New Jersey. After the sweeping Russian effort to interfere in the 2016 elections, U.S. officials have tried to do more to combat foreign […]

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Don’t expect Huawei on DHS’s supply chain task force any time soon

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A U.S. cybersecurity task force dedicated to protecting data throughout American networks aims to have a diverse set of opinions. That doesn’t mean just anyone is invited. Since 2018, the Department of Homeland Security’s Information and Communications Technology Supply Chain Task Force has been charged with developing strategies to ensure that government agencies and companies aren’t made vulnerable by partners, vendors, contractors, suppliers or other organizations in their business orbit. Members include a range of government bodies, telecommunication giants like Verizon and AT&T, and global tech firms including Microsoft and Cisco. DHS officials assess potential task force members based on a risk assessment that includes whether an entity might add value to ongoing conversations, and whether possible damage from including that organization outweighs the possible benefits. It’s the kind of criteria that makes the addition of a company like Huawei, the Chinese telecom that U.S. intelligence officials say represents a […]

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Senate Intelligence Committee wants DNI to investigate commercial spyware threats

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The Senate Intelligence Committee quietly approved a measure last week that would require the Director of National Intelligence to submit a report to Congress on the threats posed by foreign governments’ and entities’ use of commercially available surveillance software. The DNI’s report, which would be sent to Congress 180 days after the Intelligence Authorization Act for 2021 passes, would include information on how the U.S. — and other countries — can work to reduce the threats of commercial spyware, including through export controls, diplomatic pressure, trade agreements, and work with the technology and telecommunications sectors to better secure consumers’ software. The committee wants the DNI to specifically address the threat posed to U.S. citizens, in addition to those living abroad or employed by the U.S. government. The report request comes nearly one year after the United Nations Special Rapporteur David Kaye called for a moratorium on the creation and sale of […]

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Schiff wants ODNI to scrub out politics from election security briefs

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Rep. Adam Schiff, the House Intelligence Committee chairman, wrote to Acting Director of National Intelligence Richard Grenell on Monday asking him to share communications about an intelligence briefing on election security provided to lawmakers last month over concerns that some of the information may have been politicized, according to the letter. During the intelligence briefing in question, which took place behind closed doors March 10, intelligence officials told lawmakers that Russia was not directly supporting any presidential candidates in the buildup to the 2020 presidential election, according to The New York Times. Just days earlier, U.S. intelligence officials told the House Intelligence Committee that Russia had a preference for President Donald Trump’s candidacy, as CyberScoop reported. The discrepancy in the two briefings raised concerns that the Office of the Director of National Intelligence began politicizing possible election interference information shared with Congress just after a new acting DNI took the reins. Just days before […]

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Russia is planning to interfere in 2020 presidential election: report

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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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