Category Archives: Rand Paul

Senators want answers on State Department’s glaring cybersecurity gaps

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The State Department must do more to shore up its cybersecurity posture, according to a bipartisan group of senators. The department is woefully behind on hitting various federal cybersecurity benchmarks, and it is weak on basic measures to protect against phishing, hacks and other cyberattacks, wrote Ron Wyden, D-Ore., Cory Gardner, R-Colo., Ed Markey, D-Mass., Rand Paul, R-Ky., and Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., in a letter to Secretary Mike Pompeo. The letter cites two recent reports: The department’s inspector general found last year that 33 percent of diplomatic missions failed to conduct even the most basic cyberthreat management practices, like regular reviews and audits. Also, the General Services Administration found that the department has only instituted enhanced access controls on 11 percent of agency devices. The Federal Cybersecurity Enhancement Act requires agencies to enable multi-factor authentication (MFA) for elevated privileged accounts. “We urge you to improve compliance by enabling more secure authentication mechanisms across […]

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Bipartisan bills call for disclosure of intelligence agency budgets

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New legislation introduced Friday would force intelligence community agencies to publicly disclose their annual budget requests. The Intelligence Budget Transparency Act is being introduced in both the House and Senate, according to a press release from Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore. The bill directs the president to disclose the “amount of funding budgeted for intelligence agencies and activities” — often referred to as the black budget. Wyden, who is introducing the Senate version with Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., said in a press release that the bill is a step toward greater accountability and transparency in the intelligence community. “By operating secret programs funded by secret budgets, our national intelligence agencies enjoy a blank check as far as the American taxpayers are concerned,” Wyden said. “With little to no public oversight, it is even more important that Americans have at least some sense of whether they’re getting what they paid for. Rep. Peter Welch, […]

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Bill would block warrantless searches of Americans’ phones at borders

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Lawmakers from both sides of both houses propose bill to require warrants before Americans’ devices are searched at border crossings – although foreigners’ phones would remain liable to search Continue reading Bill would block warrantless searches of Americans’ phones at borders→