Category Archives: Robert O’Brien

More Chinese apps attract a ban from a presidential administration on the way out

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President Donald Trump’s latest executive order against Chinese tech companies might not ever take effect, but at a minimum it will force some decisions by the incoming presidential administration. The order bans U.S. transactions with several mobile apps, including Alipay and WeChat Pay, in the interest of protecting the security of U.S. users. The Trump administration made similar moves against TikTok last year, and those efforts are still tied up in court. “The United States has assessed that a number of Chinese connected software applications automatically capture vast swaths of information from millions of users in the United States, including sensitive personally identifiable information and private information,” according to the executive order, which Trump issued Tuesday night. As with TikTok, the assumption is that such data could be readily available to the Chinese government. The catch is that the order takes effect in 45 days — well after the inauguration of President-elect […]

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White House quietly activates cyber emergency response

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In the wake of the SolarWinds breach, the National Security Council has activated an emergency cybersecurity process that is intended to help the government plan its response and recovery efforts, according to White House officials and other sources. The activation of the process is a sign of just how seriously the Trump administration is taking the foreign espionage operation, former NSC officials told CyberScoop. The process, which is rooted in a presidential directive issued during the Obama administration known as PPD-41, establishes a Cyber Unified Coordination Group (UCG) that is intended to help the U.S. government coordinate multiple agencies’ responses to the significant hacking incident. The UCG is generally led by the Department of Justice — through the FBI and the National Cyber Investigative Joint Task Force — as well as the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and the Department of Homeland Security. “This cyberattack is the exact type […]

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Trump’s national security adviser warns Canadians against Huawei 5G tech

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A top White House official warned Canadians this weekend against allowing China-based Huawei to help in building out Canada’s next generation 5G telecommunications networks. “The technology allows China to put together profiles of the most intimate details, intimate personal details, of every single man, woman and child in China,” President Donald Trump’s national security adviser, Robert O’Brien, said at the Halifax International Security Forum, according to CBC News. “When they get Huawei into Canada or other Western countries, they’re going to know every health record, every banking record, every social media post; they’re going to know everything about every single Canadian,” O’Brien said. Given that China has a law that would require Chinese companies to yield to Chinese intelligence agencies’ requests, the Trump administration and lawmakers are concerned that Beijing could use Huawei and other Chinese-based companies for spying. O’Brien threatened that Canadian-U.S. intelligence-sharing could be affected if Canada goes through […]

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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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