Category Archives: Senate Intelligence Committee

Senator: U.S. companies can’t stand up to China without cybersecurity assurances

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If American businesses want to stop “playing by China’s rules” and challenge its anti-democratic actions, they will need firm support from the federal agencies charged with protecting them from Chinese hackers, Sen. Ben Sasse says. In an op-ed for the Washington Post, the Nebraska Republican says the U.S. is “not fated to lose the war” against the Chinese government, which has successfully pressured some of the most influential American brands — from Apple to the National Basketball Association — into stifling criticism of Beijing. If companies are to speak and act freely, they must feel protected from retaliation, especially in cyberspace, Sasse writes. “U.S. businesses must step up to the plate and aggressively confront China’s intimidation campaign. And if they don’t have the courage and integrity to fight back, American consumers should demand that our companies put basic human rights above profit margins,” the senator says. “The U.S. government has a […]

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How Russian operatives also used Google to influence Americans in 2016

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While Russian propagandists relied heavily on Facebook and Twitter to spread disinformation before the 2016 U.S. presidential election, a new congressional report elaborates on how they also used Google and YouTube to sway Americans’ public opinion in favor of Donald Trump. The Senate Intelligence Committee on Tuesday released a report detailing expansive, and ongoing, information warfare directed against American internet users. The 85-page explanation confirmed much of what was already known about Russian operations: a Kremlin-directed effort utilized an array of social media networks, with their targeted advertising capabilities, to provoke and confuse likely voters ahead of a contentious presidential election. Facebook, Instagram and Twitter were the most crucial aspects of this effort, though Russia’s Internet Research Agency also leveraged Google and its subsidiaries for its own gain. “Periodically, particularly in the context of fast breaking news, Google’s algorithm can elevate extremist content or disinformation to the top of certain […]

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Cyberthreats rise to the top at Senate hearing on worldwide dangers for U.S.

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In yet another sign that the hacking abilities of Russia, China, Iran and North Korea are drawing intense scrutiny from U.S. spy agencies and law enforcement, top federal officials focused on cyberspace Tuesday as part of a broader hearing on the global threats facing the United States. The digital tools and techniques deployed by U.S. adversaries and competitors are “growing in potency and severity,” Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats told the Senate Intelligence Committee. “As the world becomes increasingly interconnected, we expect these actors and others to rely more and more on cyber capabilities” to advance their interests, Coats said. FBI Director Christopher Wray told lawmakers that nation-states are increasingly collaborating with criminal hackers in a “form of outsourcing that makes it even more of a menace.” The annual hearing gives the public a snapshot of the threats at the forefront of U.S. intelligence chiefs’ minds, and hacking allegedly backed by […]

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Russian disinformation ops were bigger than we thought

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Through a flurry of social media posts ahead of the 2016 U.S. election, Russian trolls sought to deter African-Americans from voting, according to a report prepared for the Senate Intelligence Committee. The Internet Research Agency, a social-media propaganda machine based in St. Petersburg, Russia, encouraged African-American voters to boycott the 2016 election or follow incorrect voting procedures, according to the report by researchers from the University of Oxford and social-media analysis company Graphika. The broader Russian propaganda operation, which continues to this day, has also leaned more heavily on Instagram to sow discord that was previously understood, according to a second report prepared for the committee by private researchers from New Knowledge, Columbia University, and Canfield Research LLC. The reports, released Monday by the committee, represent the most comprehensive independent analyses of the Russian disinformation efforts. They show how, through hundreds of millions of interactions on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter, the IRA looked for every opportunity […]

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Senate report on Russian hacking highlights threats to election tech vendors

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Lawmakers are concerned about a major blind spot in the government’s ongoing effort to protect U.S. elections from hackers. Agencies like the Homeland Security Department have little insight into the cybersecurity practices of election technology vendors. This lack of visibility opens the door to supply chain attacks, according to the Senate Intelligence Committee, which could be otherwise potentially detected or stopped by government cybersecurity experts. The Senate committee’s first installment of a larger report on Russian targeting of the 2016 presidential election was released late Tuesday night. It focuses on assessing the federal government’s response to security threats and provides recommendations for future elections. Most of the infrastructure used to process votes today is comprised of equipment and software sold by private vendors. Government agencies are not allowed to enter and defend private computer networks unless they’re given direct consent, which in turn limits the defensive support options immediately available to the […]

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Trump’s NSA nominee promises to ‘follow the law’ in 2nd confirmation hearing

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Lt. Gen. Paul Nakasone, the current head of Army Cyber Command, took another step Thursday toward taking over the National Security Agency and U.S. Cyber Command. The public Senate Intelligence Committee hearing featured few pointed questions, as might be expected from a panel that does a lot of its work behind closed doors.The hearing lasted less than one hour. Only eight of the committee’s 15 members attended. The Senate Armed Services Committee approved Nakasone’s nomination earlier this week. The Intelligence Committee is likely to approve Nakasone’s nomination in the coming days, setting it up for a vote on the Senate floor. The job would put him in the unique and powerful position of guiding cyber-espionage and cyberwarfare for the United States. The current NSA director, Adm. Mike Rogers, is expected to depart from the job soon. One of the few exchanges of real substance Thursday saw Ron Wyden, D-Ore., ask Nakasone about whether he […]

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Intel bill puts DNI in charge of countering Russian election meddling

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The nation’s top intelligence official will have to assess spy agencies’ response to Russian election meddling last year, devise a whole-of-government strategy for combatting similar effort in the future, if a Senate bill that advanced this week becomes law. The bill, S.1761, the Intelligence Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2018, passed out of committee this week with a single vote dissenting. The bill in its current form would require a number of reports to Congress on a variety of issues regarding cybersecurity incidents targeting the federal government in the last year. Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore, said in a statement he voted no, “over a provision that could set a troubling constitutional precedent” — by identifying Wikileaks and its senior leaders as “a non-state hostile intelligence service often abetted by state actors.” “My concern,” he said, “is that the use of the novel phrase ‘non-state hostile intelligence service’ may have legal, […]

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Cybersecurity doubts may spook voters in future elections

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A new poll says growing concerns over cybersecurity could lead to millions of Americans staying home during the 2018 midterm elections and the subsequent 2020 presidential election. More than one in four American voters will consider not voting in upcoming elections due to concerns over cybersecurity, according to a new poll published Wednesday by the U.S. cybersecurity firm Carbon Black. That’s a jump of nearly ten percentage points from last year’s poll. The doubts are sharpest when it comes to the ability of state and local election authorities to defend against a cyberattack. Less than half of voters (45 percent) trust local authorities on cybersecurity, a number reflecting last month’s report that “election-related systems in 21 states that were targeted” by Russian hackers during the 2016 presidential election. Yet, less than half (47 percent) of American voters believed the 2016 election was influenced by foreign entities. That’s a sharp break with the U.S. intelligence community, but is […]

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