Category Archives: senate

Lawmakers want data on the number of times Senate computers have been hacked

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The Senate should have an annual tally of when its computers and smartphones have been breached in order to better inform congressional cybersecurity policy, a pair of bipartisan senators says in a letter sent Wednesday to the Senate Sergeant at Arms. Describing Congress as a perennial target for hackers, Sens. Tom Cotton, R-Arkansas, and Ron Wyden, D-Oregon, have asked the Senate Sergeant at Arms (SAA) to be transparent in providing lawmakers with information about the scale of successful hacks of Senate devices, including smartphones. They want annual reports sent to each senator with aggregate data on compromises of computers and other breaches of sensitive Senate data. The senators also asked the SAA to notify the Senate leadership, along with members of the rules and intelligence committees, within five days of breaches to Senate computers being discovered. Right now, lawmakers appear to be in the dark on the issue. “We believe […]

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GovPayNow.com, AmazonBasics, and FBI – Paul’s Security Weekly #576

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Senate can’t protect senators staff from Cyber Attacks, Equifax fined by ICO over data breach that hit Britons, US Military given the power to hack back and defend forward,and AmazonBasics Microwave works with Alexa! Larry’s Stories govpayn… Continue reading GovPayNow.com, AmazonBasics, and FBI – Paul’s Security Weekly #576→

Wyden: Tech company has told multiple senators of foreign hacking attempts

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A major tech company has informed “a number of senators and Senate staff members” that foreign government hackers have targeted their personal email accounts, according to Sen. Ron Wyden. In a Sept. 19 letter to Senate leadership, Wyden, D-Ore., did not name the company or identify the foreign hackers, but he did warn that the publicly reported activity of a Russian government-linked hacking group may be just “the tip of the iceberg” when it comes to advanced cyberthreats to lawmakers. The group, often referred to as Fancy Bear, breached the IT networks of the Democratic National Committee in 2016 as part of a coordinated hack-and-leak operation that the U.S. intelligence community attributed to Moscow. “The November election grows ever closer, Russia continues its attacks on our democracy, and the Senate simply does not have the luxury of further delays” in shoring up its cybersecurity, Wyden wrote to Senate Majority Leader Mitch […]

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Sen. Rubio wants answers from Apple on privacy-violating app

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Earlier this month, news broke that one of Apple’s most popular paid applications had been surreptitiously collecting user data and browser history and sending it to a server in China. On Wednesday, Sen. Marco Rubio wrote to Apple demanding answers on why it reportedly took the tech giant weeks to address the issue. “For a company that prides itself on prioritizing user privacy and security, this delayed response is extremely disconcerting,” Rubio, R-Fla., wrote to Apple CEO Tim Cook. The application in question is Adware Doctor, a scanning tool that offers to remove adware from Mac computers. After security researchers published evidence on Sept. 7 that Adware Doctor was violating Apple’s data collection and storage rules, the company pulled it from the Mac App Store. But that was nearly a month after researcher @privacyis1st said he alerted Apple to the issue. Rubio, who has repeatedly raised national security concerns about technology […]

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Research shows gap in House, Senate candidates’ website security

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Nearly 30 percent of House of Representatives candidates have significant security issues in their websites compared to less than 5 percent of Senate candidates, according to new research. The disparity underscores the challenge that smaller, resource-strapped campaigns have in making themselves less vulnerable to hacking. About 3 in 10 House candidate websites scanned by election-security expert Joshua Franklin and his research team were not using important security protocols for routing data or had a major certificate issue. The scans, most of which took place in June, covered the websites of more than 500 House candidates and nearly 100 Senate candidates. “The House has significantly more candidates running and that provides more opportunities for security errors,” Franklin told CyberScoop. He presented his findings at the DEF CON conference in Las Vegas. The major political parties’ Senate candidates also tend to be more experienced on the campaign trail and have bigger staffs for those statewide races. […]

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Russian hackers targeted 2018 reelection campaign of vulnerable Democrat

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The same outfit of Russian hackers that launched cyberattacks against U.S. targets in the 2016 presidential election appears to have targeted Sen. Claire McCaskill, a critic of Moscow and red-state Democrat who faces a tough reelection bid. The news, first reported by the Daily Beast, makes the Missouri senator the first to be named in 2018 as a target of Russian hackers. There are at least two others. Last week, Microsoft executive Tom Burt said that earlier this year, hackers associated with the GRU, the Russian intelligence agency behind cyberattacks and disinformation campaigns during the 2016 presidential election, used spearphishing and fake Microsoft domains to target three candidates in the 2018 midterm elections. Burt said that the unnamed candidates “might have been interesting targets from an espionage standpoint as well as from an election standpoint.” McCaskill fits the bill on both counts. She serves as the ranking Democrat on the Homeland Security and Government […]

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Lawmakers, tech vendors fight over election cybersecurity efforts

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Amid ongoing reports of foreign digital meddling in domestic elections, U.S. lawmakers are butting heads with the nation’s largest voting technology companies. Lawmakers ratcheted up the pressure Wednesday, criticizing the companies’ perceived disconnect from federal agencies and shining a spotlight on a diverse and historically unregulated industry. In emails to CyberScoop, the companies pushed back against those statements, highlighting their new and apparently ongoing partnerships with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). In December, DHS and the Election Assistance Commission (EAC) launched a non-binding, public-private working group with some of the top vendors involved, called the Sector Coordinating Council. The group is tasked with helping government and industry quietly collaborate on election security efforts. A spokesperson for Nebraska-based Elections Systems and Software (ES&S) said nothing is more important to the company  “than ensuring elections are secure and accurate, and any conjectures to the contrary are simply false.” “We welcome conversations about our practices,” the spokesperson […]

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In private briefings, U.S. government raises concerns over Huawei and ZTE

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The U.S. government has been quietly warning technology companies about the security risks posed by doing business with Huawei and ZTE, two Chinese telecommunications firms that are closely linked with China’s government. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., told CyberScoop Thursday at a national security conference that the government is holding classified briefings to warn private companies of the intelligence concerns. He said the companies that have been briefed are aware of the concerns, but are also “prioritizing market access.” “I think it’s important for us to do what we can to warn people about the threat,” Rubio said. “I think some of those companies are aware of [the intelligence concerns], but they make the decision that they’ll worry about that later. They want access to 1.3 billion people.” The news comes as the Trump administration is trying to persuade lawmakers to drop their opposition to a trade deal that would revive ZTE’s access […]

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