Category Archives: trump administration

Former officials buck White House adviser’s comments about government hacking

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A top White House official says the U.S. government cannot rely on offensive cyber operations to deter foreign hackers from attacking American computer networks. Thomas Bossert, an assistant to the president for homeland security and counterterrorism, told an audience of former intelligence and defense officials Wednesday in Washington, D.C., that hacking into foreign computer networks should not be considered a means to deterring enemies from breaching American organizations. “There’s very little reason to believe that an offensive cyberattack is going to have any deterrent effect on a cyber adversary,” Bossert said. “In fact, it will likely encourage them to hurry up and become better hackers and develop better defenses. So I don’t just think this is a misnomer, but it’s something that we need to move past and say out loud.” Bossert suggested the U.S. government should instead leverage “national power” to stop future cyberattacks. “I think what we will […]

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Justice Department waves legislative stick at tech sector over encryption

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If U.S.-based tech companies don’t find a way to allow cops with a warrant to access to encrypted communications — a move derided as a crypto backdoor by critics — the Trump administration may propose legislation to force them, according to Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein. Addressing law enforcement officials at an anti-terrorism conference in Utah, Rosenstein went further than other officials have this year in threatening the tech sector with legislative action that would compel them to provide technical means for court-ordered wiretaps or device searches. “I hope that technology companies will work with us to stop criminals from defeating law enforcement. Otherwise, legislation may be necessary,” he warned. He recalled the aftermath of the San Bernardino terror attack, when Apple successfully fought off court orders aimed at forcing it to create a backdoor into the iPhone used by the shooter. “Unfortunately, some companies are unwilling to help enforce court orders to […]

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Trump budget would decimate DHS’s scientific research arm

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The Trump administration’s budget plan calls for large, painful cuts to the Department of Homeland Security’s scientific research and development programs, $144 million in all, which critics charge will decimate DHS efforts to develop tomorrow’s cybersecurity technologies. Although the fiscal 2018 plans have yet to be approved by Congress, DHS is moving ahead, making preparations to close three of its national laboratories and defund half-a-dozen centers of excellence it has supported at universities around the country. Officials are also moving to shutter a number of other cybersecurity programs including the much-touted Transition To Practice, or TTP, program — which helps get cybersecurity technology developed in the national labs or at universities out into the commercial marketplace through training, partnership and funding. DHS’s Science and Technology Directorate would be allocated $627 million in the budget for fiscal 2018, which starts Oct. 1, compared to the $771 million it actually got this year — a proposed cut of more than 18 […]

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Trump will call for private sector war on botnets, aide says

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One of President Donald Trump’s early cybersecurity actions will be a public call for internet companies to collaborate to stop the scourge of botnets — massive networks of compromised computer hardware weaponized by hackers. “I believe we can radically reduce the number of botnets in this country,” White House homeland security adviser Thomas Bossert said Wednesday. “I believe that’s a voluntary effort … The president will call for that publicly,” he said at a Center for Strategic and International Studies event Wednesday. Bossert said collaboration among internet service providers or ISPs, social media companies and web search engines could identify internet traffic from botnets and “shunt it aside.” Botnets of compromised devices are controlled by hackers known as bot herders, and virtually anything that connects to the internet can be vulnerable. The networks can be used to send vast quantities of fraud-laden spam email, and they also can generate huge attacks targeting a website with constant […]

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Cyber EO out in a week or so, says exec briefed by White House

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The White House is putting the finishing touches on a new draft of the cybersecurity executive order originally scheduled for signature in January, and it could be done in a week or so, former IBM CEO Sam Palmisano said Monday. “My sense is that they’re moving along and maybe within a week or so we could […]

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Bush’s federal IT chief hopes for role in Trump administration

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Karen Evans, the former head of federal IT under President George W. Bush, told CyberScoop she hopes to serve in the current administration. “I would be honored if the Trump administration asked me to come in and work on our nation’s problems,” she said in an interview on the sidelines of the RSA security conference Tuesday. She added […]

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Pentagon hackers-for-hire take just 4 hours to find critical vulnerability in sensitive system

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This article first appeared on FedScoop. The Pentagon’s cybersecurity swat team has hosted highly-publicized challenges to find flaws in department and military branch websites, but it also recently orchestrated a more secret, complex project. The Defense Digital Service wanted to hire outside researchers to root out vulnerabilities in systems carrying sensitive department data — but without worrying about compromising the […]

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Confide, a favorite app of Trump’s White House, is ‘a triumph of marketing over substance’

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Encryption is en vogue in Washington, D.C., but the app of choice for some of the most powerful and “paranoid Republicans” in the capital is profoundly insecure — a problem emblematic of the confounding security issues that have plagued Donald Trump’s young presidency. Republicans in D.C., including members of the Trump administration, are now using Confide, […]

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Trump Cyber Executive Order Calls for 60-Day Review

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President Donald Trump postponed the release and signing of an Executive Order around cybersecurity that calls for a 60-day review systems and critical infrastructure. Continue reading Trump Cyber Executive Order Calls for 60-Day Review→

The Science of Sean Spicer’s Compulsive Gum Swallowing Habit

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We wanted a second opinion about Spicer’s gum consumption habit (he said he chews and swallows more than two packs a day), so we talked to a doctor about it. Continue reading The Science of Sean Spicer’s Compulsive Gum Swallowing Habit→