Category Archives: William Barr

Biden takes aim at Trump, Russia over SolarWinds breach

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President-elect Joe Biden pressured Donald Trump on Tuesday to name the hackers behind the SolarWinds breach, saying that the evidence suggests Russia is responsible. Biden also faulted the incumbent president for his handling of the nation’s digital defenses and vowed to do “all that needs to be done” to get to the bottom of the sweeping cyber espionage campaign, then punish the culprits. “It is a grave risk and it continues. I see no evidence that it’s under control,” Biden said during a speech in Wilmington, Delaware. “The Defense Department won’t even brief us on many things. So I know of nothing that suggests it’s under control. This president hasn’t even identified who is responsible yet.” Biden’s remarks amounted to his most extensive statement on cybersecurity since winning office. They came shortly after Trump downplayed the severity of the backdoor inserted into SolarWinds software that has afflicted both Cabinet departments […]

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Bill Barr: No, we won’t be seizing voting machines

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Attorney General William Barr declined to endorse a desperate effort by President Donald Trump’s personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, to overturn Trump’s electoral defeat by seizing voting machines. Barr said at a press conference Monday that he had not seen evidence of widespread fraud that could change the result of the election, and that there was “no basis now for seizing machines by the federal government.” He also rejected the idea of naming a special counsel to investigate voter fraud allegations. States have certified their results in the election, which saw Joe Biden win by more than 7 million in the popular vote. Election security officials have declared the election secure. Claims of widespread voting irregularities made by Trump’s lawyers have been roundly rejected in court. Giuliani nonetheless last week pushed Ken Cuccinelli, a senior Department of Homeland Security official, to confiscate voting machines, the New York Times and Wall Street […]

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Former DOJ officials slam Barr’s new policy on election investigations

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Former Justice Department officials on Tuesday sharply criticized Attorney General William Barr for reportedly reversing a longstanding department policy and clearing federal prosecutors to investigate alleged voting irregularities before election results have been certified. “The voters decide the winner in an election, not the president, and not the attorney general,” reads the statement from the Bipartisan Advisory Board of the Voter Protection Program, a nonpartisan election security initiative. The advisory board includes former Justice Department officials who served under Republican and Democratic administrations. “Thanks to a bipartisan group of experienced officials and poll workers across this country, the states, once again, ran fair and secure elections,” the statement continued. “We have seen absolutely no evidence of anything that should get in the way of certification of the results, which is something the states handle, not the federal government.” The criticism follows multiple media reports Monday that Barr gave Justice Department prosecutors the go-ahead to […]

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Republican momentum builds for bills requiring encryption circumvention

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Republican legislators are pushing more legislation on Capitol Hill that would require technology companies give law enforcement access to encrypted devices and services. Rep. Ann Wagner, R-Mo., introduced a bill on Thursday (H.R. 7891) to serve as a companion to a Senate bill that would require manufacturers of encrypted devices and service providers to be able to decrypt data after a court issues a warrant for user communications. Sens. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., and Tom Cotton, R-Ark., co-sponsored the Senate version of the bill, which they have touted as a way to stop child abusers and terrorists who seek to evade law enforcement attention through using encrypted services and devices. It’s just the latest series of GOP-backed bills introduced in the last year on Capitol Hill, including the EARN IT Act, that could degrade encryption’s security and privacy benefits at the peril of all users, for the benefit of some […]

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FBI finally unlock shooter’s iPhones, Apple berated for not helping

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The FBI’s Apple problem. Continue reading FBI finally unlock shooter’s iPhones, Apple berated for not helping→

U.S. officials say they’ve cracked Pensacola shooter’s iPhones, blast Apple

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Federal law enforcement officials said Monday they had unlocked the iPhones of the perpetrator of a December terrorist attack at a U.S. Naval base — and sharply criticizing Apple for not granting them access to those encrypted communications. FBI technicians cracked the phones of a Saudi aviation student who killed three U.S. sailors at the Naval Air Station Pensacola, uncovering evidence linking him to an Al Qaeda affiliate, Attorney General William Barr said. Barr and FBI Director Christopher Wray urged Silicon Valley companies to write software that allows investigators to access encrypted communications with a warrant, a move that technology firms and security experts have criticized for years. Authorities took their usual claims a step further, though, by criticizing Apple for what they described as effectively standing in the way of their investigation. “We effectively received no help from Apple,” Wray asserted at the press conference. He did not detail the […]

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FBI enlists internet domain registries in fight against coronavirus scams

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The U.S. Department of Justice is expanding its efforts to counteract a huge surge in internet scams related to the coronavirus pandemic. Federal officials announced Wednesday that ongoing cooperation between the government and a range of technology companies has resulted in the removal of hundreds of websites that included “coronavirus,” “covid19” and related phrases in their names. The goal, the Justice Department said, is to curb fraudulent sites that prey on pandemic anxieties to distribute malware, solicit donations or steal personal data. The FBI has received and reviewed more than 3,600 complaints related to coronavirus scams, mostly in connection with fake cures and fraudulent vaccines, the Justice Department said in a press release. Bureau officials previously estimated that the Internet Crime Complaint Center receives between 3,000 and 4,000 complaints per day, up from a prior average roughly 1,000 per day, though not all alerts are regarding the pandemic. “For cybercriminals there was […]

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Attorney General Barr urges DOJ to prioritize prosecuting coronavirus scammers

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Scammers who have been taking advantage of the coronavirus pandemic by spreading COVID-19-themed spearphishing emails have caught the attention of the Department of Justice. In a memo sent to all U.S. attorneys Monday, Attorney General William Barr prioritized prosecuting cybercriminals seeking to exploit fears about the coronavirus. “The pandemic is dangerous enough without wrongdoers seeking to profit from public panic and this sort of conduct cannot be tolerated,” Barr said in the memo, which CyberScoop has obtained. For months, scammers have been impersonating health authorities such as the World Health Organization or the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in order to send malware in coronavirus-themed spearphishing emails to victims worried about infection or community spread of the virus. Some campaigns have targeted populations especially affected by the virus, including Italy and Iran, according to security researchers. Iran’s own ministry of health has been urging citizens to download an app […]

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Weak encryption means putting our military at risk

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Last month, a brigade of U.S. soldiers deployed to the Middle East received instructions from their superiors to use two commercial encrypted messaging applications, Signal and Wickr, on their government issued cell phones. These leadership cues trickled down from the Department of Defense’s (DoD) position that strong encryption is critical to national security. While U.S. Attorney General William Barr continues to push for a broad mandate for backdoors for law enforcement, those on the front lines of protecting America have notably decided on a different approach. Simply put, weakening encryption means putting our military service members at risk. In a recent letter to Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., DoD Chief Information Officer Dana Deasy made clear that the use of encryption to protect the mobile devices of our service members and their stored data is an “imperative.” Deasy makes clear that the use of commercial encryption and virtual private networks (VPNs) […]

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Trump Slams Apple for Refusing to Unlock Suspected Shooter’s iPhones

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Legal battle pitting Feds against the tech giant over data privacy and device security in criminal cases seems inevitable. Continue reading Trump Slams Apple for Refusing to Unlock Suspected Shooter’s iPhones→