Overnight Cybersecurity: FBI tightens rules on posing as journalists | Deal on bill to update feds’ outdated tech | New Guccifer 2.0 leaks

Welcome to OVERNIGHT CYBERSECURITY, your daily rundown of the biggest news in the world of hacking and data privacy. We’re here to connect the dots as leaders in government, policy and industry try to counter the rise in cyber threats. What lies ahead for Congress, the administration and the latest company under siege? Whether you’re a consumer, a techie or a D.C. lifer, we’re here to give you …

THE BIG STORIES:

–TIGHTENING THE RULES: The FBI is imposing new restrictions making it more difficult for investigators to impersonate journalists, following scrutiny over a 2007 episode in which the bureau posed as a reporter to track a suspected criminal. The FBI did not violate its internal policy during that controversial incident, the Justice Department’s Office of the Inspector General claimed in a 30-page report. “In 2007, FBI policies did not prohibit the practice of agents impersonating journalists, nor was there any requirement that agents seek special approval to engage in such practice,” the watchdog concluded. Yet this June, it implemented an interim policy barring impersonation of a journalist without approval from the FBI’s deputy director, the watchdog revealed. That move “is a significant and important improvement to FBI policies,” the inspector general’s office claimed. The changes are the result of a 2007 incident when FBI investigators wrote a fake AP story and placed it on a website designed to mimic the Seattle Times in order to infect a suspect’s computer. A link to the story bearing the headline “Bomb threat at high school downplayed by local police department” was sent to the MySpace page of a student suspected of making multiple threats against the school and launching cyberattacks against its computer network. To read our full piece, click here.

–HE’S BACK! (AGAIN.) (SORRY?): Ohio Democrats did not get their first-choice candidates in three House races they believed were winnable, according to documents from the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee leaked to The Hill by the hacker or hackers known as Guccifer 2.0. A separate set of documents was posted to his website, containing documents on Illinois, New Hampshire and North Carolina with one document on Ohio. “[State] Senator [Lou] Gentile is in all likelihood the only recruit who can put this Republican-leaning swing district in play,” reads a series of memos from DCCC Great Lakes Regional Political Director Jason Bresler about Ohio’s 6th District. The memos were addressed to Ben Ray Luján (D-N.M.), chairman of the DCCC, as well as Democratic Reps. Cheri Bustos (Ill.), Denny Heck (Wash.), Kurt Schrader (Ore.), Joyce Beatty (Ohio) and Raul Ruiz (Calif.). Gentile ultimately opted against running. The Guccifer 2.0 documents show similar stories in two other Ohio districts the DCCC believed were winnable. Ohio is just the latest state that Guccifer 2.0 has targeted with its leaks. To read our full piece, click here.

 

A POLICY UPDATE:

–TWO H(EAD)S ARE BETTER THAN ONE. Until Tuesday when the bills merged, Reps. Will Hurd (R-Texas) and Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) had rival plans to modernize the government’s outdated communications systems. Two days later, the new Modernizing Government Technology Act has already left committee.

“We did something today that was a big deal,” Hurd said at a conference for the Internet Security Alliance after the Thursday markup.

The bill combines Hoyer’s idea, a centralized loan program repaid through the cost savings agencies would achieve by using newer, more efficient technology, with a direct funding approach advocated by Hurd.

Agencies will reinvest the savings realized by using the direct funds to purchase more new technology.

To read our full piece, click here.

 

A LIGHTER CLICK: A FRUGAL LIBRARIAN’S BEQUEATHED LIFE SAVINGS will become a million dollar football scoreboard.

 

A HEARING (MAYBE) IN FOCUS:

–RUSSIA! Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) on Thursday pressed the Senate Foreign Relations Committee to hold a hearing on reported efforts by Russia to interfere in the U.S. presidential election.

Citing the recent hack of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) and the ongoing FBI investigation into Russia’s role in the cyberattack, Shaheen noted “the sobering possibility that Russia is employing the tactics it has long used to influence elections in places like Ukraine and Georgia, this time in the United States.”

“I believe a full committee hearing on this issue, perhaps supplemented by a classified briefing, would be beneficial both to the members of the committee and the constituents they represent,” she urged Chairman Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) and ranking member Ben Cardin (D-Md.) in a letter.

Shaheen is the lead Democrat on the Foreign Relations subcommittee on Europe.

To read our full piece, click here.

 

WHO’S IN THE SPOTLIGHT:

–EDWARD SNOWDEN. The former National Security Agency (NSA) contractor was a “disgruntled employee who had frequent conflicts with his manager,” not a principled whistleblower, according to a report the House Intelligence Committee released Thursday.

According to conclusions from a two-year review initiated under former Chairman Mike Rogers (R-Mich.), Snowden was not motivated by his concern for systemic privacy invasions.

Two weeks before he began downloading classified information from the NSA system, Snowden was reprimanded after engaging in a “workplace spat” with his managers.

The committee also found “no evidence” that Snowden took advantage of any official channels for whistleblowers to express his concerns about U.S. intelligence activities “despite numerous avenues for him to do so.

Snowden, as well as his supporters, quickly took to Twitter to downplay the impact of the report, which coincides both with the release of a new Oliver Stone film about the former contractor as well as a push by civil liberties groups to ensure a presidential pardon.

“After ‘two years of investigation,’ the government charges… I faked a sick day and have a GED? Did they not watch the Guardian interview?” Snowden tweeted.

To read our full piece, click here.

 

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT:

Links from our blog, The Hill, and around the Web.

The House Intelligence Committee on Thursday urged President Obama not to pardon Edward Snowden. (The Hill)

House Homeland Security Chairman Michael McCaul (R-Texas) railed against encryption backdoors during a cybersecurity address on Thursday and discussed the growing threat of Russian involvement in the United States. (The Hill)

CIA Director John Brennan “wouldn’t be surprised” to see more hacked information leaking out prior to the November election, he told CBS News in an interview aired Wednesday night. (The Hill)

For regulators, cybersecurity must be more than just site visits and questionnaires. (The Hill)

No big deal, but security expert Bruce Schneier thinks an advanced assailant is testing the internet’s stress points to be able to create havoc on a moment’s notice. (Schneier on Security)

Volkswagen is teaming with Israeli cyber firms to protect its automobiles. (ZDNet)

A security researcher contacted the mother of a scammer who stole iTunes gift cards. (Graham Cluley)

A giant moon balloon terrorized China. (Boing Boing)