Overnight Cybersecurity: Trump opposes internet handover | A record breaking cyber attack | Intel chief says Russian election hacks are a ‘tradition’

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 STORY:

–EVERYTHING IS NORMAL. The nation’s top intelligence official says Russia could be tampering with U.S. elections, and we shouldn’t be surprised. “There’s a tradition in Russia of interfering in elections, their own and others,” Director of National Intelligence James Clapper said Tuesday evening at an event hosted by the Washington Post. “So it shouldn’t come as a big shock to people.” The decentralized nature of U.S. elections — which are run by multiple local and state governments instead of a single national system — makes it incredibly difficult for any hackers to substantially affect the nationwide outcome, Clapper added. “I think probably the more likely — and I’m just surmising here — the more likely objective here would be to try to sow seeds of doubt about the efficacy and the viability and the sanctity, if I could use that word, of the whole system,” he said.

To read the rest of our piece, click here.

{mosads}–TRUMP: ICANN? NO, YOU CAN’T: Donald Trump on Wednesday came out against the ICANN handover, which would see the U.S. to relinquish control of functions central to the internet to an international stakeholder group already tasked with running those functions. “Donald J. Trump is committed to preserving internet freedom for the American people and citizens all over the world,” Trump campaign senior policy director Stephen Miller said in a statement. “The Republicans in Congress are admirably leading a fight to save the internet this week, and need all the help the American people can give them to be successful,” he added. “Congress needs to act, or internet freedom will be lost for good, since there will be no way to make it great again once it is lost.” A plan championed by the Obama administration would see the Department of Commerce end its contract with the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), an organization that manages the domain name system that connects internet users with websites.

To read the rest of our piece, click here.

A POLICY UPDATE:

— ELECTION HACKING. Rep. Hank Johnson (D-Ga.) on Wednesday announced new legislation aimed at preventing voting machine hacking.

The Election Integrity Act requires all voting machines used in federal elections by 2018 to keep a paper trail, a move often promoted as a safeguard against digital tampering. Voting machines would no longer be allowed to be connected to the internet, which would limit the ability for offsite hackers to attack machines.

Elections officials will also be required to perform random audits of the machines to check counting accuracy. The bill would make funding available for states to replace machines that no longer would meet standards.

Johnson announced the bill in an outdoor ceremony with signs promoting the Twitter hashtag “#donthackmyvote.”

Though most of the bill deals with hacking, other election issues are addressed in the legislation. The Election Integrity Act would also require at least 14 days of early voting, disallow chief elections officials from advising campaigns, order the attorney general to investigate all cases of voter suppression and call for voting stations be distributed evenly throughout states.

To read the rest of our piece, click here

A LIGHTER CLICK: 

VOTE FIRST CLASS. A brief history of politicians getting photographed in front of planes.

A HACK IN FOCUS:

–RECORD BREAKER: Cybersecurity reporter Brian Krebs may have become the victim of the largest distributed-denial-of-service (DDoS) attack in the history of the internet. DDoS attacks flood servers with so much traffic that they can no longer function. As of last year, the record for this kind of attack was around 300 gigabits per second — enough bandwidth to send the English text of Wikipedia twice every three seconds. Earlier this year, the BBC reportedly suffered a 602 Gbps attack.

Krebs claims an attack on his web site this week capped out at 665 Gbps.

“I suppose it is an honor to be attacked like this,” said Krebs. “My gamer friends would say I’ve unlocked that level.”

Krebs, a former Washington Post reporter, now runs his own site, Krebs on Security. He is well known for identifying data breaches — often before the victims do — by scouring the dark web for sales of new leaked data.

He speculated that this attack might be related to his reporting about vDOS, a former rent-a-DDoS service whose Israeli proprietors were arrested last week. Krebs is no stranger to attacks of all types — a hacker forum once used crashing Krebs on Security as a way to audition for their site. But since vDOS closed, attackers have attempted multiple denial-of-service attacks on the site each day.  

To read the rest of our piece, click here.

WHO’S IN THE SPOTLIGHT:

–GOOGLE: Google’s new Allo messaging service is under fire from privacy rights advocates for a decision that will make it easier for law enforcement to retrieve chats.

Google announced two new chat apps earlier this year: Duo, dedicated to video conferencing, and Allo, a full-featured message client that lets users access an artificial intelligence (A.I.) assistant within chats.

That move has angered privacy advocates, including Edward Snowden, because storing communications means that governments can issue warrants to retrieve old chats.

To read the rest of our piece, click here.

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT:

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

Russia might have targeted German officials with spyware last month. (Süddeutsche Zeitung)

Ex-Sonic Youth rocker Thurston Moore is releasing a cassette single to support Chelsea Manning. (Pitchfork)

“A Frustrating Conversation About Privacy With Google’s New Allo Chatbot.” (Motherboard)

Fitness trackers may cause you to gain – not lose – weight. (The Verge)

Why not order a (probably fake) suitcase nuke on the dark web? (Dr. Krypt3ia)

A 1916 ad to persuade Congress to give more post offices pneumatic tubes. (Boing Boing)