Overnight Cybersecurity: Google ordered to give overseas data to feds | House passes bill requiring warrants for emails

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:

–COURTS SPLIT ON FOREIGN DATA: A federal court in Pennsylvania is forcing Google to retrieve emails stored on a foreign server to comply with a warrant despite a separate court reaching the opposite conclusion in a recent case involving Microsoft. In the Microsoft case, courts ruled that data stored in an Irish server was beyond the reach of a U.S. warrant. Instead, the Department of Justice would be required to abide by the laws of Ireland and follow procedures laid out in treaties with Ireland to obtain that data. In the Google case, the judge ruled that since neither the search nor the seizure took place on foreign soil, as Google could access the files domestically, it fell under U.S. jurisdiction. “This court agrees with the Second Circuit’s reliance upon Fourth Amendment principles, but respectfully disagrees with the Second Circuit’s analysis regarding the location of the seizure and the invasion of privacy,” wrote Judge Thomas Rueter in his ruling Friday.

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— NSA TO BRIEF SENATE ARMED SERVICES: Senators on the Armed Services Committee will be briefed by a top intelligence official on cyber threats Tuesday morning. The hearing, which will be closed to the public, will feature testimony from Adm. Michael Rogers, who holds the dual-leadership role at U.S. Cyber Command and the National Security Agency (NSA). The closed-door briefing will give lawmakers an opportunity to press Rogers on the intelligence community’s recent findings about Russia’s cyber attacks aimed at the U.S. presidential election.

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A POLICY UPDATE

–WARRANTS FOR EMAILS: A bill aimed at modernizing the United States’s aging law covering law enforcement access to emails and other stored files passed the House Monday night.

The current law, known as the Electronic Communications Privacy Act, allows law enforcement to access any stored files without a warrant if such material is left on a third-party server for more than 180 days. But that law was passed in 1986 — three years before the invention of the world wide web — when computer owners did not have the same systems as modern users, such as cloud hosting, webmail and online photo galleries.

The Email Privacy Act, which passed under suspension of the rules Monday, alters the previous rule to universally require warrants for such information. The same bill cleared the House in 2016 on an overwhelming 419 to 0 vote, but it stalled in the Senate.

“We can send a strong message to the American people that their privacy matters,” Rep. Kevin Yoder (R-Kan.) said on the House floor just before the vote.

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A LIGHTER CLICK: A HERO FOR OUR TIMES.

A REPORT IN FOCUS:

–WATCHDOG HITS DHS CYBER OFFICE: A report from the Government Accountability Office says the National Cybersecurity and Communications Integration Center faces a number of problems with safeguarding the nation’s cybersecurity.

The center does not have a single, consolidated system that tracks cyber incidents, the report said. Instead, it receives reports of cyber intrusions in a variety of ways, including by phone and email, which makes it more difficult for agents to catalogue them in one place.

The GAO said the center does not have contact information for nearly a quarter of those owning critical cyber infrastructure that, if attacked, could have “a catastrophic impact on the nation.” This makes it more difficult for the center to get in immediate contact with owners of critical assets when necessary.

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WHO’S IN THE SPOTLIGHT:

–ROBBY MOOK: Hillary Clinton’s former campaign manager worries reducing sanctions against Russia over election season hacking would weaken the U.S. hand against what he believes will be the inevitable hacks of the future. “It’s dangerous to look at what happened to our campaign as extreme,” Robbie Mook said in an interview with The Hill. “There needs to be an understanding there will be a proportionate response when someone attacks our democracy. Obama made that clear with the sanctions. I am hopeful Donald Trump will maintain that understanding and those sanctions against Russia,” he said.

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IN CASE YOU MISSED IT:

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

Hacked Republican super-PAC page proclaims “Sessions is Too Racist to be a Federal Judge.” (The Hill)

How will surveillance debates play out in 2017? (American Enterprise Institute)

David Beckham email leaks are titillating the U.K. (Daily Mail)

Russian citizens are gaming slot machines with reverse engineering. (Wired)

FTC dings Vizio for recording its customers watching TV. (Engadget)

A profile of University of Toronto’s Citizen Lab. (Motherboard)

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