Overnight Cybersecurity: Senate Intel holds Russia hearing | WH struggles to respond to latest Nunes development | Trump extends Obama cyber threat order

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:

–SENATE PANEL HEARS TESTIMONY ON RUSSIAN ELECTION INTERFERENCE: The Senate Intelligence Committee on Thursday held its first open hearing since announcing its investigation into Russia’s influence campaign aimed at the 2016 presidential election. The hearing consisted of two witness panels, one featuring academics and the second with cybersecurity experts. Chairman Richard Burr (R-N.C.) and Ranking Member Mark Warner (D-Va.) underscored their commitment to leading a bipartisan probe into Russian election interference in opening statements, striking a similar tone to their press conference on Wednesday. Among the top takeaways: A cyber expert and former FBI special agent told lawmakers that Russian Twitter bots tweet at President Trump when they know he is online in an effort to push conspiracy theories; A former intelligence officer for Russia and Eurasia at the U.S. National Intelligence Council cautioned lawmakers about using the phrase “act of war” to describe Russia’s interference in the presidential election; Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) asked King’s College London professor Thomas Rid how the Senate could work with social media networks to aid the fight against weaponized fake news; Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) says members of his former presidential campaign staff have been targeted for breaches by unknown Russian internet addresses.

To read our full live coverage of the hearing, click here.

{mosads}–WHITE HOUSE RATTLED BY LATEST NUNES DEVELOPMENT: The White House struggled Thursday to respond to a new report claiming that two White House officials played a role in passing classified information to the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee. Press secretary Sean Spicer faced a barrage of questions from reporters about the story, which was published by The New York Times just before his press briefing began. “I’ve read the report, and respectfully, your question assumes the reporting is correct,” Spicer said at the top of the briefing. “We are not going to start commenting on one-off anonymous sources that publications publish.” The story states that Ezra Cohen-Watnick of the National Security Council and Michael Ellis of the White House Counsel’s office were the likely sources of information given to House Intelligence Chairman Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) about incidental surveillance of the Trump transition team. Nunes personally briefed President Trump on that information after he received it. Earlier this week, it came to light that the congressman visited the White House grounds the day before that briefing with Trump.

To read the rest of our piece, click here.

–MEANWHILE, WHITE HOUSE INVITES DEMS TO REVIEW INTEL: The White House has invited the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee to view materials related to incidental collection after his Republican counterpart visited the White House last week, the lawmaker told reporters. But it’s unclear if the documents Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) has been invited to view are the same mystery documents seen by Nunes, Schiff said. Schiff said he has accepted the invitation from the White House counsel, but said the invitation “raises far more questions than any it answers.” He added that he has pushed for the entire committee to have access to the materials. White House press secretary Sean Spicer said that the White House had invited leaders of both the House and Senate intelligence committees to review materials related to their investigations into Russian interference in the election.

To read the rest of our piece, click here.

A POLICY UPDATE: LAWMAKERS PRESS BUDGET CHIEF ON CYBER GUIDANCE: Two House lawmakers are pressing President Trump’s budget chief over a planned guidance to help agencies improve cybersecurity in federal acquisitions.

Reps. Will Hurd (R-Texas) and Robin Kelly (D-Ill.), leaders of the House Oversight subcommittee on information technology, wrote to Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Director Mick Mulvaney this week asking for details on the status of the guidance.

The OMB released draft guidance in August 2015 to solicit public comment but never finalized the guidance as promised by the closing of the feedback period in September of that year, the lawmakers noted.

“Given the critical need for implementing strengthened cybersecurity protections in the federal acquisition process and the current lack of clear guidance for agencies on this topic, we request that you provide the committee with an update on any such guidance under development,” they wrote in the letter sent Tuesday, which was first reported by Politico.

“Further, if there is no specific guidance under development at this time, we ask that you provide a strategy or plan for developing guidance for agencies to improve and update cybersecurity requirements for federal acquisition. The strategy or plan should include milestones and stakeholder outreach information,” they wrote.

To read the rest of our piece, click here.

A LIGHTER CLICK: Gizmodo claims it found FBI Director James Comey’s Twitter account.

A REPORT IN FOCUS: PLOTTING A RUSSIA STRATEGY: A new report released Thursday by the Center for Strategic and International Studies offers six “strategic objectives” with which western countries should approach Russia, arguing that the United States and other countries have been hesitant to use the tools available to them to respond to and deter Russian aggression.

The authors touch on a number of facets of Russia’s military and other instruments of power, devoting one section to Moscow’s use of cyber and information operations.

“Russia has made considerable investments in cyberspace capabilities dating to the waning days of the Cold War. These investments are driven, in part, by an acknowledgement that cyber (and electronic warfare) capabilities can undermine the U.S. and NATO military advantage,” the report states. “Russia is clearly willing to devote the political capital and take the required risks to effectively leverage offensive cyberspace capabilities to achieve its national objectives. This difference in risk calculus is especially stark when compared with the United States, which seems far less willing to use its considerable cyberspace capabilities or engage in overt or even veiled messaging.”

The report labels the Russian influence campaign against the 2016 presidential election as “the first large-scale combination of Russian cyberspace and information warfare capabilities to influence political debate and public opinion.”

To read the rest of the CSIS report, click here.

WHAT’S IN THE SPOTLIGHT: OBAMA CYBER THREAT ORDER: President Trump will continue a 2015 state of national emergency that former President Barack Obama used as a basis for freezing the assets of Russians tied to a hacking campaign aimed at disrupting the presidential election.

In a letter to Congress titled “Message to the Congress Regarding the Continuation of the National Emergency with Respect to Significant Malicious Cyber-Enabled Activities,” Trump renewed the order signed in April 2015. The executive order would have expired without renewal.

“Significant malicious cyber-enabled activities originating from, or directed by persons located, in whole or in substantial part, outside the United States, continue to pose an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security, foreign policy, and economy of the United States,” reads the letter.

“Therefore, I have determined that it is necessary to continue the national emergency declared in Executive Order 13694 with respect to significant malicious cyber-enabled activities.”

To read the rest of our piece, click here.

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT:

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

Russian President Vladimir Putin is confident the election interference claims are lies. (The Hill)

EU to propose encryption backdoor rules in June, commissioner says. (The Hill)

President Trump to sign broadband privacy repeal. (The Hill)

Sen. Marco Rubio says his former campaign aides were targeted by an IP address in Russia. (The Hill)

AT&T wins $6.5B contract to build first responder network. (The Hill)

The National Institute of Standards and Technology nearing completion of cybersecurity framework. (NextGov)

Identity theft services are helpful but have some limitations, GAO concludes. (Government Accountability Office)

FBI director tried to write an op-ed on Russian election hacking as early as last summer. (Newsweek)

If you’d like to receive our newsletter in your inbox, please sign up here.