Overnight Cybersecurity: Nunes recuses himself amid ethics probe | Surveillance uproar puts GOP in a bind | Dem bill would reinstate internet privacy rules

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:

–NUNES STEPS ASIDE FROM RUSSIA PROBE: House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) on Thursday said he will temporarily step aside from his committee’s investigation into Russia’s meddling in the 2016 presidential election. Nunes said in a statement he thinks it is in the “best interests” of the committee and the Congress for Rep. Mike Conaway (R-Texas) to temporarily take over the committee’s investigation into the Russian interference, with assistance from Reps. Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.) and Tom Rooney (R-Fla.). His announcement came moments before the House Ethics Committee announced an investigation into Nunes over potential “unauthorized disclosures of classified information.” Nunes called the allegations “entirely false and politically motivated” but said he would step aside to let the Ethics Committee do its work. Many Democrats have called for Nunes to recuse himself from the investigation following revelations that he was on White House grounds the day before announcing information related to incidental U.S. surveillance of President Trump’s transition team.

To read the rest of our piece, click here.

{mosads}–MORE ON ETHICS PROBE: The House Ethics Committee announced Thursday that it is investigating whether Nunes made unauthorized disclosures of classified information while overseeing his panel’s investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 election. A joint statement from House Ethics Committee Chairwoman Susan Brooks (R-Ind.) and the panel’s ranking Democrat, Rep. Ted Deutch (Fla.), said the investigation will focus on whether Nunes violated federal law and the chamber’s rules during a press conference where he announced that intelligence agencies incidentally collected information about associates of President Trump. Liberal groups including MoveOn.Org, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington and Democracy 21 asked OCE to investigate whether Nunes disclosed classified information. “The disclosure of this information by Chairman Nunes was evidently intended to try to lend some credence to President Trump’s claims that former President Obama had Trump Tower wiretapped — claims that have repeatedly been shown to be absolutely baseless, as confirmed by FBI Director Comey in his testimony before Chairman Nunes’ own committee,” MoveOn.org’s ethics complaint read. “In his quest to assist President Trump politically, however, it appears that Chairman Nunes has committed serious violations of law and House Rules.”

To read the rest of our piece, click here.

–PELOSI CHEERS: The House Intelligence Committee has a much better shot at conducting an impartial probe into President Trump’s links to Russia in Nunes’ absence, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said Thursday. “In a bipartisan way, the House Intelligence Committee should play the role that it needs to play in all of this. And I don’t have any reason to think that they wouldn’t,” Pelosi told reporters in the Capitol. “I did have plenty reason to think that [Nunes] should not be in that role, both because of his role in the Trump transition and because of his erratic and bizarre behavior as chairman of the committee.”

To read the rest of our piece, click here.

A POLICY UPDATE: THAT WAS FAST — DEMS MOVE TO REINSTATE PRIVACY RULES: Senate Democrats introduced legislation on Thursday that would reinstate internet privacy rules repealed earlier this week.

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) rule, passed in October, required internet service providers to get permission from customers before selling data about them to advertisers.

A bill to repeal the rules narrowly passed Congress last month, and President Trump signed it into law on Monday. That measure also prohibits the FCC from reinstating the regulations or anything substantially similar.

The new legislation, introduced by Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.), would undo the repeal and reinstate the regulations, which were set to go into effect later this year.

“Thanks to Congressional Republicans, corporations, not consumers, are in control of sensitive information about Americans’ health, finances, and children,” Markey said in a statement.

“The Republican roll-back of strong broadband privacy rules means ISP no longer stands for Internet Service Provider, it stands for ‘Information Sold for Profit.'”

It is extremely unlikely Markey’s bill will get off the ground, and Republicans have stood by the move in the face of criticism.

But Democrats believe they have the political edge in the issue.

To read the rest of our piece, click here.

A LIGHTER CLICK: What will $300,000 in hacked airline tickets get you? A Ducati. (VICE Indonesia)

A REPORT IN FOCUS: A threat report released by McAfee Labs on Thursday finds that there was a sharp increase in Mac OS malware at the end of 2016, rising from 50,000 in the third quarter to well over 300,000 in the final three months of the year. The researchers attribute the rise in Mac OS malware to the bundling of advertising software or “adware” with other free programs users can download on their systems.

Meanwhile, the report finds a big decline in new ransomware at the end of the year.

The report also does a deep dive into Mirai malware, which has gained increased attention in the wake of the distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack on web services provider Dyn last October. The attack–which involved thousands of bots infected with Mirai malware–brought down popular websites, including Twitter and Spotify.

To read the rest of the report, click here.

WHAT’S IN THE SPOTLIGHT: 

FOREIGN INTELLIGENCE ACTIVITIES: The political firestorm around incidental surveillance of President Trump’s transition team has put Republican supporters of a controversial spying law in a tricky position.

Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), due to expire this year, was thought to be on a comparatively smooth road to reauthorization.

But the surveillance and exposure of former national security adviser Michael Flynn’s phone call with a Russian ambassador — and the revelation that Obama administration national security adviser Susan Rice sought to learn the identities of Trump campaign officials whose names were redacted in surveillance reports — seems to have put the straight reauthorization of the law in danger.

“You and I both want to see [702] reauthorized,” Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.), who sits on both committees of jurisdiction, Judiciary and Intelligence, told FBI Director James Comey at a recent hearing. “It is in jeopardy if we don’t get this resolved.”

Longtime Republican supporters of the law have found themselves walking a tightrope, decrying what they see as abuse of Americans’ privacy under the law without imperiling its reauthorization. The provision allows intelligence officials to monitor the communications of foreigners overseas.

But law enforcement agencies such as the FBI can also access U.S. citizens’ communications swept up incidentally in the surveillance of foreign officials — without a warrant — and then use that information to initiate a criminal proceeding.

Civil liberties advocates from both sides of the aisle have long argued that this loophole contradicts the Fourth Amendment, but their opposition was never enough to overcome support for the authority.

To read the rest of our piece, click here.

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT:

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

China-linked espionage campaign targets major trade group (The Hill).

A poll shows that 40 percent of Americans more cautious with email after the DNC hack (The Hill).

Twitter alleges Trump administration tried to unmask critical account (The Hill).

Facebook says it will offer users tips on identifying fake news (The Hill).

Germany announces new military cyber division (Newsweek).

A bipartisan group of senators pressed President Trump to discourage China’s state-sponsored ‘malicious cyber activities’ during his meeting with President Xi Jinping.

These cities could become the cybersecurity capital of the world (Fortune).

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