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:
–TWITTER CRACKS DOWN ON RUSSIAN BOT ACCOUNTS: Twitter said Friday that it has suspended 1,062 new accounts it has found to be linked to the Internet Research Agency, a Russian “troll farm” which disseminated content intended to interfere in the U.S. political process. In total, the company has found 3,814 Internet Research Agency-linked accounts, which posted 175,993 tweets during the 2016 presidential campaign. Twitter said it also found 13,512 new Kremlin-linked bot accounts, bringing the total number of bots it has found in connection to Russia’s election influence efforts to 50,258.
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–THE COMPANY ALSO SAID in a post on Friday that it would notify 677,775 people to let them know that they either liked, retweeted or followed Russian-linked accounts, following a request from Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) to do so. Twitter noted, however, that it won’t show users the content they saw, saying that because it has “already suspended these accounts, the relevant content on Twitter is no longer publicly available.” The social media platform did share examples of Russian content from known Internet Research Agency accounts such as @TEN_GOP, which impersonated the Tennessee Republican party, and others. “Cops have killed 68 people in 22 days since #Kaepernick started protesting. 68 in 22 days… have no words #KeithLamontScott,” read one example tweet from an Internet Research Agency account with the now suspended handle @Crystal1Johnson.
–AMONG THOSE TARGETED was Sen. John Cornyn (Texas), the No. 2 Senate Republican, who posted an email he received from Twitter on Saturday indicating that he interacted with content from Russian-linked Twitter accounts that attempted to influence the 2016 presidential election. “As part of our recent work to understand Russian-linked activities on Twitter during the 2016 U.S. presidential election, we identified and suspended a number of accounts that were potentially connected to a propaganda effort by a Russian government-linked organization known as the Internet Research Agency,” read the email. “Consistent with our commitment to transparency, we are emailing you because we have reason to believe that you either followed one of these accounts or retweeted or liked content from these accounts during the election period,” the email continued. “This is purely for your own information purposes, and is not related to a security concern for your account.”
To read the rest of our coverage, click here and here.
A LEGISLATIVE UPDATE:
TRUMP SIGNS FOREIGN SURVEILLANCE POWER RENEWAL: President Trump on Friday signed a six-year renewal of a powerful government surveillance tool, amid an uproar on Capitol Hill over what Republicans allege is serious abuse of the underlying law.
“Just signed 702 Bill to reauthorize foreign intelligence collection,” Trump tweeted. “This is NOT the same FISA law that was so wrongly abused during the election. I will always do the right thing for our country and put the safety of the American people first!”
Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), which the Senate voted to renew with a few small tweaks this week, allows the U.S. to spy on foreigners overseas. The intelligence community says the program is a critical tool in identifying and disrupting terror plots.
But the broader surveillance law, which governs U.S. spying on foreigners, has become politically entangled with the controversy over the federal investigation into Trump’s campaign and Russia.
Some Republicans have claimed the FBI inappropriately obtained a politically motivated FISA warrant to spy on Trump during the transition and on Friday, Capitol Hill was consumed with speculation about a four-page memo produced by House Intelligence Committee Republicans that some GOP lawmakers hinted contained evidence of such wrongdoing.
Conservatives have called for the classified memo to be released publicly and some privacy advocates briefly tried to use the furor to urge Trump not to sign the bill.
“The Intelligence Committee memo about government surveillance abuses should have been made public and given to members of Congress before the FISA Section 702 vote,” the American Civil Liberties Union tweeted. “Trump must veto the bill so there can be a real debate on these powers.”
Trump himself had previously muddied the waters on the legislation. The morning that the House was scheduled to vote on the measure — which his administration supported — he tweeted: “This is the act that may have been used, with the help of the discredited and phony Dossier, to so badly surveil and abuse the Trump Campaign by the previous administration and others?”
Later, he clarified that he “has personally directed the fix to the unmasking process since taking office and today’s vote is about foreign surveillance of foreign bad guys on foreign land.”
To read the rest of our piece, click here.
A LIGHTER CLICK:
Amazon has opened a store without cashiers. (ABC)
A REPORT IN FOCUS:
RESEARCH SPOTLIGHTS MAJOR WEBSITE HACKING CAMPAIGNS: A Pakistani hacking campaign has defaced roughly 15,000 websites since it first gained traction in 2011, making it the leading so-called hacktivist campaign in recent years, according to new research.
Cybersecurity firm Trend Micro issued a report Monday based on analysis of more than 13 million web defacement reports over nearly two decades.
Activists have increasingly turned to the cyber realm to promote their agendas and political ideologies, compromising and defacing websites in order to send a message and gain traction with would-be supporters.
For instance, Islamic State in Iraq and Syria sympathizers defaced several Ohio government websites last June, forcing the state to take affected servers offline.
Trend Micro catalogued more than 100,000 unique defacers and nearly 10 million domains that were compromised over the last 18 years, identifying the top seven hacktivist campaigns and their origins in real-world conflicts.
According to the research, a Pakistani hacking campaign called “Free Kashmir” logged the highest number of web defacements despite having significantly fewer perpetrators than other high-profile campaigns.
“Free Kashmir” was launched in 2011 by a pair of Pakistani hacking groups to sound alarm over human rights abuses committed by India’s armed forces against residents in the disputed territory of Kashmir.
The hacking campaign #OpIsrael, triggered by the ongoing Israel-Palestine conflict, has attracted 500 attackers, according to the research, making it the most successful in netting supporters.
A hacking campaign called #OpFrance is also among the top campaigns. It was triggered by the attack on French magazine Charlie Hebdo’s Paris headquarters in 2015 and largely consisted of hackers from Muslim-majority nations targeting French websites, apparently in support of the attack.
To read the rest of our piece, click here.
WHAT’S IN THE SPOTLIGHT:
CHINESE TELECOM FIRMS: The federal government is taking steps to reduce the presence of some Chinese technology firms in American markets.
Earlier this month, AT&T scrapped a deal with Chinese phone maker Huawei, reportedly as a result of pressure from anonymous U.S. lawmakers who cited national security concerns. Reuters reported this week that lawmakers are now pressing AT&T to sever all of its commercial ties with Huawei.
And the White House blocked two acquisitions of American companies by Chinese firms in recent months, also citing “national security concerns.”
Lawmakers reportedly are pushing to keep Chinese telecommunications firm China Mobile out of the U.S. for similar reasons.
The efforts come on the heels of a federal ban on anti-virus software produced by Russia’s Kaspersky Lab, and underscore heightened concerns in Washington about privacy and spying threats.
On Friday, Rep. Mike Conaway (R-Texas) told The Hill he would discourage American companies such as AT&T from making deals with Chinese tech firms like Huawei.
“We don’t want undisclosed back doors into our systems,” Conaway explained.
“The relationship those companies have with different Chinese intelligence agencies themselves and their government — it’s opaque. We don’t know what is or isn’t there,” he continued.
“Out of an abundance of caution, we don’t want to make ourselves vulnerable to backdoor entrances to our systems.”
Earlier this month, Conaway introduced legislation that would bar the federal government from contracting with firms that use equipment produced by Huawei or its smaller Chinese competitor, ZTE. As of Friday, the bill had attracted 11 co-sponsors, including one Democrat.
National security experts worry that, despite the companies being private entities, data stored on devices produced by Chinese providers could potentially end up in the hands of the Chinese government.
The concerns about the firms are not new. A 2012 House Intelligence Committee report identified both companies as a national security threat, encouraging private companies to consider the “long-term security risks” of doing business with either Huawei or ZTE.
Tai Ming Cheung, director of the Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation at the University of California, San Diego, who researches East Asian national security affairs, says officials’ renewed interest in corporate threats is a result of China’s rising economic profile.
“The increased scrutiny of China is from an integration of national security and economic security,” Cheung said. “To the U.S. before, China was a military threat. Now its threat has broadened to the economic side of things as well.”
Still, efforts to restrict Chinese access to the U.S. market broadly could create trouble for the tech sector, which is increasingly doing business in that country.
To read the rest of our piece, click here.
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT:
‘Links from our blog, The Hill, and around the Web.
Senate approves funding measure to end shutdown, House to follow (The Hill)
Twitter account of ex-sheriff David Clarke apparently hacked. (The Hill)
Facebook admits it can have a harmful effect on democracy. (The Hill)
Republicans demand new special counsel over lost FBI text messages. (The Hill)
OP-ED: Here’s what you can do to stop big tech from manipulating you online. (The Hill)
OP-ED: North Korea turning to cryptos to counter economic sanctions. (The Hill)
Hackers leverage ‘Fire and Fury‘ in effort to spread malware. (The Daily Beast)
Google awards a record-high bug bounty of over $100,000. (CyberScoop)
The latest on the scrutiny surrounding Kaspersky Lab. (BuzzFeed)
Marine Corps looks to make cyber like special operations. (Military.com)
Cyber will figure high at the World Economic Forum in Davos. (New York Times)
Uber is reportedly ignoring a two-factor authentication vulnerability. (ZDNet)