Hillicon Valley: NATO members agree to new cyber defense policy | YouTube banning politics, elections in masthead ads | 50 groups urge Biden to fill FCC position to reinstate net neutrality rules
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NATO member states, including the U.S., agreed to a new cyber defense policy that could lead to more consequences for cyberattacks by adversary nations. Meanwhile, YouTube announced a ban on certain political ads, and dozens of advocacy groups pressed President Biden to nominate a candidate to fill an open spot at the Federal Communications Commission in order to bring back net neutrality.
NATO TAKES ACTION: The United States and other North Atlantic Treaty Organization nations endorsed a new cyber defense policy Monday as part of the NATO summit in Brussels.
“Reaffirming NATO’s defensive mandate, the Alliance is determined to employ the full range of capabilities at all times to actively deter, defend against, and counter the full spectrum of cyber threats, including those conducted as part of hybrid campaigns, in accordance with international law,” the Brussels Summit Communique released Monday by NATO read.
As part of the new policy, a decision to invoke Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty, which founded NATO, would be taken on a “case-by-case basis” involving cyberattacks on NATO members.
Article 5 states that if a NATO allied nation is attacked, other members would consider it an attack against all NATO nations and consider actions to respond.
“Allies recognise that the impact of significant malicious cumulative cyber activities might, in certain circumstances, be considered as amounting to an armed attack,” the communique read.
President Biden told reporters Monday that this was NATO’s first new iteration of the policy in the past seven years, and stressed it will “improve the collective ability to defend against counter threats from state and non-state actors against our networks and our critical infrastructure.”
Read more about the new policy here.
NO MORE ELECTION ADS (SORT OF): YouTube will ban political and election-related ads in its masthead starting Monday, the company said.
The update is part of a larger change to YouTube’s advertising policy that will also ban the company from accepting bookings for the YouTube masthead from ads related to gambling, alcohol and prescription drugs.
“We regularly review our advertising requirements to ensure they balance the needs of both advertisers and users. Today, we are updating those requirements to limit the categories of ads that are eligible to run on YouTube masthead inventory. We believe this update will build on changes we made last year to the masthead reservation process and will lead to a better experience for users,” a Google spokesperson said in a statement.
The change will limit candidates from elected office from placing ads in the large rectangular ad box at the top of YouTube’s homepage.
Google’s masthead content requirements are more restrictive than the ad requirements across other platforms, meaning that ads disapproved to run in the YouTube masthead may continue to run on other Google owned and operated properties, according to the company’s support website.
CLOCKS TICKING: More than 50 advocacy groups on Monday sent a letter to President Biden urging him to nominate a candidate to fill an open seat on the Federal Communications Commission (FCC).
The groups said it is necessary for Biden to appoint a nominee to the FCC in order to start the process to reinstate net neutrality rules rolled back under former President Trump, and underscored their push by noting the additional hurdles posed by the pandemic.
“This is all the more urgent given the fact poor families and people of color are disproportionately disconnected from high-speed internet access, compounding grave inequalities that were made worse during the pandemic,” the groups wrote, according to a copy of the letter.
“Given the legislative calendar and the diminishing number of days for hearings and confirmation votes, we have reached a critical point to guarantee the agency charged with ensuring affordable communications access can do its work during your administration,” they wrote.
GET OUT OF JAIL CARD: Reality Winner, a former National Security Agency contractor who pleaded guilty to leaking classified information, has been released from federal prison.
“I am thrilled to announce that Reality Winner has been released from prison,” her lawyer Alison Grinter Allen tweeted Monday. “She is still in custody in the residential reentry process, but we are relieved and hopeful.”
In August 2018, a federal court sentenced Winner to 63 months in prison for leaking to The Intercept a classified NSA document about the Russian government’s efforts to interfere with the 2016 elections.
Although Winner had petitioned former President Trump for clemency in February 2020, Allen said she was released because of “time earned from exemplary behavior while incarcerated,” not from a pardon or compassionate release process.
ICYMI: MORE REMOTE WORK AT FACEBOOK Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg is giving more of his employees the option of working from home, the San Francisco Chronicle reported on Sunday.
Facebook said in a memo to employees obtained by the Chronicle that “anyone whose role can be done remotely can request remote work.”
Zuckerberg said in a separate memo obtained by the Chronicle that he expects half of the company’s 60,000 employees to work remotely within the next decade.
ICYMI: G-7 ZEROS IN ON CYBER: Group of Seven (G-7) leaders on Sunday announced their commitments to cutting forced labor practices out of global supply chains in a shot at China, as well as efforts to stop ransomware attacks and root out corruption.
The three priorities will be outlined in a joint communique, to be released at the conclusion of the summit in the United Kingdom and signed by the heads of state of the U.S., the United Kingdom, Canada, Italy, France, Japan and Germany.
The G-7 communique will also detail the leaders’ commitment to fighting ransomware as cyberattacks increase. U.S. businesses were targeted by major ransomware attacks in the weeks leading up to the G-7, affecting the domestic fuel and meat industries. Ransomware attacks are expected to be a point of discussion when Biden meets Wednesday with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Switzerland.
“The international community—both governments and private sector actors—must work together to ensure that critical infrastructure is resilient against this threat, that malicious cyber activity is investigated and prosecuted, that we bolster our collective cyber defenses, and that States address the criminal activity taking place within their borders,” the White House said.
Read more about the agreement here.
Lighter click: America’s Next Top World Leader
An op-ed to chew on: Congress faces China in the great game for tech superiority
NOTABLE LINKS FROM AROUND THE WEB:
Doctors and Scientists Are Fighting Vaccine Misinformation on TikTok (Motherboard / Maddie Bender)
‘Don’t ban us for being Jewish’: Jewish tikTok creators say they feel silenced by the platform (NBC / Kahlahn Rosenblatt)
Biden, Putin conduct diplomatic dance over hypothetical hacker exchange (CyberScoop / Jeff Stone)
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