Overnight Tech: Microsoft wants end to feds’ secret hacking tools | Latest on ransomware attack | John Oliver calls for ‘civil’ tone in net neutrality fight | House to vote on cyber bills

MICROSOFT CALLS OUT GOVERNMENT HACKING PRACTICES: On the heels of a widespread “ransomware” attack that may have used leaked National Security Agency hacking methods, Microsoft is calling for governments to cease stockpiling secret means of bypassing software security.   

“Repeatedly, exploits in the hands of governments have leaked into the public domain and caused widespread damage. An equivalent scenario with conventional weapons would be the U.S. military having some of its Tomahawk missiles stolen,” wrote Brad Smith, president and chief legal officer at Microsoft, on a company blog Sunday evening.

Ransomware is a type of cyberattack that encrypts a target’s files, with the attacker providing the decryption key only after a ransom is paid, usually in bitcoin.

{mosads}WanaDecrypt0r, alternately known by names like Wanna Cry, has struck hundreds of thousands of computers in more than 100 nations since the attack began Friday morning. Victims range from hospitals in the United Kingdom, a telecom company in Spain, U.S.-based FedEx, and the Russian Ministry of the Interior.

WanaDecrypt0r was so virulent in part because it used a Windows hacking tool that appears to have been stolen from the NSA and leaked by a hacking group known as the Shadow Brokers. Though Microsoft had patched the security hole in Windows, businesses often lag in installing updates for reasons including industry-specific software being incompatible with the most current version of operating systems.

“In February [we called] for a new ‘Digital Geneva Convention’ to govern these issues, including a new requirement for governments to report vulnerabilities to vendors, rather than stockpile, sell, or exploit them,” wrote Smith.

By reporting bugs instead of using them to conduct cyber espionage, manufacturers would be able to increase cybersecurity for all of its users — but that would come at the cost of intelligence and sabotage operations.

Read more here, from our cybersecurity colleague Joe Uchill.

MORE ON WANNA CRY: Edward Snowden called the continuing “ransomware” scourge “a perfect storm of all the problems everyone has been warning about” at a privacy issues conference Monday.

Russian President Vladimir Putin used the ransomware attack to deliver a jab at the U.S.

Monday was the most lucrative day yet for the Wanna Cry ransomware.

President Trump reportedly ordered an emergency meeting over the weekend to address the threat.

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UBER ORDERED TO HAND OVER DOCS IN GOOGLE SUIT: A federal judge on Monday ordered Uber to turn over thousands of files that were allegedly stolen from Google’s self-driving car subsidiary, Waymo.

Waymo alleges that a former employee, Anthony Levandowski, stole about 14,000 documents — including trade secrets — before leaving to start a self-driving truck company called Otto. Uber later acquired Otto, gaining access to the files.

Uber has until May 31 to return the files to Waymo, U.S. District Judge William Alsup ordered. The documents allegedly detail advancements Waymo had made with lidar — a radar system that most self-driving car companies to employ help their cars pilot themselves.

Read more here.

MODERNIZING GOVERNMENT TECH: Rep. Will Hurd’s (R-Texas) bipartisan bill, the Modernizing Government Technology Act (MGT Act) is finally getting some movement. Its Congressional Budget Office score came in on Friday, with the CBO estimating the plan to update government technology and IT systems would cost around $500 million over the next five years. The bill is set to hit the House floor on Wednesday. After President Donald Trump’s Cybersecurity executive order last week, technology and cyber interests praised the order, but said that a plan for updating the federal government’s technology is necessary to protect the U.S. from cyber threats. Many see Hurd’s bill as the answer.

For more on the CBO score, click here.

For more on the upcoming votes on Hurd’s legislation and another bill to help combat cyber crime, click here.

SPICER TALKS APPLE: White House press secretary Sean Spicer praised Apple during Monday’s White House Press Briefing, citing it as an example of a company that is investing in the U.S. “The president is also very glad to see businesses once again making significant investments in America, from Intel to General Motors to Walmart to

Apple, who specifically just announced earlier this month that they’ll start a $1 billion fund to promote manufacturing jobs here in the United States,” Spicer said. He called the hiring push an example of “the president’s domestic economic policies that are generating optimism.” Unlike many other companies who have announced hiring pushes recently, Apple did not tie its announcement to Trump or his policies.

JOHN OLIVER ADDRESS FCC COMMENTERS: HBO comedian John Oliver on Sunday again rallied his viewers to submit pro-net neutrality comments to the Federal Communications Commission, but took a shot at those who had been using the site to launch personal attacks against the FCC’s GOP chairman.

Supporters of Ajit Pai, who has kicked off proceedings to roll back Obama-era net neutrality protections, have been quick to seize on inflammatory comments filed in the past week, after Oliver urged his audience to show support for the regulations.

And on Sunday, Oliver acknowledged in a YouTube video that there were racist comments filed in support of net neutrality and had a simple message for any of his viewers who may have written them: “Stop it. Do not f—ing do that.”

“Writing racist things on the internet is not how you win the net neutrality debate,” Oliver said. “It’s how you win the presidency.”

Read more here.

FTC LAUNCHES CAMPAIGN TO CRACK DOWN ON TECH SUPPORT SCAMS: The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is taking tougher steps to try and stop fraudulent tech support schemes, which are scamming consumers out of millions of dollars.

The agency has launched a new effort, dubbed Operation Tech Trap, to end online scams where customers are tricked into believing their computers are infected with a virus and that they must pay a third party to solve the issue.

The fraud involves scammers running deceptive pop-up ads that look like security alerts from Apple or Microsoft. The alerts falsely warn users that their computers are infected with a virus and that if they close the warning, the contents of their hard drive will be deleted. The ads provide a phone number to call, which promises to fix the nonexistent virus.

Read more here.

GOOGLE, LYFT TEAM UP ON SELF-DRIVING CARS: Google’s self-driving car company has reached a deal to work with Lyft on autonomous vehicle technology, the companies said Monday.

The partnership, which was first reported by The New York Times, comes as the race heats up to get driverless cars on the road.

“We’re looking forward to working with Lyft to explore new self-driving products that will make our roads safer and transportation more accessible,” said a spokesman for Waymo, Google’s driverless car company. “Lyft’s vision and commitment to improving the way cities move will help Waymo’s self-driving technology reach more people, in more places.”

Read more here.

ON TAP:

NIST will hold a cybersecurity framework workshop at 7:30 a.m. on Tuesday

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT:

Hopes rise Trump will modernize feds’ technology

Judge asks federal prosecutor to investigate Uber

Exec to Trump: Replace press briefings with Twitter

Daily Caller: Net neutrality activists protest outside FCC chair’s house

Advocacy groups ask federal court to block FCC media ownership rule

Trump signs cybersecurity executive order