Yet another busy night in cyber news . . .
***
Jonathan Allen and Jennifer Martinez reported for Politico on how the Obama administration threatened to veto CISPA if it arrived at the presidents desk in its current form. Notably, the administration wants to see more privacy protections for users' personal information. Some House Republicans doubted that President Obama would actually go through with the veto. CISPA is expected to pass on Friday.
Molly Berhnart Walker wrote for FierceGovernmentIT and quoted James Lewis, CSIS, on cybersecurity legislation: "There are some very useful bills in the House and they'll do some good things, but the ultimate test will be: Do you give the government more authority to mandate security at critical infrastructure facilities? If we don't do that this year, an attack is inevitable."
Along the same lines, Sens. Joe Liberman, Susan Collins, Jay Rockefller, and Dianne Feinstein wrote an op-ed for The Hill which called for cybersecurity legislation that secures critical infrastructure. The op-ed was basically a criticism of CISPA's lack of mandatory cybersecurity standards for private critical infrastructure companies, and by extension, an argument for the CSA (which contains mandatory cybersecurity standards).
Jennifer Martinez reported for Politico on the House GOP's strategy behind passing CISPA. Specifically, the House GOP wants to spur Senate Democrats to move on cybersecurity legislation by "giving them the choice to either bring their own stalled bill to a vote or risk standing on the wrong political side of a national security issue." The article noted that the Senate is in gridlock over the debate between the CSA and Secure IT. CISPA's passage might force Senate Democrats into conference, ultimately creating a hybrid bill.
***
Tony Capaccio reported for Bloomberg on how Read Adm. Samuel Cox, CyberComm's intel chief, believes that Al-Qaeda is looking to acquire the ability to stage cyberattacks against the U.S. According to the article, Adm. Cox believes that Al-Qaeda is no where close to that capability, but that could change in an instant. To that end, Al-Qaeda could easily hire some hacker with the necessary skills.
***
Adrian Croft reported for Reuters on how Russian officials are gathering support for a UN convention that would fight internet crime and terrorism. The West generally opposes such proposals because they limit free speech and seek to control the open nature of the internet. The article hinted at an upcoming battle between the West (and those who desire to maintain the internet's open nature) and those that want to regulate the internet through UN treaty (notably Russia and China).
***
Shaun Waterman reported for The Washington Times on how the Iranian Revolutionary Guard is building a cyberarmy that could target U.S. critical infrastructure.
Leave a Reply