Cybersecurity and Cyberwarfare

Senior Trump administration officials met to discuss whether to seek legislation prohibiting tech companies from using forms of encryption that law enforcement can’t break — a provocative step that would reopen a long-running feud between federal authorities and Silicon Valley. The encryption challenge, which the government calls “going dark,” was the focus of a National Security Council meeting. Apparently, senior officials debated whether to ask Congress to effectively outlaw end-to-end encryption, which scrambles data so that only its sender and recipient can read it.

A divided House passed an election security bill to strengthen the nation’s voting systems, with Democrats arguing that protecting the nation from another attack like the one Russia waged in 2016 was imperative.

Apparently, a number of the US’ biggest chip makers have sold millions of dollars of products to Huawei despite a Trump administration ban on the sale of American technology to the Chinese telecommunications company. Since the Commerce Department enacted the ban in May, American companies including Intel and Micron have found ways to sell technology to Huawei. The components began to flow to Huawei about three weeks ago. Goods produced by American companies overseas are not always considered American-made, and the suppliers are taking advantage of this.

On June 24, researchers at Boston-based cybersecurity firm Cybereason revealed the results of tracking a years-long cyberespionage campaign they've called Operation Soft Cell, which they say targeted the networks of at least 10 cellular providers around the world. And while researchers' visibility into that hacking campaign is incomplete, they say it appears to be a prolific but highly targeted espionage campaign likely based in China.

Network security is national security.  The risks of having insecure equipment in our networks are alarming. Next week I will be convening stakeholders—including carriers, manufacturers, academics, and trade associations, to start crafting and developing a practical path forward. Specifically, I anticipate digging into what it will take to Find the insecure equipment, Fix the problem, and help Fund the process. Find it. Fix it.

The US government has been too slow to respond to China’s technological rise and aggression in cyberspace — and it could pay a big price. That's according to Sen Mark Warner (D-VaA), who blasted congressional dysfunction and mismanagement by both the Trump and Obama administrations for a complacency that allowed Chinese companies to get ahead in next-generation 5G wireless networks. The risks are big: Intelligence officials fret Beijing could use that position to spy on Americans or sabotage US companies.

The Kremlin warned that reported American hacking into Russia’s electric power grid could escalate into a cyberwar with the United States, but insisted that it was confident in the system’s ability to repel electronic attacks. Dmitri S. Peskov,  Russian President Vladimir V. Putin’s spokesman, also raised concerns that President Donald Trump was reportedly not informed about the effort, which was the subject of a New York Times report on June 15 that detailed an elaborate system of cybertools deployed by the United States inside Russia’s energy system and other targets.

Sens Marco Rubio (R-FL) and Mark Warner (D-VA) warned the Trump Administration not to concede on important national security matters related to countering Huawei, a Chinese state-directed telecommunications company recently added to the US Commerce Department’s banned Entity List, and the development of fifth-generation wireless telecommunications technology (5G) in order to achieve a favorable outcome on trade negotiations with China.

Huawei, perhaps buoyed by Trump Administration reported easing-up on potential sanctions on the Chinese telecommunication company, has "supplemented the record" in its fight against a Federal Communications Commission proposal banning telecoms with "suspect" tech from broadband deployment subsidies in the Universal Service Fund (USF) program.

Apparently, some of the world’s biggest tech companies have told their employees to stop talking about technology and technical standards with counterparts at Huawei in response to the recent US blacklisting of the Chinese tech firm. Chipmakers Intel and Qualcomm, mobile research firm InterDigital Wireless, and South Korean carrier LG Uplus have restricted employees from informal conversations with Huawei, the world’s largest telecommunications equipment maker. Such discussions are a routine part of international meetings where engineers gather to set technical standards for communications