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House Intelligence Committee members emerged tight-lipped from a closed-door briefing with FBI Director James Comey and National Security Agency head Adm. Michael Rogers on Thursday.

Rep. Mike Conaway (R-Texas), who is leading the committees investigation into Russian interference in the election, appeared briefly alongside the committee's ranking member, Adam SchiffAdam SchiffSchiff: Yates testimony could come within 'weeks' Overnight Cyber: FBI, NSA chiefs brief House Intel behind closed doors | DHS warns Congress on phone security Comey, NSA chief brief House panel amid Russia probe MORE (D-Calif.) at the close of the meeting to characterize the meeting as valuable but said little else.

Conaway took over the probe early last month following the recusal of committee Chairman Devin Nunes (R-Calif.), whose relationship with Schiff had deteriorated to the level of the pair holding dueling press conferences regarding Nuness handling of the investigation.

In a joint statement issued after the hearing Thursday, Conaway and Schiff indicated that an open hearing with several high-ranking Obama officials including former acting Attorney General Sally Yates is still in the cards.

We are currently sending out invitations for witnesses to testify and requests for pertinent documents, and look forward to the next steps of this investigation, including witness interviews and an open hearing with Sally Yates, [former Director of National Intelligence] James Clapper, and [former CIA Director] John Brennan, the statement read.

Much of the acrimony on the committee had centered on an appearance by Yates, which had been scheduled for March but was canceled at the last minute by Nunes when he helmed the Russia investigation.

Republicans claimed that the committee needed to interview Comey and Rogers in a closed setting first, a move that Democrats argued was intended to shield the White House.

Reports have indicated that Yates was likely to offer testimony that would contradict that of Trump administration officials.

The week before Yates had been scheduled to testify, Comey confirmed the existence of the FBIs investigation into ties between members of President Trumps campaign and Russia in the panels first open hearing.

Yates is now set to testify before a Senate Judiciary subcommittee on Monday. The House committee has been in talks with the Senate committee to determine whether she will appear before both panels.

Other lawmakers exiting Thursdays two-and-a-half-hour briefing which was interrupted briefly so lawmakers could vote on the GOP healthcare bill were largely silent, deferring to the chair and ranking member.

In a public appearance before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Comey on Wednesday said that he was "mildly nauseous" at the idea that his handling of the probe into Hillary ClintonHillary Rodham ClintonProtesters turn out for Trump's New York return Clinton urges 'fight' against the GOP following ObamaCare vote Comey, NSA chief brief House panel amid Russia probe MORE's private email server may have impacted the outcome of the 2016 election, but maintained that he would make the same choices again given the chance.

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Comey, NSA chief brief House panel amid Russia probe - The Hill

Former intelligence contractor and fugitive Edward Snowden has once and for all been honored by a Norwegian free expression group following a lengthy legal battle before the nations highest court.

Members of the Norwegian chapter of PEN personally awarded Mr. Snowden with its annual Ossietzky Prize in Moscow last month in place of holding a ceremony in Oslo as desired, the groups head, Hege Newth Nouri, told the Associated Press on Wednesday.

Mr. Snowden, a former National Security Agency contractor, was first announced as the recipient of the groups annual free expression award in April 2016 for leaking NSA documents unveiling the U.S. governments questionable, extensive global surveillance, according to Ms. Nouri and company. He remains the subject of an active arrest warrant for related charges four years later, but has evaded U.S. authorities cloaked by Russian asylum.

Lawyers for the PEN Clubs Norwegian chapter fought for months in local and federal courts to let Mr. Snowden pick up his award in person without being whisked away to the U.S. and potentially incarcerated for decades. Attorneys asked an Oslo City Court judge last April to let Mr. Snowden safely attend the ceremony, but their petition was rejected two months later. The case was unsuccessfully brought before a three-person appeals court and was eventually dismissed by the Norwegian Supreme Court last November.

The award was given to Mr. Snowden on April 21 in Moscow but went unreported for a week. English news reports of the event first appeared online Wednesday after Ms. Nouri confirmed the meeting to the AP.

Im grateful for the support from Norwegian PEN Mr. Snowdensaid at the ceremony, according to PEN.

Nevertheless, the NSA leaker said he was disappointed Norway wouldnt allow him safe passage so he could personally pick up his award, a lithography by Norwegian artist Nico Wideberg.

Its sad, Mr. Snowdentold Norways Aftenposten, according to an English translation of a recent interview. The Norwegian government had the opportunity to recognize what had been done in this case when the Norwegian PEN invited me to Norway to receive the prize, but instead they chose to use lawyers to fight in court, he said.

Mr. Snowden, 33, has resided around Moscow since being granted asylum by Russian President Vladimir Putin in 2013. His current asylum status is set to expire in 2021. In January, meanwhile, his attorneys made a case for asylum before the European Parliament.

Continue reading here:
Edward Snowden honored for NSA leaks in Moscow by Norwegian free expression group - Washington Times

Ever since the day of its creation, critics have slammed the Office of Director of National Intelligence as an expensive and unnecessary bureaucracy, a threat to the longtime primacy of the Director of Central Intelligence and a toothless tiger.

Much of that changed during the joint tenures of DNI Mike McConnell and SecDef Bob Gates (former DCI) when they agreed to give the DNI budgetary teeth in a March 21, 2008 memo. It gave the DNI acquisition authority over any program that received 51 percent of its funding from the intelligence communitys National Intelligence Program pool. Up til then, the Pentagon controlled an intelligence programif even one dollar of its money funded it.

But some Republicans have continued to press for a diminution or dissolution of the DNI. The 2017 Omnibus Spending Bill includes what would have been the 2017 Intelligence Authorization Act, which orders the new DNI review. It directs President Trump to create a five-person panel of expertswith significant intelligence and national security expertise to review ODNIs roles, missions and functions

Heres what the bill says the panel will do:

The panel should present its unclassified report within 180 days of the bills passage.

The intel committees come close to calling for the separation of the jobs of NSA Director and the head of Cyber Command.

They want a briefing from Defense Secretary Jim Mattis just three months after passage of the Omnibus Billconsidering theimpact of the dual-hatting relationship, including advantages and disadvantages.

It wants to know timelines for ensuring that no damage is done to national security should the arrangement change, any legal changes that might be neededand saya larger organizational review of NSA should be conducted with respect to the eventual termination of the dual-hatting relationship.

To that end, they also want a report from the DNI on options to better align the structure, budgetary procedures, and oversight of NSA with its national intelligence mission in the event of a termination of the dual-hatting relationship.

See the rest here:
Hill Intel Committees Order DNI, NSA/CyberCom Review - Breaking Defense

A news release posted by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) on May 2 linked to the ODNIs annual Statistical Transparency Report regarding the use of national security authorities for calendar year 2016. The Circa News organization (owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group) analyzed the data in the report and two days after it was released broke the story that the Obama administration distributed thousands of intelligence reports with theunredactednames of U.S. residents during the 2016 election.

In the interest of maintaining privacy, the government often redacts, or removes, private or sensitive information from reports prior to releasing them for publication.

Circa News noted in its report:

During his final year in office, President Obamas team significantly expanded efforts to search National Security Agency intercepts for information about Americans, distributing thousands of intelligence reports across government with the unredacted names of U.S. residents during the midst of a divisive 2016 presidential election.

Extracting data from the ODNI report, Circa reported that government officials conducted 30,355 searches in 2016 seeking information about Americans in NSA intercept metadata. This metadata includes telephone numbers and e-mail addresses. These searches amounted to a 27.5 percent increase over the prior year and more than triple the 9,500 such searches that occurred in 2013, the first year that records of the data was kept.

In 2016, government analysts reviewed the actual contents of NSA-intercepted calls and emails for 5,288 Americans, an increase of 13 percent over the prior year and a huge increase over the 198 names searched in 2013.

The NSA produced 3,134 intelligence reports with unredacted names of U.S. residents based on the searches. These reports were distributed across government agencies in 2016, and another 3,354 reports were distributed in 2015. In about half of these reports, U.S. identities were unredacted in the original reports, while in the other half they were restored and included afterwards upon special requests from Obama administration officials.

One of the more significant factors revealed was that among those whose names were made available in the reports released in 2016 or early 2017 were campaign or transition associates of President Trump and members of Congress and their staffers. Circa cited sources with direct knowledge of this information.

Around 20 U.S. officials have the power to unmask a previously redacted name a practice that was once considered a rare act.

The justification to do so need only be that the identity of the United States person is necessary to understand foreign intelligence information or assess its importance, according to a 2011 document related to Obamas easing of intelligence rules.

As a community, we look for new ways to enhance transparency, the May 2 ODNI news release quoted Alex Joel, who leads ODNIs Office of Civil Liberties, Privacy, and Transparency. Our goal is to provide relevant information, distilled into an accessible format. This year's report leans forward in that direction, providing significant information beyond whats statutorily required, and reflecting our concerted effort to enhance clarity.

The introduction to ODNIs Statistical Transparency Report for 2016 explained some of the legal regulations governing national security authorities under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). For example, it explained that both FISA Title I and FISA Title III require a probable cause court order to target individuals within the United States regardless of U.S. person status.

The ODNI report also indicates that strict rules, which we partially quoted previously, are at least theoretically in place for masking the identity of U.S. person who was under surveillance. However, unmasking may take place on an undefined need to know basis. It states:

Recipients of NSAs classified reports, such as other Federal agencies, may request that NSA provide the true identity of a masked U.S. person referenced in an intelligence report. The requested identity information is released only if the requesting recipient has a legitimate need to know the identity of the U.S. person and has the appropriate security clearances, and if the dissemination of the U.S. persons identity would be consistent with NSAs minimization procedures (e.g., the identity is necessary to understand foreign intelligence information or assess its importance). Furthermore, per NSA policy, NSA is allowed to unmask the identity for the specific requesting recipient only where specific additional controls are in place to preclude its further dissemination and additional approval has been provided by a designated NSA official.

As noted earlier, the above rules indicate that the need to know involves only cases where the persons identity is necessary to understand foreign intelligence information or assess its importance.

However, it is apparent from the report that this need to know privilege was extended rather loosely by the Obama administration and that the privacy of many U.S. citizens who were subjected to NSA surveillance was not respected.

Related articles:

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Original post:
Obama Team Distributed Thousands of NSA Data Reports Showing Names of US Residents in 2016 - The New American

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 STORY:

--COMEY, ROGERS IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD: House Intelligence Committee members emerged tight-lipped from a closed-door briefing with FBI Director James Comey and National Security Agency head Adm. Michael Rogers on Thursday. Rep. Mike Conaway (R-Texas), who is leading the committee's investigation into Russian interference in the election, appeared briefly alongside the committee's ranking member, Rep. Adam SchiffAdam SchiffSchiff: Yates testimony could come within 'weeks' Overnight Cyber: FBI, NSA chiefs brief House Intel behind closed doors | DHS warns Congress on phone security Comey, NSA chief brief House panel amid Russia probe MORE (D-Calif.), at the close to characterize the meeting as valuable -- but said little else. Conaway took over the probe early last month following the recusal of committee Chairman Devin Nunes (R-Calif.), whose relationship with Schiff had deteriorated to the level of dueling press conferences over how Nunes was handling the investigation. In a joint statement issued after the hearing Thursday, Conaway and Schiff indicated that an open hearing with several high-ranking Obama officials including former acting Attorney General Sally Yates is still in the cards. "We are currently sending out invitations for witnesses to testify and requests for pertinent documents, and look forward to the next steps of this investigation, including witness interviews and an open hearing with Sally Yates, [former Director of National Intelligence] James Clapper, and [former CIA Director] John Brennan," the statement read.

To read the rest of our piece,click here.

Yates will testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Monday.

--...NOT TESTIFYING? SUSAN RICE: Susan Rice, however, will not testify before the Senate Judiciary panel. Sen. Lindsey GrahamLindsey GrahamOvernight Cyber: FBI, NSA chiefs brief House Intel behind closed doors | DHS warns Congress on phone security Overnight Healthcare: House passes ObamaCare repeal | Meet the 20 Republicans who voted no | Dems vow to avenge vote on Election Day | Senators plan their own bill White House considering Cindy McCain for State Dept. job: report MORE (R-S.C.) on Wednesday jabbed Rice, Obama's former national security adviser, for declining to testify before a Judiciary subcommittee. "At an appropriate time, I expect we will continue down this path," Graham, who chairs the subcommittee on crime and terrorism, said in a statement. "I hope Ms. Rice will come before the committee and not just the press." President Trump accused Rice last month of improperly unmasking the identities of members of his transition team who were caught up in surveillance by the intelligence community. Earlier Wednesday, she declined an invitation from Graham to testify before the subcommittee. In a letter to Graham and the subcommittee's ranking member, Sen. Sheldon WhitehouseSheldon WhitehouseOvernight Cyber: FBI, NSA chiefs brief House Intel behind closed doors | DHS warns Congress on phone security Dems tear into 'shameful' ObamaCare repeal vote GOP senators hit Rice for refusal to testify before Senate panel MORE (D-R.I.), Rice's lawyer, Kathryn Ruemmler, dismissed Graham's invitation as a "diversionary play" to distract from a broader congressional investigation into Russian election meddling and alleged ties between the Trump campaign and Moscow. Ruemmler also argued that Whitehouse had not agreed to invite Rice to the hearing and that Graham acted on his own. "Declining to attend because you didn't get an invite from a member of your party is a poor excuse and makes it appear as though she's hiding something," full committee Chairman Chuck GrassleyChuck GrassleyOvernight Cyber: FBI, NSA chiefs brief House Intel behind closed doors | DHS warns Congress on phone security No. 2 Senate Republican: 'No timeline' on ObamaCare replacement bill Five takeaways from Comey's testimony MORE (R-Iowa) said in a statement. "No investigation will be complete until her role is understood. Likewise, the committee's top Democrat, Sen. Dianne FeinsteinDianne FeinsteinOvernight Cyber: FBI, NSA chiefs brief House Intel behind closed doors | DHS warns Congress on phone security Five takeaways from Comey's testimony GOP senators hit Rice for refusal to testify before Senate panel MORE (Calif.), seemed unmoved by Rice's argument and urged her to reconsider her decision not to testify. "She has gone public. I saw her on Fareed's show Sunday. I saw her today," Feinstein said on MSNBC's "MTP Daily" shortly after the letter was made public. "I've never heard that it has to be a bipartisan letter -- this is sort of a new criteria."

To read the rest of our piececlick here.

--...IS GRAHAM LAUNCHING A DIVERSIONARY PLAY? Though a Republican, Graham has been a hawk against Russia through the investigation process, including criticizing fellow senators for not codifying new sanctions against Moscow last week.

--...THAT'S ONE OF THE LEAST POPULAR DISEASES: Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) said early Thursday, well before the closed door testimony, that James Comey is "about as popular as cholera" with lawmakers in an interview one day after the FBI director testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee. "It's no secret Comey doesn't get invited to many parties on Capitol Hill," Kennedy, a member of the committee, told CNN's "New Day." "He's about as popular as cholera. But I respect that about him."

To read the rest of our piece,click here.

A REGULATORY UPDATE:

Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Ajit Pai says advocates of net neutrality are misrepresenting his plan to roll back the controversial Obama-era internet rules.

"For example, saying that you will lose your internet access. That's simply absurd," Pai told Recode's Decode podcast on Wednesday.

"Anyone who had internet access before these rules in 2015 knows that that's not the case. We weren't living in a dystopia before the FCC delivered these Depression-era rules to save us," he added.

In the interview, Pai defended his plan to end net neutrality, arguing it would help foster competition in the telecommunications industry by making it easier for smaller broadband providers to grow and gain market share.

The net neutrality rules make internet service providers treat all web traffic equally. The rules also classified broadband companies as "common carriers," subjecting them to tougher regulation by the FCC similar to public utilities.

His plan would scrap that "Title II" provision reclassifying the companies and hand over authority to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). While Title II is best known in recent years for net neutrality, making ISPs common carriers was also at the core of privacy rules passed by the FCC that ultimately never went into effect and were rescinded by Republican lawmakers.

Companies would be asked to voluntarily enact net neutrality principles through terms of service with customers, under Pai's plan.

Pai said the Justice Department and FTC would be strong regulators.

To read the rest of our piece,click here.

A LIGHTER CLICK:

AMERICAN INGENUITY: Seattlephotocopies a cell phoneto answer a Freedom of Information Act request.

A REPORT IN FOCUS:

A WARNING FOR CONGRESS: The Department of Homeland Security has sent Congress a study warning of security threats to mobile devices used by the federal government.

The study on mobile device security, mandated by a 2015 law, offered a series of recommendations for the U.S. government to safeguard smartphones and tablet computers against threats from nation-states, criminal hackers, and others, DHS said on Thursday.

The study was produced by DHS's Science and Technology Directorate in coordination with the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), a government body that produces optional standards on information technology and cybersecurity.

"The [study] has found that threats to the mobile device ecosystem are growing, but also that the security of mobile computing is improving," Dr. Robert Griffin, acting undersecretary for Science and Technology, said.

To read the rest of the piece, click here.

WHAT'S IN THE SPOTLIGHT:

ELECTION DATABASE HACKING: The hackers that breached the Illinois election database do not appear to have been looking for anything in particular, IT professionals told the state Senate subcommittee on cybersecurity during a hearing Thursday.

In August, federal intelligence agencies believe one of the same Russian hacking operations that struck the Democratic National Convention last summer breached an online voter database in Illinois. A similar attack struck Arizona as well, the only other state breach attributed to Russia in the 2016 election season.

While prior reports had pegged the number of breached files at 200,000, the IT officials that testified Thursday said that figure was incorrect. The actual number was 70,000.

At the hearing, state elections employees described the attack in detail, including reasons that they did not believe the attackers had data they were specifically targeting.

The hackers amassed records by searching local voter identification numbers, systematically searching nine-digit codes starting from "000000001" and incrementally adding one.

The identification codes in the database were issued locally and are not in a standardized statewide format. That limited the number of records that could successfully be returned. Though some cities use nine character codes, others use more or fewer. Any user with a code in a different format would not be searchable using that method.

That method of searching is good for taking large datasets but only guarantees that the attacker would steal the files with the lowest number codes -- an administrator could easily discover the attack and shut it down before it reached higher number codes.

"They were just on a fishing expedition to get whatever they could," said Kevin Turner, director of information technology at the Illinois State Board of Elections.

To read the rest of our piece,click here.

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT:

Links from our blog, The Hill, and around the Web.

Japansigned a treaty for threat information sharing with the U.S. (The Hill)

Qualcomm is seeking toblock iPhonesfrom being imported into the U.S. (The Hill)

Rural ISPsare celebrating the FCC's net neutrality rollback, but not on net neutrality grounds. (The Hill)

REQUIRED READING: Afake cybersecurity statistichas gotten so popular it's been written into legislation. (Nextgov)

Researchers discovered a largebotnet mining cryptocurrencyon servers. (GuardiCore)

Researchersalso discoveredrarely used malware targeting North Korea-related organizations. (Security Week)

Newly discovered ransomware charges you more or less depending onhow rich your nationis. (ZDNet)

Government portals for India's new functionally mandatorybiometric ID systemmay have leaked more than 100 million users data. (Naked Security)

There may not be a great way tokeep murder videos off social media.(Motherboard)

Did U.S. sanctions haveany effecton Russia's election hacking efforts? (Wired)

Republican Sens. Ted CruzTed CruzOvernight Cyber: FBI, NSA chiefs brief House Intel behind closed doors | DHS warns Congress on phone security In Senate, pessimism over ObamaCare repeal THE MEMO: Comey commands the stage MORE (Texas), Ron JohnsonRon JohnsonOvernight Cyber: FBI, NSA chiefs brief House Intel behind closed doors | DHS warns Congress on phone security Overnight Tech: Republicans offer bill to kill net neutrality | Surveillance, visa reforms top GOP chair's tech agenda | Panel pushes small biz cyber bill Senate Republicans introduce anti-net neutrality legislation MORE (Wisc.) and Mike LeeMike LeeOvernight Cyber: FBI, NSA chiefs brief House Intel behind closed doors | DHS warns Congress on phone security In Senate, pessimism over ObamaCare repeal Overnight Tech: Republicans offer bill to kill net neutrality | Surveillance, visa reforms top GOP chair's tech agenda | Panel pushes small biz cyber bill MORE (Utah) arguethe case against net neutrality.(Washington Post)

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Overnight Cyber: FBI, NSA chiefs brief House Intel behind closed doors | DHS warns Congress on phone security - The Hill