The national security world will be closely watching on Wednesday as the Senate Homeland Security Committee holds a confirmation hearing for Kirstjen Nielsen, President Trump’s selection for Homeland Security chief.
Nielsen has an intriguing background when it comes to cybersecurity. She was at one point expected to be the next head of the National Protection and Programs Directorate (NPPD) at DHS.
NPPD covers a number of cybersecurity directives in the agency, including biometrics, cybersecurity of critical infrastructure and cybersecurity communications.
{mosads}Nielsen is also the founder and former president of a critical infrastructure protection consultancy, which held a handful of government contracts under the Obama administration.
Nielsen has worked closely with Trump’s chief of staff, John Kelly. She’s currently his deputy and previously was his chief counsel when he ran Homeland Security.
A potential hiccup for Nielsen could be her role with George W. Bush’s DHS and its botched Katrina response. DHS oversees the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which is handling the response to this year’s catastrophic hurricane season and wildfires in Western states.
Russian-linked groups’ use of social media to influence the 2016 election will also be in the spotlight in the coming week.
On Tuesday and Wednesday, the top lawyers from Twitter, Google and Facebook testified before Senate committees on the Russian efforts and steps they are taking to determine the extent of the interference and ways to prevent it in the future.
Lawmakers, though, made it clear after the hearings that they intend to keep the pressure on Silicon Valley to do more.
“I went home last night with profound disappointment. I asked specific questions and I got vague answers,” Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) told the executives during one hearing.
Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) blasted Facebook for accepting political ads from Russia that were paid for in rubles, and asking why that didn’t tip off the company to foreign election interference.
The scrutiny over Russian influence and the spread of fake news has tech companies worried about new regulation and has left them scrambling to show they can handle the issue alone. In the Senate, lawmakers have already introduced a bipartisan bill that would expand disclosure requirements for online political ads. The executives who testified all declined to endorse the bill.
Expect more questions about the Twitter employee who on their final day at work took down President Trump’s account.
Trump’s account was down for about 11 minutes on Thursday night.
Twitter blamed a customer service employee and said they were looking into the matter. But the incident raised questions about the level of security for the president’s account.
One prominent attorney on cybersecurity issues also raised the possibility that the Twitter employee might have broken a law, the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act.
Lawmakers will also dig into cybersecurity issues at a number of hearings in the coming week.
On Tuesday, a House Homeland Security subcommittee will investigate the effectiveness of DHS’s research and development arm.
Two House Oversight subcommittees will hold a joint hearing on voting machine security on Wednesday.
The hearing comes days after Sens. Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) and Susan Collins (R-Maine) unveiled an election security bill that addresses the issue on several fronts. The Securing America’s Voting Equipment (SAVE) Act has provisions to improve information sharing from the intelligence community to state officials, grants to replace machinery and a rewards program to spur third-party research to catch bugs.
The Senate Commerce Committee will meet to discuss “protecting consumers in the era of major data breaches” on Wednesday.
The hearing will feature former Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer, who presided over the company’s record-breaking breach in 2013 that was not discovered until last year. Yahoo has said that 3 billion accounts were compromised.
The Hill reported Thursday that Mayer had been threatened with a subpoena before agreeing to testify.
Also testifying will be the chief privacy officer of Verizon, which purchased Yahoo this year. Senators will also hear from the current and former heads of Equifax, the credit reporting agency which disclosed its own massive hack this year.
In case you missed it:
Former Trump adviser grilled by House committee behind closed doors
Lawmakers look to bug bounties, but experts warn of unexpected work
Warner hits Trump: He’s ‘unwilling to acknowledge’ Russian threat
GOP chairman presses social media companies over Russian energy ads
Senators release new election cybersecurity bill
Ransomware targeting Japan may be concealing other attacks
Former Trump adviser pleads guilty to lying about Russia contacts
Manafort indicted, surrenders to FBI
The Department of Justice may charge six Russian officials in Russian Hack (The Wall Street Journal)
Who else did Fancy Bear target with the campaign that struck John Podesta? (The Associated Press)