OVERNIGHT CYBERSECURITY: Cyber bleeds into trade fight

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 wrap their arms around cyberthreats. 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 STORIES:

–CYBER BLEEDS INTO TRADE: The Senate is expected to vote Friday on approving fast-track legislation, which would allow the president to send trade deals to Congress for up-or-down votes. Cybersecurity hasn’t gotten much play in the debates, but cyber has quietly begun to bleed into international trade, with countries setting up barriers to U.S. exports in the guise of protecting their products from snooping. The trend has rankled U.S. officials, who see it as digital protectionism masked as national security. The issue has spilled into the congressional debate on President Obama’s trade agenda, with supporters arguing free trade is a way to counter digital protectionism. Others maintain a freer flow of data between countries simply opens people up to foreign government surveillance and cyber crooks. To read our full piece, check back tomorrow morning at TheHill.com.

{mosads}–WORKING FOR THE WEEKEND: The Senate will drag everyone to Capitol Hill on Saturday for a rare weekend vote to try and resolve the debate over the National Security Agency’s surveillance programs. Senators are scrambling to nail down a way to preserve critical NSA programs before portions of the Patriot Act run out at the end of the month. Democrats appear united in support of an NSA reform bill, the House-passed USA Freedom Act, after Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.) reportedly said that he would support the legislation. At least a half-dozen Republicans are also sure bets to vote for it, and multiple others have signaled that they are undecided. The Patriot Act provisions expire on the morning of June 1 — the same day that the House is scheduled to return from its Memorial Day recess. Unless the Senate passes the House bill, those provisions will expire, at least temporarily. To read our full piece, click here.

–A PARTING GIFT: New bitcoin regulations will be one of the final acts for top Wall Street regulator, Benjamin Lawsky. A day after announcing he would be stepping down in June from his post atop the New York Department of Financial Services (NYDFS), Lawsky said he was planning next week to issue the finished BitLicense, which will implement heightened oversight and disclosure mandates for companies using bitcoin. The rules could set the tone for how other regulators approach cryptocurrencies, and the tech community is already crying foul. To read our full piece, click here.

UPDATE ON CYBER POLICY:

–NO ZERO-DAY FOR YOU. The Commerce Department wants to tighten export rules on computer security products in an attempt to limit foreign rivals’ access to unknown security flaws. The proposal is drawing criticism from security researchers who argue it’s too broad and could inhibit the export of legitimate security products used to harden networks against hackers. To read our full story, click here.

LIGHTER CLICK:

–YOUR OWN TRIAL. Can you pass this Washington Post quiz? It poses some basic questions about the court that oversees the NSA’s surveillance programs, known as the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, or FISA court. Then it asks: FISA Court? Kafka Court? or Both?

Take the quiz here.

WEEKEND BONUS LIGHTER CLICK:

–THE MEEK SHALL INHERIT THE EARTH. We’re a few days behind on this, but it’s worth passing along. We’ll let British paper The Telegraph explain:  

It has emerged that Scotland Yard kept a secret dossier on “Star Trek,” “The X-Files,” and other US sci-fi shows amid fears that British fans would go mad and kill themselves, turn against society or start a weird cult.

A REPORT IN FOCUS:

–YEAH, THAT MAKES SENSE. Google has confirmed what everyone suspected after Mitt Romney’s email was hacked by correctly guessing his security question, “What’s your favorite pet?”: Security questions aren’t really secure at all. “Despite the prevalence of security questions, their safety and effectiveness have rarely been studied in depth,” several Google researchers said in a Thursday blog post. So they did just that, analyzing hundreds of millions of security questions and their answers from Google accounts. Check out our piece about the results of that study here.

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT:

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

The NSA hijacked smartphone app stores in an attempt to spy on phones. (The Hill)

Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) asked the wireless companies for the first time if they had received government requests for encryption keys. (The Hill)

Chinese President Xi Jinping is targeting tech elites for a Communist Party outreach effort. (Bloomberg)

Elbit, Israel’s largest listed defense company, has agreed to buy Nice Systems’ cyber and intelligence division for $157.9 million. (Reuters)

Dating website Adult FriendFinder had nearly 4 million users’ data exposed, including information on sexual orientation. (The Guardian)

Researchers have built a new Tor client called Astoria designed specifically to make eavesdropping harder. (The Daily Dot)

Will our future Internet be paradise or dystopia? (Christian Science Monitor)

Too embarrassed to ask about what two-factor authentication is? Here are some answers.

If you’d like to receive our newsletter in your inbox, please sign up here: http://goo.gl/KZ0b4A