Overnight Cybersecurity: Iran nuke pact revives GOP cyber fears

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:

–A CYBER BOOST?: An agreement to restrict Iran’s nuclear development program in exchange for sanctions relief has resurrected Republican fears that Tehran’s strengthened finances could inadvertently jumpstart the country’s cyber warfare efforts. “I think potentially lifting the sanctions fuels their support of terrorism, whether that’s cyber, whether it’s conventional weapons purchases,” Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Richard Burr (R-N.C.) told reporters Tuesday. Cyber experts have been sparring for months over what effects a successful nuclear pact might have on Iran’s rapidly accelerating cyber program, which has already infiltrated critical networks in over a dozen countries, including the U.S. Many believe the successful deal gives Iranian cyber warriors incentive to spare the U.S. from their wrath. But the completed pact will also help fill Tehran’s coffers, potentially giving the country’s cyber program access to better technology and training, speeding the already rapid pace at which the country is becoming a major cyber power. To read our full piece, click here.

{mosads}–DOABLE?: Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn (R-Texas) said Republican leaders are eyeing the first week of August to try and move a stalled cybersecurity bill. “I think we have to,” Cornyn told The Hill on Tuesday. “Hope springs eternal.” It would be the last chance for the upper chamber to try and pass the anti-hacking measure before a four-week recess. The bill, known as the Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act (CISA), is intended to boost the exchange of cyber threat data between the public and private sectors. The House has already passed its two companion pieces of legislation. But the prospect might seem a longshot to many. The Senate’s calendar is packed in its final weeks before the August break. Myriad budget bills and a fight over the recently struck deal to curb Iran’s nuclear program are expected to dominate the diminishing floor time. To read our full piece, click here.

UPDATE ON CYBER POLICY:

–BE GOOD OR BE GONE. The government is failing to protect its websites and networks, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson conceded to lawmakers Tuesday. “To be frank,” he said, federal cybersecurity “is not where it needs to be.”

But he insisted DHS has accelerated its plans to shore up the government’s cyber defenses with the DHS “Einstein” program. Einstein is intended to monitor the government’s networks and repel malicious actors, like those that cracked the OPM system.

Einstein, the government’s main defense against cyberattackers, has drawn great scrutiny in the wake of the breach. The system is being knocked as outdated before it is even fully implemented by the end of 2015. It lacks an ability to suss out hackers the government hasn’t previously encountered. That’s how the OPM hackers were not only able to sneak in, but roam around the network undetected for a full year.

Einstein is a building block, Johnson insisted.

The program, he said, “is also a platform for future technologies and capabilities to do more. This includes technology that will automatically identify suspicious Internet traffic for further inspection, even if, as was the case with the OPM breach, we did not already know about the particular cybersecurity threat.”

LIGHTER CLICK:

–GOTCHA, DON’T IT HURT YA. Twitter stock briefly rose Tuesday because of a hoax story saying that the company was in talks to be bought. The story purported to be from Bloomberg News and has since been taken down. The story said Twitter had received a $31 billion takeover offer. The article was posted to a page designed to look like Bloomberg’s main, business-centered website. But it was hosted at Bloomberg.market, not Bloomberg.com. Read on, here.

WHO’S IN THE SPOTLIGHT:

–ADOBE FLASH, which has received heavy criticism after leaked documents from surveillance firm Hacking Team exposed several vulnerabilities in the widely disliked Flash Player, which is used to run many animated graphics on websites. Adobe on Tuesday released a patched version of Flash, its second patch in less than a week.

But the revelation of the significant vulnerabilities has caused Facebook to call for the software to be phased out. Mozilla’s Firefox and Google’s Chrome web browsers were even blocking Flash on Tuesday as users scrambled to make the update.

Read on at TechCrunch.

A LOOK AHEAD:

WEDNESDAY

–Access will host the all-day “CryptoSummit,” starting at 8:30 a.m. Officials from the Commerce Department and Justice Department will speak on panels with industry leaders and security researchers.

–ITIF will host a debate at 9 a.m., on the question of whether technology is a “Problem Solver or Dangerous Master?”

–The Hudson Institute will hold an event at noon titled “Collaborative Governance and Security: A Stronger Internet for the Future.”

–The House Oversight Committee will hold a hearing at 2 p.m. on cybersecurity at the Department of the Interior, which housed the database containing the 4.2 million personnel files that were exposed in the OPM breach.

THURSDAY

–DefenseOne will hold an event starting at 8:30 a.m. on “Anticipating the Next DOD Insider Threat.” DOD officials will speak.

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT:

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

A $23 billion Chinese bid to purchase a U.S.-based microchip company could test the two countries’ tense cybersecurity relationship. (The Hill)

Civil liberties activists on Tuesday asked a federal court to block intelligence agents’ bulk collection of Americans’ phone data, months after the court called the program illegal. (The Hill)

A security flaw was found in a school Internet monitoring software. (The Guardian)

As tech firms track your location, advertisers zero in on the sale. (Reuters)

Hacking Team broke Bitcoin secrecy by targeting a crucial wallet file. (ArsTechnica)

The FBI asked Hacking Team for help unmasking a Tor user. (Motherboard)

Brian Krebs runs down the slate of major patches issued Tuesday. (KrebsonSecurity)

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