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 – TODAY’S MAJOR RUSSIA PROBE DEVELOPMENTS:
–MANAFORT INDICTED ON 12 COUNTS, SURRENDERS TO INVESTIGATORS: Former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort is being charged with 12 counts, including conspiracy against the United States, in the first indictment to come from the investigation of special counsel Robert Mueller. The 12-count indictment includes Manafort’s former business partner and protégé Richard Gates, who was ousted from the pro-Trump group America First Policies in April. Manafort turned himself in at the FBI’s Washington, D.C., field office on Monday morning. The charges are related to work done by Manafort and Gates on behalf of a pro-Kremlin political party in Ukraine. Mueller alleges they were paid tens of millions of dollars for the work and then laundered the money “in order to hide Ukraine payments from United States authorities.” The sprawling 31-page indictment, unsealed on Monday morning, makes no mention of Manafort’s work for President Trump’s campaign, which began in March of 2016 and ended with his ouster in August.
To read the rest of our piece, click here.
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–FORMER TRUMP AIDE PLEADS GUILTY TO LYING ABOUT RUSSIA CONTACTS: One of President Trump’s former campaign advisers has pleaded guilty to lying to FBI agents who are investigating possible collusion between the Trump campaign and the Russian government, the Department of Justice said Monday. George Papadopoulos, the 30-year-old foreign policy adviser, was arrested in July and pleaded guilty earlier this month, according to court filings unsealed on Monday. The Justice Department unsealed the documents shortly after it announced charges against Manafort and Gates. The charges stem from special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation. Prosecutors charged Papadopoulos with lying to investigators about his conversations with a foreign professor who told him that Russians had thousands of emails containing “dirt” on Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton.
To read the rest of our piece, click here.
–MANAFORT, GATES PLEAD NOT GUILTY: Manafort and Gates pleaded not guilty Monday afternoon to the charges laid out by Mueller. Judge Deborah Robinson agreed to federal prosecutors’ request to set bail at the notably high amount of $10 million. Unsecured bail was set at $5 million. Prosecutors have also requested that Manafort be released on house arrest in Virginia. The special counsel’s office considers him a flight risk, lawyers in Mueller’s office argued before Robinson on Monday afternoon, citing the seriousness of the charges and the extent of Manafort’s ties abroad. The bureau took possession of Manafort’s passport yesterday, his lawyer said.
To read the rest of our piece, click here.
–AND HERE’S MORE COVERAGE OF TODAY’S STUNNING DEVELOPMENTS:
Dem lobbyist Podesta steps down amid Mueller scrutiny
White House: Trump has no intention to fine Mueller
Manafort attorney calls collusion allegations ridiculous
Dems double down on calls to protect Mueller
Five things to know about the Manafort indictment
Timeline: Campaign knew Russia had Clinton emails months before Trump ‘joke’
And check out our live coverage of the bombshell developments in Mueller’s investigation
A LEGISLATIVE UPDATE:
DEMS INTRODUCE BILL TO SECURE INTERNET OF THINGS: Democrats are introducing legislation directing the Department of Commerce to set up a voluntary program to certify internet-connected devices with strong cybersecurity.
The bill, backed by Sen. Edward Markey (D-Mass.) in the upper chamber and Rep. Ted Lieu (D-Calif.) in the House, would set up a voluntary program in which device manufacturers can choose to have their products evaluated and certified for meeting set benchmarks on cyber and data security.
The legislation, dubbed the “Cyber Shield Act of 2017,” represents an effort to secure the growing ecosystem of what is commonly known as the Internet of Things, or IoT.
“The IoT will also stand for the Internet of Threats unless we put in place appropriate cybersecurity safeguards,” Markey said in a statement on Friday. “With as many as 50 billion IoT devices projected to be in our pockets and homes by 2020, cybersecurity will continue to pose a direct threat to economic prosperity, privacy, and our nation’s security.”
In particular, the legislation would direct the secretary of Commerce to convene an advisory committee made up of business leaders, cybersecurity experts, public interest advocates and federal employees with backgrounds in device certification or cybersecurity.
The committee would be required to produce recommendations on cybersecurity benchmarks, which would be finalized by the Commerce Department within two years of the bill’s enactment.
To read the rest of our piece, click here.
A LIGHTER CLICK:
Talk about Karma … A hacking site is hacked by hackers. (Naked Security)
A REPORT IN FOCUS:
The United Kingdom released its final report Friday on the WannaCry ransomware attacks that caused mass disruption in its hospital system, with a U.K. official saying the country believes the attacks originated in North Korea.
“This attack, we believe quite strongly that it came from a foreign state,” Ben Wallace, a junior minister for security, told BBC 4 Radio, adding that the government was “as sure as possible” that nation was North Korea.
WannaCry caused worldwide panic in may, with disruptions in major European companies including Germany’s largest rail provider, auto manufacturer Renault, Spanish telecom Telefonica, the Russian Ministry of the Interior, Chinese law enforcement and other targets.
Though estimates of infections are hard to calculate, especially after researchers discovered a way to interrupt the malware between installation and encrypting the files, WannaCry infected at least hundreds of thousands of computers.
Symantec tied WannaCry to an infamous hacking group known as Lazarus affiliated with North Korea soon after the attack, an attribution the U.K. government appears to now agree with.
One of the most jarring victims of WannaCry was the Britain’s National Health Service (NHS), the national health-care system. According to a report by the National Audit Office (NAO) released Friday, “thousands of appointments and operations were canceled” due to the attacks.
The report tallies that at least 34 percent of NHS bureaus, known as trusts, were hit by WannaCry. More than 25 trusts that administered hospitals and other treatment centers were locked out of devices.
WannaCry encrypted files on infected systems, charging a ransom for the keys to unlock the files. Design flaws in the WannaCry architecture prevented the attackers from actually providing those keys.
The NAO report said that no trust paid a ransom but that it is impossible to calculate the total economic damage from the attack.
To read the rest of our piece, click here; to read the full NAO investigative report, click here.
WHAT’S IN THE SPOTLIGHT:
THE DOSSIER: The revelation that Hillary Clinton’s campaign and the Democratic National Committee (DNC) helped fund an explosive dossier about President Trump has roiled the investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election.
Republicans are on the offensive, claiming the new funding revelations as evidence the investigations into whether there was collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia were fixed against them from the start. Democrats are trying to keep the focus on the contents of the memo and say it doesn’t matter who paid for it.
The saga took another bizarre twist on Friday when the conservative news outlet Washington Free Beacon said it paid the same opposition research firm used by the Democrats for dirt on Trump and other GOP candidates about six months earlier.
In light of the renewed focus on the dossier, here is a look at what we know about the controversial document at the center of the Russia investigation.
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT:
‘Links from our blog, The Hill, and around the Web.
Dems want more details on Russian social media content. (The Hill)
Tech giants rush to self-regulate amid scrutiny. (The Hill)
EU to warn that cyberattacks could constitute warfare. (The Telegraph)
Homeland Security cyber official says U.S. will release more info on North Korea cyber tools. (The Independent)
Trump moves acting Pentagon chief information officer to Homeland Security. (FedScoop)
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