Hillicon Valley — Taiwan hit with another cyberattack

Tawain was hit with a second cyberattack this week, this time targeting its defense ministry. The latest attack follows Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D-Calif.) visit to the island on Tuesday. 

In other news, a spokesperson for Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) said the top Democrat plans to call a key antitrust bill targeting tech giants to a floor vote — but stopped short of committing to a timeline.  

This is Hillicon Valley, detailing all you need to know about tech and cyber news from Capitol Hill to Silicon Valley. Send tips to The Hill’s Rebecca Klar and Ines Kagubare. Someone forward you this newsletter? Subscribe here.

Cyberattack hits Taiwan after Pelosi visit

The website of Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defense was hit with a cyberattack on Wednesday in the aftermath of Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) visiting the island.  

Taiwan’s Military News Agency reported the ministry’s website went offline temporarily after being hit with a distributed denial-of-service attack, which disrupted the website with excessive traffic. 

The ministry said officials are continuing to strengthen monitoring for attacks as it works with other authorities to maintain information security.  

Taiwan’s presidential office was hit with a similar attack on Tuesday, the day that Pelosi visited, flouting stern warnings from China. The attack caused 200 times more than the normal weekday traffic, temporarily crashing the website. 

Read more here. 

Schumer plans to call antitrust bill for vote 

Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) plans to call Sens. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) and Chuck Grassley’s (R-Iowa) antitrust bill targeting tech giants to a floor vote, according to a spokesperson for the top Democrat. 

“Sen. Schumer is working with Sen. Klobuchar and other supporters to gather the needed votes and plans to bring it up for a vote,” the spokesperson said in a statement.  

The spokesperson, however, did not provide a timeline for the vote.  

Klobuchar told Politico, which first reported on the statement, that Schumer committed to a vote “in the fall” but said she didn’t have an exact date. 

Klobuchar and Grassley had been pushing for a floor vote on the bill, which aims to prevent tech giants from preferencing their own products and services over rivals’, before the Senate leaves for recess. 

The bill advanced out of the Senate Judiciary Committee earlier this year with bipartisan support. 

Read more here.  

SEMICONDUCTOR GROUPS PUSH FOR IMMIGRATION REFORM

Semiconductor giants are pushing for immigration reform that would allow more highly-skilled workers to remain in the U.S. after Congress passed a bill to strengthen domestic chip manufacturing. 

The semiconductor companies told congressional leaders the U.S. should reform regulations around green cards to keep more highly skilled workers, according to a copy of the letter reported by Punchbowl News Thursday. 

The companies argued that the U.S. should exempt eligible immigrants with doctorate and master’s degrees in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) from annual green card country caps, as well as allow for the recapture of unused green cards to reduce the “massive backlog” of employer and family sponsored green card applicants. 

In addition to the green card reform, the companies said the U.S. should invest more in developing qualified U.S.-born STEM students and create more semiconductor-specific degree programs. 

Read more here. 

BITS & PIECES

An op-ed to chew on: To make US more cyber-resilient, government and business need far greater collaboration

Notable links from around the web: 

TikTok Moderators Are Being Trained Using Graphic Images Of Child Sexual Abuse (Forbes / Alexandra S. Levine) 

Perils of Preaching Nationalism Play Out on Chinese Social Media (The New York Times / Li Yuan) 

Video game giants see hundred million dollar dip in revenue amid recession fears (The Washington Post / Shannon Liao) 

One more thing: Missing texts draw new scrutiny

A second failure to sound the alarm on missing text messages is renewing scrutiny of Joseph Cuffari, the inspector general at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), who is facing a barrage of calls to step aside from his review of how the agency responded to the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol.   

Cuffari’s probes into Jan. 6 collided with an unusual roadblock: Text messages both at the Secret Service and for top Trump DHS officials could not be accounted for or were erased in the days after the deadly attack.   

But the inspector general waited months to alert DHS leadership or Congress — a possible violation of the law that has lawmakers calling for him to recuse himself from his investigation.   

Criticism of Cuffari, however, far predates the mystery around DHS’s text messages, stemming from a series of passed-over investigations and narrowed lines of inquiry.   

Read more here.  

That’s it for today, thanks for reading. Check out The Hill’s Technology and Cybersecurity pages for the latest news and coverage. We’ll see you tomorrow.

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