Hillicon Valley — US assistance stymied Russian cyberattacks

Following the invasion of Ukraine earlier this year, the U.S. has stepped up its efforts to assist Eastern European nations to strengthen their cyber defenses, a move experts say helped minimize destructive Russian cyberattacks. 

Meanwhile, we’ll look at the latest governor ordering a ban on TikTok for state government employees. 

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Cyber aid minimized cyberattacks from Russia

The U.S.’s increased efforts to assist Ukraine and other Eastern European countries in shoring up their cyber defenses amid Moscow’s war on Kyiv appear to have been successful in countering destructive Russian cyberattacks and mitigating their impact. 

The U.S. and its European allies provided significant cyber expertise to Ukraine and other Eastern European nations prior to the war, but experts said those efforts seem to have increased following the invasion of Ukraine in February as the countries all geared up for Russian cyberattacks. 

• “My sense is that the U.S. and the U.K. have both been pretty helpful when it comes to hardening Ukraine’s cyber defenses during the war and have been reasonably successful at their counter maneuvers as well, including things like removing Russian malware from machines and helping thwart attacks on Ukraine’s electric grid,” said Josephine Wolff, an associate professor of cybersecurity policy at the Tufts University Fletcher School. 
  
• In recent months, U.S. agencies like the FBI and the U.S. Cyber Command have reported that they’ve sent out cybersecurity experts to help countries such as Croatia and Montenegro bolster their defenses against Russian cyberattacks. 

Most recently, the U.S. Cyber Command confirmed that it had deployed its operators known as the “hunt forward” team for the first time in Croatia to help the Balkan country strengthen its cyber defenses and networks against active threats. 

Read more here. 

Utah follows GOP-led states on TikTok ban 

Utah Gov. Spencer Cox (R) has implemented a ban on TikTok within the state’s government branches, joining a growing list of GOP governors who have taken action against the Chinese-owned social media platform due to security concerns. 

In a news release on Monday, Cox ordered that state employees may not download or use the TikTok application or visit any TikTok website on any state-owned devices. The latest executive order also applies to all executive branch agencies in the state. 

• The news release also notes how Chinese national security laws allow its government to order Chinese-based companies to provide them with personal data or information from U.S. users.  
  
• “China’s access to data collected by TikTok presents a threat to our cybersecurity,” Cox said in a statement. “As a result, we’ve deleted our TikTok account and ordered the same on all state-owned devices. We must protect Utahns and make sure that the people of Utah can trust the state’s security systems.” 

Utah follows other GOP-led states such as Maryland, South Dakota and Texas that have implemented measures to prohibit the use of TikTok within their state’s government branches. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) last week announced that he had implemented a ban on TikTok on state government-issued devices, citing security concerns. 

Read more here.  

NASA PRESSES SPACEX ON MUSK’S TWITTER ‘DISTRACTION’ 

NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said he pulled aside the head of SpaceX to raise concerns about Elon Musk’s controversies at Twitter potentially affecting the space company. 

Nelson said he asked Gwynne Shotwell, the president and COO of SpaceX, earlier this month if controversy at Twitter would affect business at SpaceX, a crucial partner for NASA. 

“Tell me that the distraction that Elon might have on Twitter is not going to affect SpaceX,” Nelson said he told her, according to NBC News. 

Shotwell responded that “you have nothing to worry about,” according to Nelson’s recounting of the conversation. 

Nelson told NBC News that he is not concerned about SpaceX, which Musk runs as CEO, and that he was reassured by Shotwell. 

Read more here.  

NASA TO NAME ARTEMIS II CREW IN 2023  

NASA announced Sunday it will name the spaceflight crew of the Artemis II mission in early 2023, following the successful completion of the first phase of its mission to the moon. 

Vanessa Wyche, director of NASA’s Johnson Space Center, said at a press conference just hours after the splashdown of the Orion spacecraft that the team wanted to wait until the completion of Artemis I to make an announcement. 

“Our intent is — if all is still go and everything looks good — then our plan is to name the crew in early 2023,” she said. “That is our game plan.” 

Artemis I sent an unmanned flight around the moon, with the capsule blazing back down to Earth at more than 32 times the speed of sound on Sunday after traveling more than 40,000 miles past the moon and about 268,000 miles from Earth. 

Read more here.  

BITS & PIECES

An op-ed to chew on: NASA starts thinking how to build a moon base 

Notable links from around the web: 

Why liberal Washington can’t quit Twitter (NBC / Alex Seitz-Wald and Scott Wong) 

Lina Khan, Aiming to Block Microsoft’s Activision Deal, Faces a Challenge (The New York Times / David McCabe, Cecilia Kang and Karen Weise) 

North Korean cyber spies deploy new tactic: tricking foreign experts into writing research for them (Reuters / Josh Smith) 

Shadowboxing and geopolitics on the dark web (Politico / Mohar Chatterjee) 

🐕 Lighter click: Look at him go

One more thing: Musk fires back

Twitter CEO Elon Musk fired back on Sunday night after facing backlash for tweeting that his pronouns are “Prosecute/Fauci” earlier in the day, a reference to outgoing chief White House medical adviser Anthony Fauci. 

“Elon, please don’t mock and promote hate toward already marginalized and at-risk-of-violence members of the #LGBTQ+ community,” astronaut Scott Kelly, the twin brother of Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.), responded to Musk’s tweet. “They are real people with real feelings. Furthermore, Dr Fauci is a dedicated public servant whose sole motivation was saving lives.” 

“I strongly disagree,” Musk replied. “Forcing your pronouns upon others when they didn’t ask, and implicitly ostracizing those who don’t, is neither good nor kind to anyone. As for Fauci, he lied to Congress and funded gain-of-function research that killed millions of people. Not awesome [in my opinion].” 

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.