Hillicon Valley: Pentagon IG could not determine if White House interfered in cloud contract | Amazon firings fuel controversy over virus response | States begin shifting to mail-in voting | Agencies warn of North Korean cyber threats

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JEDI? ¯_(ツ)_/¯ : The Pentagon’s watchdog in a report released on Wednesday said it was not able to “definitively determine” whether the White House influenced the Department of Defense’s (DOD) decision to award a $10 billion cloud-computing contract to Microsoft over Amazon.

The department’s inspector general office said it was unable to rule on the issue because the DOD’s general counsel instructed witnesses not to answer questions about conversations between the White House and Pentagon because of “the assertion of a ‘presidential communications privilege.'”

The report did find, however, that department personnel who evaluated proposals and awarded the Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure (JEDI) contract were not pressured by any senior Pentagon leaders.

The 317-page document also determined that giving the JEDI contract to a single company — Microsoft — rather than dividing it among competitors was “consistent with applicable acquisition standards.”

The Pentagon awarded the lucrative military contract to Microsoft in October of last year.

Amazon quickly filed a lawsuit seeking to halt or overhaul the contract, claiming the process was improperly influenced by President Trump, who publicly and privately indicated that he did not want the contract to go to Amazon, which is owned by a frequent target of the president’s criticism, Jeff Bezos.  

Read more on the watchdog report here.

 

AMAZON UNDER SCRUTINY OVER VIRUS RESPONSE AT HOME: Amazon’s move to fire three employees is stoking the controversy over its worker policies during the coronavirus outbreak and bringing new criticism from Washington.

The online retail giant confirmed to The Hill on Tuesday that it had fired three employees who publicly criticized warehouse conditions and safety measures for workers amid the outbreak, adding fuel to the simmering debate.

Those firings followed the dismissal of another worker, Chris Smalls, and the leaking of memos that critics said detailed plans to smear the former Long Island warehouse employee. Lawmakers and regulators slammed Amazon for its treatment of Smalls, and John Oliver brought even more attention to the issue on his HBO show this weekend.

At the center of the controversy is criticism that Amazon has been slow to ease its rules on paid leave for sick employees, provide personal protective equipment and put in place policies to maximize social distancing at facilities.

On Tuesday, the company confirmed that an Amazon warehouse worker died on March 31 after contracting the virus. It is unknown if the worker was exposed at work and Amazon said he did not show any symptoms on his last day on the job.

The company has taken steps to try to reassure employees that it is committed to protecting them. Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos last week visited Amazon warehouses and a Whole Foods store, and the retailer has announced several new safety measures.

At the same time, the company is seeing business boom and has hired 100,000 new workers since the coronavirus crisis began and announced plans to bring on 75,000 more. Amazon stock hit an all-time high on Tuesday, giving the company a market value of more than $1.1 trillion. But the firings are bringing fresh scrutiny on the company’s workplace practices and energizing its toughest critics.

Lawmakers react: “Instead of firing employees who want justice, maybe Jeff Bezos–the richest man in the world–can focus on providing his workers with paid sick leave, a safe workplace, and a livable planet,” Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) tweeted Tuesday.

Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) said the company “should be ashamed.”

“Its efforts to vilify, demean, and even fire its own workers who are fighting for their right to better wages, working conditions and benefits are an affront to the people who make this country work – particularly at a time when Amazon warehouse, grocery and delivery workers are on the frontlines of a pandemic and forced to put themselves in harm’s way,” he said in a statement to The Hill.

Read more on the controversy here.

 

… AND UNDER SCRUTINY ABROAD: Amazon said Wednesday that it would temporarily shut down its distribution centers in France after a court ruled that the company could only deliver food, hygiene and medical products until it addressed workplace safety at its warehouses amid the coronavirus pandemic.

The move comes as the online retail giant faces intensifying scrutiny both domestically and abroad over what it’s doing to keep workers safe.

A French union has reportedly accused Amazon of endangering lives, and a court on Tuesday ruled that the company failed to sufficiently protect its warehouse employees, according to reports. The court reportedly gave the company a Wednesday deadline to comply with its order regarding shipments or face a fine of about $1 million per day. 

Amazon, which has vowed to appeal the ruling, said in a statement that it would suspend activities in its French distribution centers. The company pushed back on the ruling, saying that it’s made a “huge investment… to ensure and strengthen safety measures for our employees who remained mobilized during this crisis.”

It also argued that the labor union brought its case despite “concrete evidence” that Amazon had bolstered employee safety at the six distribution centers in France, The New York Times reported. Amazon said that the court ruling would have “consequences” for many French citizens, including thousands of the retail giant’s employees. 

Read more here.

 

STATES BEGIN SHIFTING TO MAIL-IN VOTING: The coronavirus pandemic is leading to major shifts in how Americans vote across the country and is forcing some of the most restrictive voting states to embrace change in their election procedures.

The change is most apparent on the East Coast, where governors from New England to the South are signaling a new willingness to expand voting measures such as early voting and mail-in ballots, and on Capitol Hill, where leaders including Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) are strongly in support.

Support for these efforts is being spurred on by the public, with Democracy Corps finding in a poll conducted over the past month that more than 70 percent of Americans living in key battleground states are in favor of no-excuse absentee voting, which allows for voters to request an absentee ballot without having to state a reason.

Some Republicans, including President Trump, are still staunchly against voting by mail, arguing it could lead to voter fraud and lessen election chances for their party. 

But not all are opposed: A number of Republican governors from states slow to embrace vote-by-mail measures have signaled a newfound openness to it amid the pandemic.

New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu (R) announced earlier this month he will allow absentee voting in the Granite State’s September primary, notably adding that he would be open to expanding the practice for the general election if the coronavirus still poses a health threat.

In Massachusetts, Gov. Charlie Baker (R) approved legislation last month that would permit communities in the state to implement mail-only or expanded absentee voting for state and local elections through June. The approval did not extend to the state’s September primary.

Meanwhile, Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan (R) ordered the state’s June 2 primary to be vote-by-mail and allowed a limited number of polling locations to remain open for those who cannot vote by mail.

Read more about the trend here.

 

STACEY ABRAMS WEIGHS IN: Former Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams on Wednesday threw her support behind efforts to move towards mail-in voting due to the coronavirus pandemic, calling on Congress to pass legislation giving states $4 billion for these efforts.

“There are deep challenges to the execution of our election if we fail to act,” Abrams told reporters during a press call. “We need Congress to act decisively so that voters across the country do not have to choose between their health and participation in our democracy.”

The coronavirus stimulus package signed into law by President Trump last month included $400 million to help states move forward with elections despite the disruption caused by COVID-19 outbreak. These funds did not come with any requirements for how to use them, and according to Abrams and other mail-in voting advocates was an inadequate amount.

“The price tag for our democracy in 2020 is $4 billion,” Abrams said. “Congress must immediately pass legislation to provide states and territories with the $4 billion necessary to expand vote-by-mail options, including no-excuse absentee voting.”

Abrams has frequently implied that voter suppression efforts by her 2018 opponent for governor in Georgia, then-Secretary of State Brian Kemp, contributed to her narrow loss in the contest.

Read more here.

   

LAWSUIT OVER NORTH CAROLINA MACHINES: A group of voting rights advocates filed a lawsuit Wednesday alleging that voting machines used in almost two dozen North Carolina counties are not secure and could lead to voter disenfranchisement in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. 

The lawsuit, filed by the North Carolina State Conference of the NAACP and multiple North Carolina voters, alleges that the use of the ExpressVote XL voting machine violates the constitutional right of individuals in the state to free and fair elections, and has cyber vulnerabilities that could lead to election interference. 

The ExpressVote machines involve the voter inputting their choices digitally, with the machine then printing out a paper sheet with a barcode embedded with the voter’s choices. The voting rights advocates point to this system as making it impossible for the average voter to ensure their vote wasn’t changed and was accurate. 

“The ExpressVote is an insecure, unreliable, unverifiable, and unsafe machine that threatens the integrity of North Carolina’s elections,” Rev. Dr. T. Anthony Spearman, president of the North Carolina NAACP, told reporters on Wednesday. “The new electronic system converts voters’ votes and ballots into undecipherable barcodes, forcing voters to cast a vote they cannot read.” 

Spearman urged the North Carolina counties using the machines to immediately “move to hand-marked paper ballots to restore voters’ trust in the integrity of our elections.”

The voting rights advocates also pointed to concerns with using the ExpressVote machines and not paper ballots in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. They argued that the need for poll workers to clean and help work the machines would expose them to the virus and potentially lead to long lines that could further endanger the health of voters. 

Read more on the lawsuit here.

 

REMEMBER NORTH KOREA?: The departments of Homeland Security, State and Treasury along with the FBI on Wednesday issued a joint alert warning of an increase in cyber threats from North Korea.

The agencies warned that North Korea poses a “significant threat” to the global financial system, with hackers targeting these institutions to fund Pyongyang’s weapons of mass destruction and ballistic missile programs to get around sanctions from the United Nations and the United States. 

The agencies wrote in the alert that North Korea “uses cyber capabilities to steal from financial institutions, and has demonstrated a pattern of disruptive and harmful cyber activity that is wholly inconsistent with the growing international consensus on what constitutes responsible State behavior in cyberspace.”

North Korea has repeatedly engaged in cyber-enabled theft and money laundering, and as of late 2019 had attempted to steal around $2 billion through these activities, according to the agencies. Hackers are also alleged to have engaged in extortion campaigns through accessing networks and threatening to shut them down if they are not paid a ransom. 

In order to counter North Korean cybersecurity threats, the U.S. agencies recommended that countries raise awareness of the threat with the public, enhance the cybersecurity of critical infrastructure such as financial institutions, notify law enforcement of any attacks and promote international cooperation on this issue.

“It is vital for the international community, network defenders, and the public to stay vigilant and to work together to mitigate the cyber threat posed by North Korea,” the agencies wrote.  

Read more on the warning here.

 

FACEBOOK IN HOT WATER: Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson (D) on Tuesday sued Facebook, alleging the social media giant did not properly disclose details of its political ad sales.

The lawsuit marks the second time Ferguson has sued the company, with Facebook paying $238,000 in penalties and legal costs following a 2018 lawsuit. The state Public Disclosure Commission (PDC) rejected a proposed $75,000 over continuing violations in February, instead referring a complaint to Ferguson’s office, the Seattle Times reported.

Although Facebook said it would stop selling political ads in Washington after the 2018 lawsuit, Ferguson’s office said the company has sold at least 171 ads to political committees in the state for at least $525,000 since November 2018. While selling such ads is legal, the company is required to publicly disclose details about the candidates or measures involved, the cost of the ads and who paid for them.

“Due to Facebook’s widespread failure to comply with the law, it is currently unknown how many total political advertisements or electioneering communications these 159 campaigns or committees sponsored on Facebook with their collective ad buy of more than half a million dollars,” Ferguson’s office said.

“Whether you’re a tech giant or a small newspaper, those who sell political ads must follow our campaign finance law,” Ferguson said in a statement. “Washingtonians have a right to know who’s behind the ads seeking to influence their vote.”

Read more here.

 

A LIGHTER CLICK: Picking up new hobbies

 

AN OP-ED TO CHEW ON: Misinformation about coronavirus is more troubling than you think

 

NOTABLE LINKS FROM AROUND THE WEB: 

The virus revealed our essential tech (and weeded out the excess) (The New York Times / Brian Chen) 

With schools closed, teachers are turning to video games to help instruct (The Washington Post / Elise Favis) 

Some tech leaders are blasting the idea of coronavirus bailouts for large corporations (Protocol / Charles Levinson) 

Hackers are selling a critical Zoom vulnerability exploit for $700,000 (Motherboard / Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai)