Today at a glance.
- Canada prepares to "impose costs" in cyberspace for attacks on the country's interests.
- Ukraine and the EU consider anti-disinformation laws.
- US Federal, state, and local cooperation on cybersecurity.
- US Defense Department disagrees with Commerce over Huawei sanctions.
Canada gets assertive in cyberspace.
Canada’s government is prepared to “impose costs” on those responsible for cyberattacks on the Dominion, according to 660 News. The imposition of costs is expected to be directly retaliatory, and to be conducted in concert with allies, but the documents 660 News refers to are said also to have alluded to the authority the Communications Security Establishment has been given to act to further Canadian policy objectives in cyberspace.
Outlawing disinformation, from East to West.
The European Union is deliberating measures that would counter disinformation. The measures under consideration would require platforms to take action against fake news, fake reviews, and other matters Brussels deemed disinformation. Facebook doesn’t like the proposed rules, New Europe says, and characterizes them as a threat to free speech. There's also, of course, an understandable reluctance around Menlo Park to be left holding this particular bag of enforcement responsibility, especially since no one has figured out how to handle disinformation at scale and equitably.
Ukraine is also considering a comprehensive law designed to suppress disinformation. RadioFreeEurope|RadioLIberty says that critics are concerned the measure will also effectively suppress journalism. Ukraine is in a tough spot: it's been on the receiving end of a Russian hybrid war for years, and a desire to do something about disinformation is understandable enough, even to principled critics of the proposed law, like the Organisation for Security and Co-Operation in Europe's Representative on Freedom of the Media. The new law would require journalists to be accredited by a new body, the Association of Professional Journalists of Ukraine, that the government would organize. A state-appointed Special Commissioner would monitor media content and identify disinformation. Sanctions could include fines, blocking, and prison sentences of up to twelve years, UNIAM reports.
CISA and states look to cooperate on election security.
US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) Director Christopher Krebs took the occasion of a state of heightened alert for Iranian cyber activity to discuss resiliency with US mayors, StateScoop reports. Information-sharing is the central element of such plans, according to the Federal News Network.
Commerce may relax restrictions on exports to Huawei.
Dependent upon US technology as it is, a ban on selling to the Chinese company is an important element of US sanctions against Huawei. But the Department of Commerce is getting some pushback from a surprising source on the restrictions. The Wall Street Journal writes that the US Departments of Defense and the Treasury, concerned about the effect a ban on exports would have on the US industrial base, have persuaded Commerce to relax the restrictions.