Fed interested in digital currency. Senate proposal aims to counter Chinese influence in Latin America. TikTok and WeChat bans. Contractors seek clarity over Huawei, ZTE ban.

Summary

By the CyberWire staff

At a glance.

US Federal Reserve tests distributed ledger technology.
Senators introduce a bill to counter Chinese influence in Latin America.
The state of TikTok and WeChat bans in the US.
Federal agencies and contractors seek clarity with respect to banned Chinese hardware.

Fed studies digital currency.

According to Law360, the US Federal Reserve is testing distributed ledger technology as it considers the possibility of the central bank adopting a digital currency. Such technologies are attractive, Federal Reserve Governor Lael Brainard said in San Francisco yesterday, because they have the potential to "enhance payments efficiency, expand financial inclusion, speed up settlement flows, and reduce end-user costs."

Senators introduce bill to contest Chinese influence in the Americas.

A bipartisan group of US Senators have introduced the Advancing Competitiveness, Transparency and Security in the Americas Act. Among other provisions intended to improve US ability to compete in Latin American markets and to foster the rule of law in the Western Hemisphere, the bill is aimed at countering "growing Chinese educational and cultural influence in Latin America and the Caribbean."

TikTok and WeChat in the US.

TechNode reports that the coming US ban on TikTok is likely to extend to advertising the app and offering it for sale in app stores. The Wall Street Journal says that two Republican Senators, Jerry Moran of Kansas and John Thune of South Dakota, have written the Federal Trade Commission to ask that it investigate TikTok's data collection practices.

The related strictures on WeChat have aroused concern on the part of US companies whose business is entangled with related aspects of China's economy. According to the Wall Street Journal, Disney, Walmart, Ford, Apple, and others participated in a White House call in which they expressed their concern that the Executive Order targeting WeChat could have repercussions that would harm their ability to compete in the Chinese market.

Federal agencies and contractors ask for clarity with respect to the ban on Chinese hardware.

Federal News Network reports that Federal agencies and their contractors, who now face the requirement to comply with a ban on certain Chinese-manufactured telecommunications equipment, are seeking clarification of the interim rule that implements part B of Section 889 of the 2019 National Defense Authorization Act. That interim rule took effect yesterday. It precludes agencies from awarding contracts to vendors who don't self-certify that they do not use equipment from a specified list of Chinese manufacturers, Huawei and ZTE prominent among them. The problem is the scope of the word "use": twelve US states currently still have Huawei-built routers in their rural telecommunications services, for example. If a company has an office in one of those areas, is it precluded from doing business with the Government?

Selected Reading

State-backed hacking, cyber deterrence, and the need for international norms (Help Net Security) As time passes, state-backed hacking is becoming an increasingly bigger problem, with the attackers stealing money, information, and more!

Hack-and-Leak Operations and U.S. Cyber Policy (War on the Rocks) Editor's Note: This is a companion article to an essay published in the Texas National Security Review, our sister publication. On Nov. 27, 2019,

The Simulation of Scandal: Hack-and-Leak Operations, the Gulf States, and U.S. Politics - Texas National Security Review (Texas National Security Review) Four hack-and-leak operations in U.S. politics between 2016 and 2019, publicly attributed to the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Qatar, and Saudi Arabia, should be seen as the “simulation of scandal" — deliberate attempts to direct moral judgement against their target.

The U.S. Was Set to Send an Ambassador to Belarus. Then Came the Crackdown. (Foreign Policy) Lawmakers threaten to block the confirmation of the first U.S. envoy to Belarus in over a decade. But others say an ambassador is needed now…

Belarusian police raid Uber and Yandex offices in Minsk (ZDNet) Protesters fear police forces might have been looking for rides and location data from the two ride-hailing companies in order to identify who participated in anti-government demonstrations.

Maximum Pressure May Bring Iran Back to the Table After All (Foreign Policy) Combined with the COVID-19 pandemic, the country is struggling to stay afloat.

Australian government wants power to run cyber-response for businesses under attack (Register) Ponders giving 'em immunity too for countermeasures up to hacking back.

In the New Cold War, Deindustrialization Means Disarmament (Foreign Policy) Chinese security threats offer the chance to rethink the U.S. economy.

Pompeo, in Slovenia, pushes 5G security, warns about China (Times Daily) U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo visited Slovenia on Thursday to make the case for high-speed wireless networks that bar Chinese companies like Huawei.

Ban on Chinese products starts today despite confusion over acquisition rule (Federal News Network) The interim rule requires agencies to add a provision prohibiting vendors from using certain Chinese telecommunications products.

Techwar: Tiktok US ban may include app stores, ads (TechNode) Growing worldwide suspicion of Chinese tech and data privacy practices have led to one hit after another for Tiktok, and not the viral video kind.

WSJ News Exclusive | Corporate America Worries WeChat Ban Could Be Bad for Business (Wall Street Journal) More than a dozen major U.S. multinational companies raised concerns in a call with White House officials about the potentially broad scope and impact of Mr. Trump’s executive order targeting WeChat.

Fed Says It's Testing Distributed Ledgers, Digital Currencies (Law360) The Federal Reserve is actively testing distributed ledger technologies and experimenting with digital currencies as it works toward the potential development of a central bank digital currency, board member Lael Brainard said in a speech on Thursday.

NCSC Helps Federal Agencies Enact Telecom Supply Chain Restrictions; NCSC Director William Evanina Quoted (Executive Gov) The National Counterintelligence and Security Center (NCSC) has launched an effort to brief federal

Ex-DHS officials urge department to double down on its cybersecurity work (CyberScoop) The Department of Homeland Security has been the face of some of the Trump administration’s most fiercely criticized policies, from aggressively rounding up migrants to detaining protesters …

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Dating, Gaming, Bitcoin Mining Apps Now Banned from Marines’ Government Phones (Military.com) The message hit days before President Trump vowed to ban the China-linked TikTok video-sharing app over security concerns.

Justice Department Acts To Shut Down Fraudulent Websites Exploiting The Covid-19 Pandemic (United States Department of Justice) The United States Department of Justice announced today that it has obtained a Temporary Restraining Order in federal court to combat fraud related to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. The enforcement action, filed in Tampa, Florida, is part of the Justice Department’s ongoing efforts prioritizing the detection, investigation, and prosecution of illegal conduct related to the pandemic. The action was brought based on an investigation conducted by United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), in coordination with the Vietnam Ministry of Public Security.

Global disruption of 3 terror finance cyber-enabled campaigns (US Immigration and Customs Enforcement) These three terror finance campaigns all relied on sophisticated cyber-tools, including the solicitation of cryptocurrency donations from around the world. The action demonstrates how different

Chainalysis in Action: Department of Justice Announces Takedown of Two Terrorism Financing Campaigns with Help from Blockchain Analysis (Chainalysis) Today, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) announced the disruption of two terrorism financing campaigns that utilized cryptocurrency donations (and a third that didn’t), following a multi-agency investigation conducted by the FBI, HSI, and IRS-CI.

U.S. Seizes Fake Website, Cryptocurrency Assets From Terrorist Groups (Wall Street Journal) The U.S. said it seized millions of dollars in cryptocurrency assets and a fake website purporting to sell protective gear in an operation targeting the financial underpinnings of three terrorist groups.

U.S. seizes millions in cryptocurrency meant for terror groups, Justice Dept. says (Washington Post) The Justice Department announced Thursday it had seized millions of dollars’ worth of cryptocurrency meant to fund terrorist groups such as al-Qaeda and the Islamic State, in what law enforcement officials called an unprecedented crackdown against terrorist fundraising on social media.

ISIS Allegedly Ran a Covid-19 PPE Scam Site (Wired) The Justice Department says that an agent of the terrorist organization operated FaceMaskCenter.com, in part of a series of cryptocurrency-related complaints.

Real Businesses Snared in Hunt for Coronavirus Loan Scammers (Wall Street Journal) Efforts to root out scammers in the $670 billion Paycheck Protection Program and $374 billion Economic Injury Disaster Loan program are sweeping up legitimate borrowers.

Senators Ask FTC to Investigate TikTok Data Collection (Wall Street Journal) Two U.S. senators have asked the Federal Trade Commission to investigate TikTok’s data collection practices after a Wall Street Journal article showed that the company covertly collected data on millions of users through a method that appeared to violate Google’s policies.

TikTok and its employees prepare to fight Trump over app ban (AP NEWS) TikTok and its U.S. employees are planning to take President Donald Trump's administration to court over his sweeping order to ban the popular video app, according to a lawyer preparing one of the...