At a glance.
- CISA's supply chain security guidelines.
- Turkey fines social media platforms.
- Deterrence by denial, persistent engagement.
- Crypto Wars update: EU and counterterrorism.
- Report: FTC likely to file anti-trust action against Facebook in November 2020.
CISA releases supply chain security guidelines.
CISA’s Building A More Resilient [Information Technology and Communication] Supply Chain: Lessons Learned During The COVID-19 Pandemic scrutinizes inventory management along with supply chain diversity, mapping, transparency, and chokepoints. Given that a commodity “may be designed in New York, built in Vietnam, tested in Taiwan, stored in Hong Kong, and sent to China for final assembly” before global distribution, the taskforce identified three primary areas of vulnerability to supply chain disruption: lean inventory approaches, undiversified suppliers, and ignorance of lower tier suppliers. The report mentioned “active policy discussions as to whether firms should be provided with various incentives to bring manufacturing home” and recommended the following series of resilience measures.
- “Proactive Risk Classification
- “Map the Corporate Supply Chain
- “Broaden Supplier Network and Regional Footprint
- “Potential Development of Standardized Mapping and Other Illumination Tools
- “Work to Shift the Optimal Amounts of Inventory Held
- “Plan Alternatives in Logistics and Transportation”
CISA referred to the pandemic as a “wake-up call,” and noted that there is at present no standard procedure for charting junior suppliers.
Turkey fines social media Goliaths.
Al Jazeera reported last week that Ankara penalized Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, and Periscope over $1 million each for breaking a new law requiring large platforms to store residents’ data within the country, quickly censor objectionable materials, and assign someone answerable to the justice system. Companies that fail to comply will face a $3.5 million fine in addition to an advertising embargo and bandwidth restrictions up to ninety percent. Some worry that compliance will “muzzle dissent.” This summer Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said the platforms should be “cleaned up” after social media users insulted his family.
Deterrence through denial and persistent engagement.
The US didn’t experience much foreign election interference this year thanks to improved federal, state, and local planning, the Heritage Foundation says. Unlike in 2016 when FBI and Department of Homeland Security (DHS) warnings did not “provide enough information or go to the right people,” according to a Senate Select Committee on Intelligence report, CISA partnered tightly with election officials. DHS categorized voting infrastructure as critical infrastructure, allowing this closer relationship and facilitating enhanced awareness and competence at the state and local levels. US Cyber Command and international allies along with the NSA, National Guard, academics, and private industry are also due credit.
EU's proposed restrictions on encryption gain prominence after Vienna terror attacks.
After last week's Islamist terror attack in Vienna, the European Union is said to be considering restriction of end-to-end encryption. Eric Moeschel, reporting on Radio FM4, says that Europe's Council of Ministers intends to enforce a ban on encrypted chat. Signal and WhatsApp are specifically mentioned in the reportage. The killings in Vienna are said, on both Radio FM4's site and various Twitter threads, to have prompted the proposed restrictions, but that's not the case: the proposals antedate the Vienna attacks by some months. At most the terrorist incident may have heightened concerns over encryption: the Electronic Frontier Foundation wrote on October 6th that such a measure was under consideration. Deliberations have framed the move in terms of its utility for child protection.
Report: FTC plans anti-trust action against Facebook this month.
The US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is said, by POLITICO's sources, to be preparing an anti-trust suit against Facebook. The agency is thought likely to file the action before the end of November, and is thought likely to keep it "internal," that is, not to have state attorneys general join the suit. The FTC is believed to regard that strategy as more likely to succeed.