Assange Victory Leaves Whistleblowers, Journalists Hanging (Law360) A U.K. court's recent refusal to endorse claims that the prosecution of Julian Assange amounts to an attack on freedom of speech highlights the need to introduce a public interest defense into English law to protect journalists and whistleblowers, lawyers say.
WSJ News Exclusive | Is Your iPhone Passcode Off Limits to the Law? Supreme Court Ruling Sought (Wall Street Journal) Two civil-liberties groups are asking the U.S. Supreme Court to rule on the knotty digital-privacy question involving personal devices.
BREAKING: Supreme Court Takes Up Calif. Donor Privacy Cases (Law360) The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday agreed to hear two petitions by conservative advocacy groups challenging a California law requiring charitable organizations to disclose donor information, which the groups argue chills First Amendment associational rights.
Google Chrome Privacy Plan Faces U.K. Competition Probe (Wall Street Journal) British regulators are investigating whether Google’s plan to remove some user-tracking tools from its Chrome browser could hurt competition in the online-advertising industry.
SolarWinds Government Data Breach Leads to Securities Action (JD Supra) The massive data breach of the United States Commerce and Treasury Departments that has roiled the federal government has resulted in federal...
UK Mass Hacking Ruled Illegal (Forbes) After five years of legal wrangling, the UK High Court has ruled that the security and intelligence services cannot search the computers and phones of millions of people under a single 'general warrant'.
Local Police Force Uses Facial Recognition to Identify Capitol Riot Suspects (Wall Street Journal) An Alabama police department is using facial recognition software to help identify people who were present during the riot at the U.S. Capitol this week, one of its officers said.
Why The Latest Cyberattack Was Different (Foreign Policy) The epic SolarWinds hack affecting thousands of government agencies and companies could mark the beginning of the end of the open internet.
Twitter's Trump ban raises social media regulation questions, says Hancock (Computing) Social media firms are 'taking editorial decisions,' according to the health secretary
China’s New Rules Could Hit U.S. Firms and Send a Message to Biden (New York Times) An order issued on Saturday empowers Beijing to tell companies to ignore U.S. restrictions and allows them to sue other businesses if they comply.
A Hong Kong Website Gets Blocked, Raising Censorship Fears (New York Times) Users of major mobile carriers can no longer access a service that detailed the personal information of police officers, a possible sign that the city is turning to tactics used in mainland China.
Experts urge Israel to learn from Russian cyber breach of US networks (Israel Hayom) Former Shin Bet technology division head Ron Shamir says US cyber defenders are experiencing a "very difficult hour." Former Israeli official Micky Aharonson notes that the massive attack could be part of Russia's attempt to strengthen its negotiating position with Washington.
Opinion | Protecting our vaccine supply chain against ransomware (Hamilton Spectator) With the vaccine in play, and a post-pandemic world on the horizon, no shortcuts can be taken, writes Shawn Rosemarie and Andrew Miller
NSA Cybersecurity 2020 Year in Review (National Security Agency | Central Security Service) Last year marked the NSA Cybersecurity Directorate's first full year since its establishment, and today we are releasing our 2020 NSA Cybersecurity Year in Review. This document details how NSA worked
U.S. Department of State Approves New Cyberspace Security Bureau (SecurityWeek) The CSET bureau will focus on international cyberspace security and policy issues.
William Burns, a career diplomat, is Biden’s choice to head the C.I.A. (New York Times) President-elect Joseph R. Biden has selected William J. Burns, a career State Department official who led the U.S. delegation in secret talks with Iran, to run the Central Intelligence Agency.
Cyber czar to draw on new powers from defense bill (TheHill) New authorities from the recently enacted defense bill are expected to help the U.S. government in its response to the SolarWinds hack believed to be perpetrated by Russia.
Biden transition fills some top cybersecurity personnel spots (CyberScoop) The incoming Biden administration has spent the week heralding some of its cybersecurity-related personnel decisions, even as a couple key jobs remain a question mark.
Biden names Orthodox woman to senior National Security Council position (Cleveland Jewish News) Anne Neuberger has worked at the National Security Agency for more than a decade and helped found the U.S. Cyber Command.The post Biden names Orthodox woman to senior National Security
Biden fills out his national security team with nearly two dozen appointments (TheHill) President-elect Joe Biden on Friday announced nearly two dozen appointments to his incoming National Security Council (NSC), filling out his staff with less than two weeks to go before his inauguration.
Biden’s NSC to focus on global health, climate, cyber and human rights, as well as China and Russia (Washington Post) The incoming Biden administration plans to restructure and expand the operations of the White House National Security Council, establishing new senior positions on global health, democracy and human rights, and cyber and emerging technology, signaling a sweeping shift in priorities, according to a senior adviser to the Biden transition.
SolarWinds hackers linked to known Russian spying tools, investigators say (Reuters) The group behind a global cyber-espionage campaign discovered last month deployed malicious computer code with links to spying tools previously used by suspected Russian hackers, researchers said on Monday.
Sunburst backdoor – code overlaps with Kazuar (Securelist) While looking at the Sunburst backdoor, we discovered several features that overlap with a previously identified .NET backdoor known as Kazuar.
Detecting Post-Compromise Threat Activity in Microsoft Cloud Environments (CISA) This Advisory uses the MITRE Adversarial Tactics, Techniques, and Common Knowledge (ATT&CK®) framework. See the ATT&CK for Enterprise for all referenced threat actor tactics and techniques.
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Continuous Updates: Everything You Need to Know About the SolarWinds Attack (SecurityWeek) News coverage of the SolarWinds supply-chain attacks and useful security resources, including analysis and indicators of compromise (IOC).
U.S. District Court requires sensitive documents to be filed by paper in response to possible Russian hack (The Columbus Dispatch) The U.S. District Court for Southern Ohio, which includes Columbus, is requiring sensitive documents to be filed in paper in wake of Microsoft hack.