RCMP defends its use of lawful intercept tools. Treasury elaborates on sanctioning of Tornado Cash.

Summary

By the CyberWire staff

At a glance.

RCMP defends its use of lawful intercept tools.
Treasury elaborates on sanctioning of Tornado Cash.

RCMP defends its use of lawful intercept tools.

Sometimes spyware really is lawful intercept technology, at least when it's not being abused, so Parliamentary testimony by Canadian security officials would maintain. Global News reports that Mark Flynn, Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) assistant commissioner responsible for National Security and Protective Policing, told Members of House of Commons Ethics Committee yesterday that between 2002 and 2015, the RCMP used “Canadian-made technology” to covertly access electronic information. “As encryption started to be used by targets that we had judicial authorization to intercept, and we were unable to hear the audio, hear the phone calls or see the messages they were sending, that is when we developed the tool and technique to make it possible to intercept those communications,” he told the committee, which is conducting an inquiry into the use of surveillance tools against cellphones. “We have evolved in the use of the tools as individuals evolved in the way they communicate.” He also stressed to the Members that hostile foreign states were certainly using tools at least as powerful, and that Members of Parliament should understand that they themselves are the targets of foreign surveillance efforts.

Specifying "Canadian-made" rules out, of course, NSO Group's Pegasus, which is made by an Israeli company. POLITICO reports that Public Safety Minister Marco Mendocino said that intercept tools were not tools of either "first resort" or "convenience," rather were tools of "investigative necessity." He said the widespread use of encrypted communication poses a challenge for law enforcement, and spyware is used to “frustrate the efforts of sophisticated criminal organizations.”

Treasury elaborates on sanctioning of Tornado Cash.

The US Department of the Treasury has elaborated on the sanctions it imposed yesterday on Tornado Cash, a cryptocurrency mixer Treasury connects to money laundering. Tornado Cash, Treasury says, "has been used to launder more than $7 billion worth of virtual currency since its creation in 2019. This includes over $455 million stolen by the Lazarus Group." The Lazarus Group, of course, is the North Korean cyber operations group that has for years engaged in cybercrime designed to fund Pyongyang's weapons programs and to mitigate the crippling effects of sanctions on the North Korean economy.

Under Secretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence Brian E. Nelson said, in the statement, “Despite public assurances otherwise, Tornado Cash has repeatedly failed to impose effective controls designed to stop it from laundering funds for malicious cyber actors on a regular basis and without basic measures to address its risks. Treasury will continue to aggressively pursue actions against mixers that launder virtual currency for criminals and those who assist them.” Tornado Cash's assets are blocked, and US persons are prohibited from doing business with the mixer.

Selected Reading

Prescribing a New Paradigm for Cyber Competition (War on the Rocks) Michael P. Fischerkeller, Emily O. Goldman, and Richard J. Harknett, Cyber Persistence Theory: Redefining National Security in Cyberspace (Oxford

Lawmakers propose changes to SBIR as program renewal deadline nears (Breaking Defense) However the tech-focused small business program proceeds, some lawmakers are calling for change in how SBIR operates, according to documents obtained by Breaking Defense.

Senate Questions How Pentagon Uses 'Controlled Unclassified Information' Label (USNI News) The Senate is raising questions about how the Pentagon uses a label for unclassified information that some officials say makes it more difficult to access public information. In its version of the Fiscal Year 2023 National Defense Authorization Act, the Senate Armed Services Committee wants to better define how the Defense Department can use the …

In Army, worry follows Senators' proposed cuts to network, comms upgrades: Official (Breaking Defense) The cuts suggested by the committee will set back progress made by the Army on its network and radio modernization efforts, a service official told Breaking Defense.

New York State Department of Financial Services Meaningfully Rachets Up Cyber Requirements with New Draft Amendments (Gibson Dunn) On July 29, 2022, the New York Department of Financial Services released Draft Amendments to its Part 500 Cybersecurity Rules; the Draft Amendments would update the Cybersecurity Rules in a manner consistent with the “catalytic” role it took in 2017 as the first state to codify certain cybersecurity best practices and guidance into explicit regulatory requirements for covered entities.

Don’t Forget About Other Data Laws When It Comes to Connecticut Privacy Requirements (The National Law Review) While the&nbsp;federal government attempts to move forward with a more uniform national law, Connecticut joined&nbsp;California,&nbsp;Colorado,&nbsp;Utah, and&nbsp;Virginia&nbsp;in passing a comprehen

Social media is polluting society. Moderation alone won’t fix the problem (MIT Technology Review) Companies already have the systems in place that are needed to evaluate their deeper impacts on the social fabric.

RCMP has used spyware to access targets’ communications as far back as 2002: Senior Mountie (Global News) RCMP Commissioner Brenda Lucki told Commons ethics committee in a written document Monday that use of controversial spyware is ‘extremely limited’ to serious cases.

RCMP says it has not used Pegasus spyware (POLITICO) Canada's national police force acknowledges it has used spyware to hack 49 mobile devices since 2017, and similar technology has been in use for two decades.

U.S. Treasury Sanctions Notorious Virtual Currency Mixer Tornado Cash (U.S. Department of the Treasury) Today, the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctioned virtual currency mixer Tornado Cash, which has been used to launder more than $7 billion worth of virtual currency since its creation in 2019.

U.S. Sanctions Crypto Platform Tornado Cash, Says It Laundered Billions (Wall Street Journal) The Treasury Department accuses the firm of laundering more than $7 billion in virtual currency in the past few years.

Treasury Dept. blacklists crypto platform used in money laundering. (New York Times) The crackdown was the government’s latest effort to rein in the crypto industry.

Treasury penalizes crypto service that laundered funds for North Koreans (Washington Post) Tornado Cash, a crypto ‘mixer,’ has laundered more than $7 billion worth of digital assets since its launch in 2019

U.S. sanctions Tornado Cash cryptocurrency mixer (The Record by Recorded Future) The U.S. blacklisted Tornado Cash Monday, adding the virtual currency mixer to a sanctions list for allegedly helping launder the proceeds of cybercrimes — including nearly half a billion dollars stolen by the North Korean state-sponsored Lazarus Group.