House of Representatives to boost info

The U.S. House of Representatives is looking to ramp up a cyberthreat information-sharing program with the parliaments of allies Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and Britain, according to House CISO Randy Vickers.

The U.S. House of Representatives is looking to ramp up a cyberthreat information-sharing program with the parliaments of allies Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and Britain, according to House CISO Randy Vickers.

The information traded could be unclassified threat intelligence used to bolster the legislative bodies’ security. Vickers said there were already strong information-sharing relationships with the allied parliaments, the goal was simply to leverage them more.

“We’re looking at ways to better share information on a more routine basis,” Vickers told CyberScoop Thursday. “It really is just about ensuring that we all have a common knowledge across our environments.”

In practice, the program could be as simple as notifying the group of a new cybersecurity advisory from the Department of Homeland Security, Vickers said on the sidelines of the Cyberthreat Intelligence Forum presented by FireEye and produced by CyberScoop and FedScoop. The U.S. and the four other countries comprise the Five Eyes intelligence alliance.

Other countries “may subscribe to one threat intel platform, and we subscribe to another,” he added. “And where we can share that information, that’s helpful.”

National legislative bodies are logical targets for cyber-espionage. A Russia-linked hacking group attacked the German parliament in 2015, reportedly stealing a trove of data.

Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas, has said that Russian hackers targeted U.S. lawmakers on social media ahead of the 2018 midterm elections.

Vickers would not comment on the advanced threats the House might be facing, but the aim of the expanded information-sharing program would be to help thwart such activity. “We’re not really seeing anything more severe [in terms of threats] than a lot of other large government agencies,” Vickers said.

Government

• FBI officials say AI is bolstering adversaries, emphasizing need to focus on cyber basics, patching

• Feds accuse China of ‘systematic’ distillation of U.S. AI models

• CIA’s Michael Ellis says cyber intelligence is changing how the agency operates

• The G7 tells industry to hurry up and prep for post-quantum encryption

Technology

• European parliament members call for slowdown of Serbia’s EU entry over spyware use

• FCC proposes public scorecard to rate telecoms on anti-robocall efforts

• Pegasus, NoviSpy variant spyware found on devices of Serbian activists

• Wyden seeks upgraded NSA security guidance on commercial VPN use

Threats

• Chinese espionage groups swarm to exploit triple-link chain of zero-days

• Microsoft discloses two actively exploited zero-days among 974 vulnerabilities

• Russian national extradited to US for alleged involvement in bank-account takeover scheme

• Attackers exploit zero-days in consistently besieged SonicWall product

Policy

• Whistleblower says USPS deploying new, ‘untested’ IT systems governing mail-in ballots

• ‘Watershed 250’ test program in Texas looks to private sector for water cybersecurity help

• Former sexual abuse victims say Grok used their images, videos to train deepfake capabilities

• Cyber threats nudge Trump to sign executive order on foreign equipment in U.S. energy infrastructure