DOJ looks to improve handling of cyberthreats with new task force

The new task force is expected to deliver a report by the end of June about how DOJ is currently dealing with cyberthreats and how it can improve.

Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced a new cybersecurity task force on Tuesday that aims to appraise the way the Department of Justice handles cases that involve the internet.

The Cyber-Digital Task Force “will canvass the many ways that the Department is combatting the global cyber threat, and will also identify how federal law enforcement can more effectively accomplish its mission in this vital and evolving area,” a news release said.

Sessions said he is creating the task force in order to generate ideas on how to best combat global cyberthreats.

“The Internet has given us amazing new tools that help us work, communicate, and participate in our economy, but these tools can also be exploited by criminals, terrorists, and enemy governments,” Sessions said.

Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein will appoint a senior department official to chair the task force. DOJ declined to provide any additional information about the task force, such as whom the deputy attorney general will appoint and when. Rosenstein, who is notably a vocal opponent of so-called “warrantless” encryption, has become a controversial figure in Washington.

The announcement follows news reports that President Donald Trump is reportedly frustrated at Rosenstein’s facilitation of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.

The task force’s creation comes less than a week after Mueller’s team charged 13 Russian individuals and three Russian entities in that investigation. It is expected to deliver a report by the end of June about how DOJ is currently dealing with cyberthreats and how it can improve.

The scope of the task force is wide-ranging and includes:

“…efforts to interfere with our elections; efforts to interfere with our critical infrastructure; the use of the Internet to spread violent ideologies and to recruit followers; the mass theft of corporate, governmental, and private information; the use of technology to avoid or frustrate law enforcement; and the mass exploitation of computers and other digital devices to attack American citizens and businesses.”

The deputy attorney general can invite representatives from any DOJ office or federal agency to participate in the task force, but it will preliminarily include the following entities within DOJ:

• Criminal Division
• National Security Division
• U.S. Attorney’s Office community
• Office of Legal Policy
• Office of Privacy and Civil Liberties
• Office of the Chief Information Officer
• Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives
• FBI
• Drug Enforcement Administration
• U.S. Marshals Service

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

• 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

• Jail time for Maine child in 764 marks turning point in federal law enforcement

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