One of two U.S.-Israel cybersecurity cooperation bills signed

H.R. 5877, the U.S.-Israel Advanced Research Partnership Act of 2016 passed the House unanimously last month under suspension and passed the Senate without opposition during a flurry of last minute activity overnight Dec. 9-10.

President Obama has signed into law a bill aiming to strengthen collaboration on cybersecurity research and development efforts between the U.S. and Israel.

H.R. 5877, the U.S.-Israel Advanced Research Partnership Act of 2016 passed the House unanimously last month under suspension of the rules and passed the Senate without opposition during a flurry of last minute activity overnight Dec. 9-10. The president signed it Friday.

The bill was one of two introduced in July after Reps. John Ratcliffe, R-Texas and Jim Langevin, D-R.I., visited Israel on a congressional delegation focused on key cybersecurity issues facing both countries, such as protecting power grids from hackers.

“I’m glad I was able to work closely with Rep. Langevin to craft legislation to advance this important fight [to protect America from hackers] that is now the law of the land,” said Ratcliffe, who chairs the House Homeland Security Subcommittee on Cybersecurity, Infrastructure Protection and Security Technologies.

The law will “enhance cybersecurity for the United States and Israel, putting us on a shared path toward innovative solutions to the threats we face,” said Langevin, co-founder and co-chairman of the Congressional Cybersecurity Caucus. He added, “I look forward to continuing to work with Chairman Ratcliffe to strengthen our relationship with Israel, including by passage of the U.S.-Israel Cybersecurity Cooperation Enhancement Act next Congress.”

Langevin introduced that bill, numbered H.R. 5843, with Ratcliffe’s support, but it was not taken up in the Senate.  Supporters hope to get it re-introduced, and passed, next year.

The U.S.-Israel Advanced Research Partnership Act will expand a successful binational research and development program at the Homeland Security Advanced Research Projects Agency to include cybersecurity technologies. This collaboration between DHS and the Israeli Ministry of Public Security helps new products through the “valley of death” from basic and early-phase applied research to successful commercialization.

The other bill, the U.S.-Israel Cybersecurity Cooperation Enhancement Act, would have created a cybersecurity grant program for joint research and development ventures between Israeli and American companies, universities and/or nonprofits. The Homeland Security secretary would determine research requirements with help from an advisory board made up of members from successful U.S.-Israeli partnerships, but they would address research and development priorities across the spectrum from basic to applied to commercialization.

U.S. robotics companies want federal help to keep Chinese robots out of America’s networks

Executives pressed Congress for a strategy as the market – and attack surface – continues to expand.

Stryker attack highlights nebulous nature of Iranian cyber activity amid joint U.S.-Israel conflict

Plankey vows to boot China from U.S. supply chain, advocate for CISA budget

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