Cyber’s next chapter this election

Oct 28, 2024

— With help from John Sakellariadis and Maggie Miller

Driving the day

— While America eagerly obsesses over the presidential race less than two weeks away, a quieter battle for America's cyber future on the Hill is playing out in some unlikely places.

HAPPY MONDAY, and welcome to MORNING CYBERSECURITY! Someone settle a debate for me: Is Halloweekend before or after a Thursday Halloween? I need to know if I still have to forget to wear a costume.

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Today's Agenda

Deep Media CEO Rijul Gupta and chief marketing officer Emma Brown are headed to Day 1 of the GovAI summit to lead a workshop on detecting deepfakes. Starts at 10:00 a.m.

Commerce Department Secretary Gina Raimondo is delivering pre-recorded remarks at the 2024 Microelectronics Commons Annual Meeting and National Semiconductor Technology Center Symposium. 8:30 a.m.

On the Hill

THE NEXT ERA — We’re now less than 10 days from the election and a handful of Congressional races threaten to upend and reshape Washington’s cyber policy landscape. Here are a few that we’re watching.

— The rookie in the room: Freshman Rep. Zach Nunn (R-Iowa) is fighting for his political life in what the Cook Political Report tags as a Republican toss up , with 538 polling showing a slight lead for Democratic competitor and former U.S. official Lanon Baccam.

The congressman flipped the seat by a thin margin last go around and has spent the last two years positioning himself something rare to the Hill: a lawmaker with actual cyber experience. That includes a stint as a National Security Council cyber policy director in the era of the Saudi Aramco attacks.

Over his rookie term, MC was first to report on how he teamed up with Rep. Abigail Spanberger (D-Va.) on legislation targeting Chinese blockchain threats, pushed bills to boost cybersecurity for rural water systems, create agriculture cybersecurity centers for rural communities and sponsored the AI Plan Act to combat AI-powered disinformation.

— Senate swings: Out in Nevada, Sen. Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.) has seen her race that started as a "toss-up" earlier this year versus Trump-backed military veteran Sam Brown turn to leaning Democratic in August — a shift that could determine control of an already razor-thin Senate.

Rosen, a former software developer and another first termer, reps the home state of the storied Black Hat and DEF CON conferences and has made cyber policy a major part of her legislative focus.

Her healthcare cybersecurity bill that would push CISA and the Department of Health and Human Services to up their collaboration cleared committee this summer and she just got Veteran Affairs to implement her 2022 cyber protection law for veterans' data.

— Looks like a sure thing: While some campaigns hang in the balance, House Homeland Security’s cybersecurity subcommittee chair Andrew Garbarino’s (R-N.Y.) race isn’t really on the map, because pollsters widely expect Garbarino to win. Some cyber-minded policy insiders also view him as the natural successor to former Rep. Mike Gallagher following his departure earlier this year.

But here’s where things get interesting. Should all go according to plan, watch for Garbarino’s fight to cut back on what he calls overburdensome cyber regulation to take on new meaning under a new administration.

That includes his mission to dissolve the SEC cyber rule requiring publicly traded companies to openly disclose cybersecurity incidents — which he believes would reveal sensitive company information and could create unintended national security risks.

— Why this matters: The White House went public for the first time earlier this year when your MC host scooped that the Biden administration threatened a veto on a proposed resolution to nullify said rules from Senate Republicans. That rhetoric was enough to make Senate Resolution lead Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) fold his hand.

But should a Republican administration win in November, you can expect a new attempt to nuke SEC disclosure rules.

“Strengthening our national cybersecurity resilience remains imperative,” Garbarino told MC. “That begins with expanding our cyber workforce to ensure we can meet evolving threats and eliminating duplicative regulations that hinder effective incident response.”

At the Agencies

FOREIGN DISINFO DRAMA — Speaking of elections, the same office that successfully exposed major Kremlin influence operations abroad could be defunct by the time Americans see the result of their votes in the new year.

And the Global Engagement Center’s potential shutdown on Dec. 24 could leave a dangerous vacuum in global defenses against foreign influence operations abroad as officials expect unprecedented levels of Russian and Chinese disinformation campaigns to get… even more unprecedented.

— Big wins worldwide: The GEC, a little-known State Department outfit led by Clinton-era veteran James Rubin, has been racking up wins against Kremlin influence operations targeting foreign countries. Earlier this year, it exposed a major Russian disinformation campaign masquerading as the "African Initiative" that targeted U.S. public health programs on the continent.

Two Western officials spoke to MC to praise the GEC’s work, telling us that disinformation campaigns in Africa had real-world security consequences, pointing to violence in Mali and last year's coup in Niger.

"That really pushed [us] to bolster our efforts to counter disinformation,” one official said. “It's a big area of focus now."

— The GOP pushback: House Republicans blame the GEC for censorship of conservative speech online, and hit the center over its past connection to the Global Disinformation Index, a United Kingdom-based nonprofit that rated conservative outlets like Newsmax and New York Post as "high-risk" for disinformation. The GEC had previously funded GDI for work in Asia.

"While I appreciate the State Department's repeated engagement, it needs to start answering the questions we've asked about GEC's relationship with outside entities," House Foreign Affairs Chair Michael McCaul (R-Texas) told us.

A potential Democratic House flip in November could change the political calculus for the embattled center, while rumors swirling about McCaul's possible departure from HFAC leadership could help resurrect the GEC should it go down.

— What's next: POLITICO learned last week that the State Department held a town hall about where staffers would get absorbed should the GEC shut down, with State confirming it as an “open and frank conversation” to pursue reauthorization with acting Undersecretary Lee Satterfield.

Sens. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) and John Cornyn (R-Texas) are pushing to extend the center's mandate through 2031 in this year's National Defense Authrization Act. Their amendment includes new guardrails on funding and explicitly bars support for entities engaging in U.S. political activities.

The center's fate likely hinges on whether the NDAA passes with the Murphy-Cornyn amendment before the deadline.

Read my full story here.

Election Security

BEIJING’S BIG CATCH— A massive Chinese hack of America's telecommunications backbone that targeted Trump, vice presidential candidate JD Vance (R-Ohio) and dozens of senior U.S. officials is about to get the federal microscope treatment.

MC can confirm the Cyber Safety Review Board will look into how Chinese hackers infiltrated major U.S. telecom giants and tried to spy on high-profile Americans' phones, according to two people familiar with the matter. The Wall Street Journal was first to report the investigation.

— The scope: Federal investigators believe roughly 40 people had their communications targeted by a Chinese hacking crew known as Salt Typhoon, POLITICO reported Friday. The group has wormed its way into at least 10 telecom providers, including AT&T, Lumen and Verizon.

— How bad is it?: Bad enough that the White House hit the panic button. Earlier this month, the administration activated a rare emergency response process — known as a unified coordination group — to try booting the hackers out.

— Enter the CSRB: The DHS cyber review panel’s last investigation resulted in a scathing report that forced Microsoft to overhaul its security practices. A spokesperson confirmed to POLITICO they'll "initiate a review of this incident at the appropriate time."

— Plot twist: Here’s the thing — nobody in the know seems all that shocked.

“I have always assumed, as a member of the Intelligence Committee, that I’m an interesting target for not just the Chinese, but probably lots of other countries,” House Intelligence Committee ranking member Jim Himes (D-Conn.) told Maggie on Friday. “So I’m careful about what I say and do on my electronic devices.”

— The need to know more: Himes says his staff has been briefed on these latest intrusions, and he's itching to dig deeper once Congress gets back from election recess.

"We have a big backlog of material," he told us, “that we’re high time due for a briefing on.”

— Watch this space: The University of Toronto's Citizen Lab senior researcher John Scott Railton tells MC the Salt Typhoon attacks spotlights another one of America's achilles heels that only became more apparent in recent weeks.

“The U.S. has huge vulnerabilities in the telecommunication system that attackers have predictably targeted,” Scott Railton said.

TRUMP GOES ON ROGAN — Want to know what Trump had to say about voting machine vulnerabilities while on “The Joe Rogan Experience”? It starts right here.

But if you want the TLDR: Elon Musk’s crusade to fully switch to “paper ballot voting” looks to have influenced Trump’s opinion greatly.

“[Musk] said to me that, unless you have paper ballots, it can never be an honest election, that's a big statement. We should go to paper ballots,” Trump said.

— Something to remember: Paper ballots are already the norm for American voters and nearly every ballot cast in 2024 will be marked on paper.

Tweet of the Day

Problems? We've got solutions. And by solutions, we mean more problems.

Quick Bytes

BACK IN ACTION BABY — Reuters has restored to its website an investigation into New Delhi-based cybersecurity firm Appin after a court lifted a takedown order. (Reuters)

BREAKING AND ENTERING — Fog and Akira ransomware groups are exploiting a critical SonicWall VPN flaw to gain initial access to corporate networks, leading to numerous successful ransomware attacks, BleepingComputer’s Bill Toulas writes.

THE SILENCING — A prominent crypto critic had been offered a bribe to remove a post about an alleged crypto scam, highlighting the increasing pressure and intimidation tactics faced by those exposing wrongdoing in the industry. Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai has the story for TechCrunch.

“Cybersecurity isn't easy when you're trying to be green” (Dark Reading)

Chat soon.

Stay in touch with the whole team: Joseph Gedeon (jgedeon@politico.com); John Sakellariadis ( jsakellariadis@politico.com); Maggie Miller (mmiller@politico.com); and Rosie Perper (rperper@politico.com).