| Welcome to OVERNIGHT CYBERSECURITY, your daily rundown of the biggest news in the world of hacking and data privacy. We're here to connect the dots as leaders in government, policy and industry try to counter the rise in cyber threats. What lies ahead for Congress, the administration and the latest company under siege? Whether you're a consumer, a techie or a D.C. lifer, we're here to give you ... THE BIG STORIES: --NEW CHARGES REPORTEDLY FILED IN MANAFORT, GATES CASE: Special counsel Robert Mueller has made a new filing under seal in the case against former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort and his longtime business partner Richard Gates, according to reports. The nature of the filing is not publicly known. It could contain new criminal charges or it could be an indication of a coming plea agreement, according to CNN. Politico first reported the new filing, which was made at the U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C. The news comes just days after Mueller's office stated in a court filing last week that the investigative team had discovered evidence of "additional criminal conduct" after the court made its "initial bail determination." The prosecutors alleged that Manafort had misrepresented his income on financial statements in order to obtain a multimillion-dollar mortgage on his property in Fairfax, Va. "That criminal conduct includes a series of bank frauds and bank fraud conspiracies," the prosecutors wrote in the filing submitted Friday. "At the next bail hearing, we can proffer to the Court additional evidence related to this and the other bank frauds and conspiracies, which the Court may find relevant to the bail risk posed by Manafort," they continued. In October, Mueller indicted Manafort and Gates on a set of charges related to their lobbying work overseas. None of the charges are related to Manafort's time serving on the Trump campaign. Both men have pleaded not guilty. To read more, click here. --TWITTER CRACKS DOWN ON AUTOMATED TWEETS: Twitter is cracking down on its users' ability to coordinate posting across multiple social media platforms, a move that the company hopes will tamp down on the spread of spam and misinformation. "These changes are an important step in ensuring we stay ahead of malicious activity targeting the crucial conversations taking place on Twitter -- including elections in the United States and around the world," the company wrote in a blog post Wednesday. Twitter issued new guidance on Wednesday advising users not to publish identical or similar posts on different accounts simultaneously. And it's forbidding similar efforts to simultaneously "like" or retweet posts from across multiple accounts. The company also clarified that automating such efforts to artificially inflate the reach of certain tweets breaks Twitter's terms of service. Twitter had promised to make the changes last month after revealing new details about the alleged Russian campaign to use fake social media accounts to manipulate U.S. voters. It also comes after The New York Times reported on celebrities and media figures buying fake followers to inflate their status on social media. To read more, click here. --FEDS UNVEIL CHARGES AGAINST FORMER BITCOIN EXCHANGE: Federal authorities on Wednesday brought fraud charges against BitFunder, a defunct cryptocurrency stock exchange, and arrested the company's founder for obstruction of justice. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) charged the company with defrauding users. The Justice Department separately arrested founder Jon Montroll and charged him with lying to the SEC during their probe into the fraud allegations. "As alleged, the defendant repeatedly lied during sworn testimony and misled SEC staff to avoid taking personal responsibility for the loss of thousands of his customers' bitcoins," said Geoffrey Berman, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, on Wednesday. "These charges signify that we will use the full force of the federal criminal law to protect the integrity of the SEC's investigative process." Montroll allegedly misled the securities regulator in sworn testimony in an investigation into BitFunder. The DOJ is charging him with two counts of perjury and one count of obstruction of justice which, combined, could put Montroll in prison for a maximum of 30 years. The SEC is alleging that BitFunder and Montroll defrauded users by misusing their bitcoins and not disclosing a cyberattack that resulted in the theft of over 6,000 bitcoins. The agency also charged that BitFunder operated as an unregistered online securities exchange. To read more, click here. A LEGISLATIVE UPDATE: DEMS WANT BOOST TO FBI BUDGET TO COUNTER RUSSIAN INTERFERENCE: Congressional Democratic leadership wants to boost the FBI's budget in next month's government funding bill to help fight Russian interference in the 2018 midterm elections. Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), as well as top Democrats on the House and Senate Appropriations committees, sent a letter to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) urging them to support the increase. "These attacks and Putin's ongoing efforts to again interfere in our upcoming elections demand a robust and urgent response, and Congress must respond immediately to attacks on our democracy by a foreign adversary," the Democratic lawmakers wrote in the letter. They are asking for a $300 million increase in the FBI's budget to help target and counteract the influence of Russian and other foreign officials. "This additional funding should be targeted to ensure the resources and manpower to counter the influence of hostile foreign actors operating in the U.S., especially Russian operatives operating on our social media platforms," they wrote in the letter. They also want additional money for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). Congress has until March 23 to pass the mammoth spending bill, known as an omnibus. Schumer declined to say in a separate call with reporters on Wednesday if Democrats would oppose the funding bill if the extra money for the intelligence community isn't included. "We're not drawing lines in the sand. We're going to push hard to get this funding," he said. In addition to the extra funding, Schumer and Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) separately sent a letter to Dan Coats, the director of national intelligence, and Kirstjen Nielsen, the DHS secretary, asking for them to release a public report detailing how Russia is trying to interfere in the 2018 elections. They also want them to update relevant congressional committees about any threats to the U.S. election system. To read more from our piece, click here. A REPORT IN FOCUS: NEW ESTIMATE PUTS COST OF CYBERCRIME TO GLOBAL ECONOMY AT $600 BILLION ANNUALLY: Experts estimate in a new analysis that cyber crime costs the global economy as much as $600 billion annually, underscoring the massive growth in malicious activity online in recent years. The report, jointly released Wednesday by U.S.-based cybersecurity firm McAfee and the Center for Strategic and International Studies, follows a series of high-profile breaches and cyberattacks over the past year, including the massive Equifax data breach and global "WannaCry" and "NotPetya" attacks. The report highlights the increasing threat posed by nation-state hackers and tools like ransomware. Its new estimate of annual costs to businesses is a significant increase over the approximately $150 billion that the cybersecurity firm and the think tank arrived at in 2014. "We were not expecting as dramatic an increase as we found," James Lewis, a cybersecurity expert and senior vice president of the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said at an event to release the report on Wednesday. The massive growth is largely attributed to the proliferation of new technologies, as well as the financial sophistication of top-notch criminal hackers and cyber crime-as-a-service. The experts estimate that cyber crime will continue to grow with the rapid expansion of the ecosystem of internet-connected devices, commonly known as the "internet of things." "The trend line is, this situation is getting worse, not better," Howard Marshall, deputy assistant director of the FBI's cyber division, said Wednesday. "A lot of that is through the advancement of technology and the integration of technology into cyber crime." The report names Russia as the global leader in cyber crime, followed by North Korea and Iran. Ransomware is singled out as the most rapidly growing cyber crime tool, as would-be hackers find it increasingly easy to execute attacks because they can purchase malware kits on the dark web. "You can rent botnets, you can rent malware programs, you can buy malware, you can buy ransomware. Ransomware is a commodity industry now, at the low end," Lewis said. "This is so easy now because it's become a market." To read more from our piece, click here. A LIGHTER CLICK: Swipe right for this lighter click. (USA Today) WHAT'S IN THE SPOTLIGHT: BREACH DISCLOSURES: Wall Street's top regulator on Wednesday released updated guidance on how public companies should go about disclosing cybersecurity breaches and "risks" to the public. The Securities and Exchange Commission's (SEC) new guidance says companies should inform investors about cybersecurity risks, even if they have not yet been targeted by hackers in a cyberattack. It also stresses that companies publicly disclose breaches in a timely fashion, and instructs firms to take steps to prevent executives and others with previous knowledge of a breach from trading in its securities before the information is made public. The new guidance comes after credit reporting firm Equifax attracted massive scrutiny in Washington and across the country for a breach that impacted over 145 million American consumers. Equifax discovered the breach internally at the end of last July but did not publicly disclose it until September. The company has also been scrutinized over reports that top executives sold shares in the company in the days after the breach was discovered. The company has cleared the employees of wrongdoing, saying that an internal investigation revealed they had no knowledge of the breach when they made the trades. SEC Chairman Jay Clayton said Wednesday he hopes the updated guidance "will promote clearer and more robust disclosure by companies about cybersecurity risks and incidents, resulting in more complete information being available to investors." "In particular, I urge public companies to examine their controls and procedures, with not only their securities law disclosure obligations in mind, but also reputational considerations around sales of securities by executives," Clayton said. The so-called "interpretive guidance" released Wednesday states that it is "critical that public companies take all required actions to inform investors about material cybersecurity risks and incidents in a timely fashion, including those companies that are subject to material cybersecurity risks but may not yet have been the target of a cyber-attack." To read more from our piece, click here. IN CASE YOU MISSED IT: Links from our blog, The Hill, and around the Web. Trump: Why doesn't DOJ investigate Obama administration? (The Hill)
Poll: Majority unlikely to use self-driving cars (The Hill) House Oversight a gavel no one wants (The Hill) OP-ED: Mueller indictment showcases the need for deterrence in cyberspace (The Hill) OP-ED: Venezuela's cryptocurrency is a farce (The Hill) Italian officials are warning about the possibility of foreign interference in elections (Associated Press) Experts say artificial intelligence could be maliciously used (AFP) Conservatives on Twitter claim to be losing thousands of followers (Gizmodo) The Pentagon is making moves to better organize its cyber defense efforts (Federal News Radio) Israel's cyber soldiers thwart planned ISIS aviation attack. (Jerusalem Post) If you'd like to receive our newsletter in your inbox, please sign up here. | 
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