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2018年6月27日 星期三

Hillicon Valley: Trump backs off Chinese investment restrictions | DHS declines to let official testifying on cellphone spying | T-Mobile, Sprint execs pitch merger | FTC urged to launch privacy probe into Google, Facebook

 
 
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The Cyber and Tech overnights have joined forces to give you Hillicon Valley, The Hill's new comprehensive newsletter detailing all you need to know about the tech and cyber news from Capitol Hill to Silicon Valley.

Welcome! Follow the cyber team, Olivia Beavers (@olivia_beavers) and Morgan Chalfant (@mchalfant16), and the tech team, Harper Neidig (@hneidig) and Ali Breland (@alibreland), on Twitter. Send us your scoops, tips and hot NBA trade rumors.

 

TRUMP BACKS OFF CHINESE INVESTMENT RESTRICTIONS: President Trump on Wednesday declined to impose proposed executive actions to limit investments in American technology from foreign countries such as China. He instead deferred to Congress to pass legislation to beef up the review process for foreign investment.

The announcement followed reports earlier in the week that the administration was preparing rules to block China, in particular, from making significant investments in sensitive U.S. technologies.

The stock market tumbled following the reports and administration officials rushed to deny that the actions would target China specifically.

In particular, Trump put his backing behind the Foreign Investment Risk Review Modernization Act (FIRRMA), legislation that the administration has already signaled it supports in the past.

"After reviewing the current versions of FIRRMA with my team of advisors -- and after discussing them with many Members of Congress -- I have concluded that such legislation will provide additional tools to combat the predatory investment practices that threaten our critical technology leadership, national security, and future economic prosperity," Trump said in a statement released Wednesday morning.

FIRRMA would expand the scope of foreign investment restrictions the administration could block base on national security concerns, potentially blocking the transfer of information like personally identifiable sensitive data on individuals.

Trump threatened to use executive action should Congress fail to act.

More here.

 

BOLTON SAYS ELECTION INTERFERENCE LIKELY TO COME UP DURING TRUMP-PUTIN SUMMIT: White House national security adviser John Bolton said Wednesday that President Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin are likely to discuss Moscow's alleged meddling in the 2016 election when they meet at a planned summit.

Bolton, who is in Moscow negotiating details of the summit between the two leaders, also said that election interference came up during his conversations with Putin.

"We did indeed talk about Russian interference in the elections and I expect it will be a subject of conversation between the two presidents as well," Bolton told reporters at a news conference.

A Kremlin aide previously said that election interference came up during the conversations between Bolton and Putin – an allegation the Russian side again denied.

Why it matters: Trump previously raised the issue of election interference when he met with the Russian president on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Economic Leaders' Meeting in Vietnam last November.

Trump created a media firestorm when he indicated he believed Putin when the Russian president said Moscow did not interfere in the 2016 election.

Trump later clarified his remarks by saying he believes "in our intel agencies" – referring to the U.S. intelligence community's assessment that Moscow meddled in the election using cyberattacks and disinformation.

Officials from both nations said on Wednesday that the U.S. and Russia agreed to plans for the summit between Trump and Putin, though the details on when and where it will take place are likely to be released publicly on Thursday.

More of our coverage here and here.

 

DOJ SIGNS OFF ON DISNEY'S BID FOR FOX: The Justice Department on Wednesday signed off on the Walt Disney Company's proposed merger with much of 21st Century Fox on the condition that the entertainment giant sell off 22 regional sports networks.

Prosecutors said that the condition resolves the concerns they had about competition in the pay-television market.

"American consumers have benefitted from head-to-head competition between Disney and Fox's cable sports programming that ultimately has prevented cable television subscription prices from rising even higher," Makan Delrahim, the head of the Justice Department's antitrust division, said in a statement.

"Today's settlement will ensure that sports programming competition is preserved in the local markets where Disney and Fox compete for cable and satellite distribution."

Combining Fox's regional sports channels with Disney's ESPN would "likely substantially lessen competition" in television markets around the country, a court filing from the department said.

Disney hailed the settlement.

"We are pleased that the DOJ concluded that, with the exception of the proposed acquisition of the Fox Sports Regional Networks, the transaction will not harm competition, and that we were able to resolve the limited potential concerns to position us to move forward with this exciting opportunity that will enable us to create even more compelling consumer experiences," Disney said in a statement.

Read more here.

 

THE LATEST IN 'STINGRAY' INTRIGUE: The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) declined to provide a witness to testify at a public hearing on cellphone spying technology Wednesday, according to a U.S. congressman, drawing criticism from lawmakers.

Instead, the department briefed lawmakers behind closed doors on the cellular surveillance devices, which Rep. Ralph Abraham (R-La.) described as "helpful," though he criticized Homeland Security for not appearing publicly to discuss the threat.

"It would have been substantially more helpful for DHS to have been present today to be part of the dialogue, inform the American public, and answer questions about their work in this area," Abraham said.

Abraham chairs the House Science Committee's subcommittee on oversight, which held a hearing to examine privacy and security threats posed by what are called International Mobile Subscriber Identity (IMSI) catchers on Wednesday.

The devices, often referred to as "Stingrays," work by mimicking legitimate cell towers and tricking mobile devices to connect to them – allowing users to suck up location data and other information from mobile phones.

The technology has long been used by law enforcement to track suspects in investigations, and there are also widespread suspicions that foreign governments use them to spy on U.S. officials.

So why are officials pushing for more information? Earlier this year, Homeland Security acknowledged in correspondence with a U.S. senator that it had detected likely IMSI catcher activity in the Washington, D.C., region, including near sensitive facilities like the White House, in a limited study conducted last year.

At Wednesday's hearing, lawmakers sought to address both privacy and national security concerns raised by the use of these devices in the United States.

Read more here.

 

SPEAKING OF THE HOUSE SCIENCE COMMITTEE … Lawmakers on the committee approved the National Institute of Standards and Technology Reauthorization Act of 2018 on Wednesday. Read the bill here.

 

ICYMI: The Trump administration finally released a comprehensive statement digging into provisions of the Senate's version of the National Defense Authorization Act of 2019, which the upper chamber passed earlier this month. As expected, the White House "strongly" objected a provision to that seeks to block President Trump's deal to revive Chinese telecommunications giant ZTE.

The White House also objected to some cyber provisions in the bill, including one that would set a national policy for cybersecurity and cyberwarfare. The policy would make the U.S. notify other countries when their networks are used to execute cyberattacks and "act unilaterally" to counter the attack if the other government cannot or will not do so.

The provision "would damage the national security interests of the United States by endorsing certain foreign policy and military determinations that are traditionally within the President's discretion, informed by the facts and circumstances prevailing at the time," the White House said. It would also "needlessly limit our options and would also alert current and potential adversaries to U.S. targets of interest," the statement added.

Read our past coverage of the Senate bill's cyber policy provision here.

 

T-MOBILE, SPRINT EXECS PITCH MERGER ON THE HILL: Executives from T-Mobile and Sprint on Wednesday pitched their $26 billion merger to Congress, telling a Senate panel that the combination would give their companies the ability to develop increased capabilities and catch up with bigger wireless carriers.

"When we do this, AT&T and Verizon will be forced to react and follow our lead or we will happily take their customers and give them more value and better price," T-Mobile CEO John Legere said during a hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee's antitrust panel.

"Trust me, the New T-Mobile will not stop, we will be relentless," he added.

And Marcelo Claure, the executive chairman of Sprint, said that his company needs the merger to go through to survive.

"We have struggled to barely break even," Claure said.

Read more here.

 

GROUPS URGE FTC TO LAUNCH PRIVACY PROBE ON GOOGLE, FACEBOOK: Eight consumer advocacy groups are calling on the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to investigate Google and Facebook over what they see as "misleading" tactics that push consumers to give up their personal data.

"Companies employ numerous tricks and tactics to nudge consumers toward giving consent to disclosing as much data as possible for as many purposes as possible," the advocacy groups, led by Consumer Watchdog, wrote in their letter to the FTC.

The organizations cited a study published this month by the Norwegian government's privacy watchdog that makes similar assertions.

 

LATEST ON CONGRESS-DOJ FIGHT: The House will vote Thursday on a resolution demanding that the Department of Justice and FBI hand over sensitive documents sought by congressional Republicans, according to a GOP aide.

The floor vote represents the latest escalation in an ongoing feud between top law enforcement officials and House Republicans. On Tuesday, the House Judiciary Committee agreed to advance the resolution, which calls on the Justice Department to turn over all of the documents House Republicans have requested.

 

SENATE COMMERCE ADVANCES FCC DEM NOMINEE: The Senate Commerce Committee on Wednesday approved Geoffrey Starks, a Democratic nominee for the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), sending his nomination to the full Senate.

Starks, a current official in the FCC's Enforcement Bureau, would replace Mignon Clyburn, another Democrat who served nearly a decade at the commission. The Senate panel approved him in a unanimous voice vote.

Prior to joining the FCC in 2015, Starks was a senior counsel to former Deputy Attorney General Jim Cole during the Obama administration.

 

A LIGHTER CLICK: The Kings are mining cryptocurrency.

 

AN OP-ED TO CHEW ON: The ad-based Internet is dead, but not because of privacy regulations.

 

ON TAP FOR THURSDAY:

The House Judiciary Committee holds an oversight hearing on the Justice Department and FBI's actions surrounding the 2016 election featuring testimony from Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein and FBI Director Christopher Wray at 9:30 a.m.

The House Foreign Affairs Committee is marking up a bill aimed at deterring state-sponsored cyberattacks against the U.S. at 10 a.m.

 

NOTABLE LINKS FROM AROUND THE WEB:

Mystery swirls around the OPM suit. (CyberScoop)

Hundreds of hotels impacted by FastBooking breach. (Bleeping Computer)

"Inside Facebook and Twitter's secret meetings with Trump aides and conservative leaders who say tech is biased." (The Washington Post)

Venezuela censors Tor. (Vice News)

Who gets to live in Silicon Valley. (The Atlantic)

 
 
 
 
 
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