Overnight Cybersecurity: What net neutrality repeal could mean for cybersecurity | Trump aides reportedly afraid to bring up Russia hacking | New malware strikes infrastructure

View in your browser       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 STORY: --TRUMP'S SECURITY ADVISORS AFRAID TO BRING UP RUSSIAN THREAT: Trump security advisors, including the National Security Council and intelligence advisors, have largely given up presenting evidence of Russian threats to the president at risk of upsetting him, according to a corker of a piece in the The Washington Post. --...THAT'S BIG, AND NOT JUST BECAUSE OF THE RUSSIA INVESTIGATION: Forget the Democratic National Committee - Russia internationally has one of the most developed cyberespionage programs, and is believed to be one of only a small handful of nations to even attempt to use cyberweaponry to down physical infrastructure. Moscow is thought to be behind downing the power grid in Ukraine in December 2015 and December 2016. And that's just the cybersecurity threats. Russia has in recent years annexed a slab of a foreign nation and launched other influence campaigns around the world. --...NSC KEEPS RUSSIA OUT OF OVAL OFFICE: A former administration official told the Post that while the National Security Council has held low level talks about Russia, there is what the article describes as an "unspoken understanding" not to discuss the matter with President Trump. --...RUSSIA NOT BROUGHT UP AT DAILY BRIEFING: Russia related intelligence is often not included in the oral portion of the Presidential Daily Briefing (PDB) and only included in the written component. "If you talk about Russia, meddling, interference -- that takes the PDB off the rails," a former senior U.S. intelligence official told the post. --...REP. ADAM SCHIFF (D-CA) IS NOT IMPRESSED: Of the PDB issue, the ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee tweeted: "Please tell me they are not referring to our commander in chief, the man that is supposed to be leader of the free world."   A REPORT IN FOCUS: NEW MALWARE: A hacker used a new type of malware targeting industrial control systems against a critical infrastructure organization. The attack resulted in operations shutting down, according to cybersecurity experts. Cybersecurity firm FireEye, which has dubbed the malware "Triton," said Thursday that its subsidiary, Mandiant, recently responded to an incident at an unidentified critical infrastructure organization. An attacker, likely sponsored by a nation state, had deployed the malware and inadvertently caused operations to shut down. The malware specifically targets Triconex safety instrumented systems (SIS), a product that is manufactured by Schneider Electric, a European energy management firm that has global operations. Malware targeting industrial control systems is particularly rare. Since the "Stuxnet" virus was used against Iranian nuclear power plants in 2010, there have been fewer than five known families. FireEye provided few details on the victim, but assessed with moderate confidence that the hacker was operating on behalf of a nation state, citing the significant resources needed to carry out the attack and the lack of financial motivation. The researchers believe the hacker's main goal was to cause physical damage. Separately, Dragos, a cybersecurity firm that analyzes threats to industrial control systems, on Thursday made public research on the same malware. Dragos had previously only sent that information to its clients and to infrastructure protection groups. To read the rest of our piece, click here.   A LIGHTER CLICK:  BETTER THAN REAL SPACE. Astronauts aboard the space station will get to watch the new Star Wars movie.   A REGULATORY UPDATE: FCC NIXES NET NEUTRALITY: The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has voted to repeal its landmark net neutrality protections, capping off a months-long campaign by the agency's Republicans to deregulate the broadband industry. The FCC voted 3-2 along party lines Thursday to scrap its 2015 Open Internet Order as Democratic lawmakers and dozens of activists protested outside. Democrats, consumer groups and tech companies have been rallying for months to try to stop the repeal plan, arguing that the rules are essential for preventing companies like Comcast and Verizon from abusing their powers as internet gatekeepers. "As a result of today's misguided action, our broadband providers will get extraordinary new power from this agency," said Jessica Rosenworcel, a Democrat on the commission who voted against the repeal. "They will have the power to block websites, throttle services and censor online content. They will have the right to discriminate and favor the internet traffic of those companies with whom they have pay-for-play arrangements and the right to consign all others to a slow and bumpy road," Rosenworcel said. Under the new regime, broadband companies will have to disclose publicly whether they engage in those practices. And, as Pai argues, the industry will not have a free pass because the Federal Trade Commission will have the authority to sue providers that deceive their consumers or use their powers to abuse competition on the web. To read the rest of our piece, click here. --...EFFECT ON CYBERSECURITY? A strange side-effect of the ruling could be a benefit to cybersecurity. Net neutrality requires internet service providers to treat all traffic the same. Without it, a Verizon or Comcast could hypothetically throttle their user's connections to any site that doesn't pay a premium for "fast lane service." But, while the debate tends to focus on the traffic users want to receive, the neutrality rules also apply to malicious traffic. Internet baddies often organize attacks using vast networks of computers to send so much traffic to a server that the server collapses. Net neutrality requires ISP's to provide the same unencumbered service to those attacks as to someone checking their email. Any problems mitigating that kind of attack, known as a denial of service, is largely theoretical. And there are certainly other ways to exempt cyberattacks from net neutrality other than eliminating the whole regulation.   IN CASE YOU MISSED IT: 'Links from our blog, The Hill, and around the Web. The New York attorney general will sue over the net neutrality rollback. (The Hill) ...Washington state, too. (The Hill) ...And there was a strange security scare in the middle of the vote. (The Hill) Sally Ride will get her own postage stamp. (The Verge) German intelligence lost a court bid to collect metadata on international calls. (Reuters)   If you'd like to receive our newsletter in your inbox, please sign up here.           Did a friend forward you this email? Sign up for Cybersecurity Newsletters     Forward Cybersecurity Newsletters       Privacy Policy  |  Manage Subscriptions  |  Unsubscribe  |  Email to a friend  |  Sign Up for Other Newsletters   The Hill 1625 K Street, NW 9th Floor, Washington DC 20006 ©2016 Capitol Hill Publishing Corp., a subsidiary of News Communications, Inc.

Overnight Energy: EPA seeks input on changing lead water pipe standards | Zinke takes on harassment at Interior | Greens hit the air against Trump monuments order

View in your browser     EPA WORKING ON LEAD RULE: The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) kicked off the regulatory process Thursday for potential updates to 26-year-old standards meant to keep lead out of drinking water. EPA head Scott Pruitt reached out to groups representing states and municipalities in a letter, inviting them to meet next month about potential revisions the agency is considering to what's known as the Lead and Copper Rule. The Obama administration had kicked off the revision process for the rule in 2010, but it accelerated the process following the Flint, Mich., drinking water crisis, which started in 2014 when poorly treated drinking water corroded pipes and dramatically elevated lead levels in the city. "Despite lead contaminated sites being an environmental threat to our country, EPA has not updated the Lead and Copper Rule in decades," Pruitt said in a statement. "In keeping with our commitment to cooperative federalism, EPA is seeking input from state stakeholders on proposed revisions to properly address lead and ensure communities have access to safe drinking water." In an October 2016 white paper, the Obama EPA laid out options for revising the rule, with options ranging from improving sampling standards that water utilities use to monitor lead levels to dramatically ramping up the standards for replacing old lead pipes. Any revisions by the EPA are also likely to crack down on smaller uses of lead, like in pipe fittings and solder, and to increase the standards' focus on vulnerable people like children and pregnant women. Read more here.   ZINKE PLEDGES 'ZERO TOLERANCE' ON INTERIOR HARASSMENT CLAIMS: A survey conducted for the Interior Department found that 35 percent of its employees say they were harassed or discriminated against in the last year. The department-wide findings come on the heels of a National Park Service-specific report released in October, which found that 38 percent of that agency's employees have been harassed or discriminated against. The survey results are spurring leaders at the department that oversees about a fifth of the nation's land to try to crack down on the causes of harassment. Department leadership claims their aggressive actions to change the culture are a shift from the previous administration. "All employees have the right to work in a safe and harassment-free environment," Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke said in a statement on Thursday. "I've already fired a number of predators who other administrations were too afraid to remove or just turned a blind eye to," he said, placing blame on former President Obama's administration for the current culture. "Under my leadership we don't protect predators. When I say 'zero tolerance' I mean that these people will be held accountable for their abhorrent actions." Read more here.   GREENS GO ON THE AIR AGAINST MONUMENT ORDER: A conservation group is launching a $1 million television and radio advertisement campaign targeting three House Republicans over Trump's decision to shrink monument protections in Utah. The Western Values Project's ads will go after Reps. Greg Walden (R-Ore.), Jaime Herrera Beutler (R-Wash.) and Martha McSally (R-Ariz.). The ads tell viewers about Trump's executive order shrinking the Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monuments in Utah, and highlights potential public land policy changes in the three states it is set to air in. The group calls on viewers to tell Walden, Beutler and McSally to "stop the attacks on public lands because your American birthright is not for sale." Read more here.   TRUMP TOUTS REG ROLLBACK: Trump announced plans for more deregulation in the coming year with the release Thursday of the administration's second regulatory agenda. At a ceremony in the White House, Trump said the federal agencies beat the goal he set when he took office to cut two rules for every new rule proposed and add no new regulatory costs to the economy. "Today I'm proud to announce we beat our goal by a lot," he said. "Instead of adding costs as so many others have done ... for the first time in decades, we achieved regulatory savings. Hasn't happened in many decades. We blew our target out of the water." The administration withdrew or delayed 1,579 planned regulatory actions in 2017, according to the semi-annual Unified Regulatory Agenda published by the White House Office of Management and Budget Thursday afternoon. The regulatory agenda acts as a policy blueprint of sorts for federal agencies. Read more here.   Some important dates for energy and environmental rules or repeals: The EPA's rollback of the Obama administration's waters of the United States (WOTUS) rule is estimated to be finalized in April. The Trump administration's new WOTUS definition is due to be proposed in May and made final in June 2018. The Clean Power Plan repeal is on track to be made final in October 2018. The regulatory plan said the EPA was planning to gather input for a potential replacement rule in November, which has obviously passed, and to issue a formal proposal in June 2018. The agency plans to propose actions to reconsider its methane rules for oil and natural gas drillers in August 2018, and to finalize them in September 2019. In the Interior Department, the methane rule for oil and natural gas drillers on public land is due for a proposed repeal in January 2018. The fracking rule's final repeal is on track for January as well. Interior is planning to make changes to the Obama administration's blowout preventer and well control rule for offshore drilling, with a proposal by October 2018. Check out the whole agenda by agency here.   A GOODBYE: This will be my -- Devin's -- last Overnight Energy newsletter at The Hill. Next week I'm moving back home to Minnesota to pursue new opportunities. I have had a great time covering one of the most underrated, but dynamic, beats in Washington. On this beat, I have covered Congress, the courts, two (very different) administrations, regulation, deregulation, protests, international diplomacy, a dramatically changing energy industry, Burning Man (once), and some of the most interesting characters in Washington and around the country. To those who have served as sources -- thank you. To those who have read along -- I hope my work has been of value. Follow me on Twitter. And Tim Cama is still your man on the energy beat. Drop him a line and say hello.   AROUND THE WEB: Residents of Dunbar, Fla., say the decision to dump sludge in their city is racist, the News-Press reports. California's years-long drought made the Sierra Nevada mountain range grow by an inch, the Sacramento Bee reports. Six hundred coal miners in Kazakhstan have been on a four-day, underground strike against poor wages and working conditions, BBC News reports.   IN CASE YOU MISSED IT: Check out Thursday's stories ... -Trump touts deregulation by his administration -Conservation group launches $1M ad campaign hitting Trump monument decision -EPA moves toward updating lead water pipe standards -Zinke promises 'zero tolerance' after 35% of Interior employees report harassment -Green group steps up involvement in Texas elections -Trump's EPA chemical safety nominee withdraws nomination     Please send tips and comments to Timothy Cama, tcama@thehill.com; and Devin Henry, dhenry@thehill.com. Follow us on Twitter: @Timothy_Cama, @dhenry, @thehill         Did a friend forward you this email? Sign up for Energy Newsletters     Forward Energy Newsletters       Privacy Policy  |  Manage Subscriptions  |  Unsubscribe  |  Email to a friend  |  Sign Up for Other Newsletters   The Hill 1625 K Street, NW 9th Floor, Washington DC 20006 ©2016 Capitol Hill Publishing Corp., a subsidiary of News Communications, Inc.

Overnight Health Care: ObamaCare enrollment expected to suffer as Trump cuts timeframe | Lawmakers battle Trump, pharma on discount drug rule | Alabama result deals blow to ObamaCare repeal

View in your browser     ObamaCare expected to suffer enrollment decline as Trump cuts timeframe Fewer people are expected to sign up for ObamaCare coverage ahead of Friday's deadline to enroll in the exchanges. The Trump administration's abbreviated enrollment period has left advocates acknowledging the numbers are almost surely going to be lower than the 9.2 million who signed up on HealthCare.gov at the end of the last open enrollment season. It's not clear how much the numbers will drop. ObamaCare supporters have said the sign-ups so far have been higher than they anticipated in the face of what they view as the White House's efforts to sabotage the health-care law. "Unfortunately, the Trump administration has cut [open] enrollment in half, as well as cutting the advertising and outreach budget, and so we are concerned that we won't be at the same point as we were last year by any stretch," said Cheryl Fish-Parcham, access initiatives director at Families USA, a liberal consumer health advocacy group. Nearly 4.7 million people have signed up for coverage on HealthCare.gov this year as of Dec. 9, compared to the about 4 million who signed up at a similar point last enrollment season. But there are only a few more days to add to that total, and little if any chance that the Trump administration will extend the enrollment period. Read more here.   Lawmakers battle Trump, Pharma on discount drug rule Lawmakers in both parties are seeking to block the Trump administration's changes to a Medicare drug discount program, arguing it would have a negative impact on hospitals that serve low-income people. A rule from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) slated to go into effect on Jan. 1 would result in $1.6 billion in cuts to "safety net" hospitals that serve a significant number of low-income patients under the so-called 340B drug discount program. Now lawmakers are seeking to block the change in a must-pass spending bill, possibly with a one-year moratorium on instituting the rule. Read more here.   Alabama result deals heavy blow to ObamaCare repeal The surprise election of a Democrat in Alabama has dealt a major blow to Republican hopes of reviving ObamaCare repeal next year. Republicans already failed multiple times this year to pass an ObamaCare replacement through the Senate with a 52-48 majority. Next year, thanks to the election of Democrat Doug Jones in Alabama, their margin for error will be even slimmer, at 51-49. Several Republican lawmakers acknowledged on Wednesday that the chances of bringing back ObamaCare repeal had taken a major hit. "Well, certainly, I think if you have one less Republican it makes it tougher," said Rep. Mark Meadows (R-N.C.), the chairman of the conservative House Freedom Caucus, though he noted that perhaps the greater problem is a handful of Republicans already in Congress who opposed the effort. "I'm still hoping. I don't know that I'm optimistic it will get done, but I certainly am hoping, yes," Meadows said of trying again. Read more here.   Ryan: We need to 'revisit' ObamaCare Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) said Thursday that lawmakers need to "revisit" ObamaCare, but also pointed to welfare reform as the focus of next year. "ObamaCare is collapsing and failing, so we won't be able to ignore that problem," Ryan said at a news conference. "So we're going to have to revisit the problem of a health-care marketplace that is collapsing and that is something that we're just going to have to get on to." However, Ryan did not make clear whether ObamaCare repeal would be part of next year's fast-track process known as reconciliation to get a measure through the Senate without needing Democratic votes.  Read more here.   Senator presses DOJ on opioid campaign criticized for 'scare tactics' Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) is raising concerns about a campaign in his home state aimed at combating the opioid epidemic and questioning the Department of Justice's role in it. In a letter to Attorney General Jeff Sessions sent Thursday, Markey asked what the department's role was in "designing, funding or supporting" the campaign in Massachusetts.   Recently, the U.S. Attorney's Office in Boston -- along with the New England field division of the Drug Enforcement Administration -- launched a statewide opioid abuse prevention campaign called #ReducetheRisk that Markey said received criticism from the public health and medical community. "They expressed concern that the advertising campaign utilizes scare tactics that have proven ineffective in changing behaviors or preventing young people from beginning to use drugs," Markey wrote. Read more here.   Health groups call on states to override Trump ObamaCare order Health-care groups are urging states to override changes made under an executive order from President Trump, warning the moves threaten to undermine insurance markets. A coalition of leading health-care groups, including America's Health Insurance Plans and the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network, wrote a letter Thursday to state insurance commissioners urging them to take action to counteract an order signed by Trump in October. That order aimed to ease ObamaCare rules and opened up cheaper insurance plans that do not have to meet all of the ObamaCare requirements. The groups warn that healthy people could be siphoned away into these skimpier, cheaper plans, causing instability and rising premiums in the market for everyone else. Read more here.   What we're reading Kellyanne Conway leading an 'opioids cabinet,' as she assumes more active policy role (Stat News) Telemedicine for addiction treatment? Picture remains fuzzy (Side Effects Public Media) Those that shall not be named: Cost sharing reductions (Roll Call)    State by state Nursery and delivery rooms at D.C.'s public hospital will not reopen (The Washington Post) With no deal on children's health plan, U.S. states scramble for Plan B (Reuters) If California wants to go all in on universal health care, Vermont's former governor is here to help (Sacramento Bee) Rauner's big health care headache in 2018? Medicaid. (Crain's Chicago Business)   From The Hill's opinion pages For real results, the next HHS secretary must boldly shift to value-based health care     Send tips and comments to Jessie Hellmann, jhellmann@thehill.com; Peter Sullivan, psullivan@thehill.com; Rachel Roubein, rroubein@thehill.com; and Nathaniel Weixel, nweixel@thehill.com. Follow us on Twitter: @thehill, @jessiehellmann, @PeterSullivan4, @rachel_roubein, and @NateWeixel.         Did a friend forward you this email? Sign up for Healthcare Newsletters     Forward Healthcare Newsletters       Privacy Policy  |  Manage Subscriptions  |  Unsubscribe  |  Email to a friend  |  Sign Up for Other Newsletters   The Hill 1625 K Street, NW 9th Floor, Washington DC 20006 ©2016 Capitol Hill Publishing Corp., a subsidiary of News Communications, Inc.