Overnight Cybersecurity: Manafort sues DOJ, Mueller | Watchdog sues over release of FBI texts to journalists | Major flaw found in Intel processors

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 STORIES: --MANAFORT SUES MUELLER, DOJ: President Trump's former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, has filed a lawsuit challenging the authority of special counsel Robert Mueller. In a court filing, lawyers for Manafort argue that the order establishing Mueller's investigation is overly broad and not permitted under Justice Department regulations. They said the special counsel's actions are "arbitrary, capricious and not in accordance with the law" and have asked a district court to set aside "all actions" that Mueller has taken against Manafort. "The investigation of Mr. Manafort is completely unmoored from the Special Counsel's original jurisdiction to investigate 'any links and/or coordination between the Russian government and individuals associated with the campaign of President Donald Trump,' " the complaint reads. "It has instead focused on unrelated, decade-old business dealings--specifically, Ukraine political campaign consulting activities of Mr. Manafort." The lawsuit was filed against Mueller, the Justice Department and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who gave the order last year that launched the special counsel investigation. Manafort pleaded not guilty to multiple criminal counts in October, including conspiracy against the United States and money laundering related to his work for a pro-Russia political party in Ukraine. To read the rest of our piece, click here. --WATCHDOG SUES DOJ OVER FBI TEXTS: A government watchdog group is suing the Justice Department for documents related to its decision to show reporters private text messages between two FBI agents who were critical of President Trump. Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) filed a lawsuit on Wednesday against the Justice Department for failing to respond to an expedited request for documents related to the "highly unusual, if not unprecedented" decision to host reporters at its offices to view the text messages. On Dec. 12, the Justice Department reportedly invited journalists to its offices to review messages between FBI agents Peter Strzok and Lisa Page that the department had separately released to members of Congress the same day. The messages were discovered as part of an ongoing inspector general probe into the FBI and Justice Department's handling of the Hillary Clinton email investigation. Until recently, both agents were part of the special counsel investigation into Russian interference. Republicans have seized on the messages, which showed the officials criticizing Trump during the presidential campaign, as evidence of political bias on special counsel Robert Mueller's team. Strzok was removed from the investigation after the messages were unearthed. The text messages were featured at a House Judiciary Committee hearing on Dec. 13 where Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein defended the department's decision to release the private messages to members of Congress when the inspector general investigation was still ongoing. To read the rest of our piece, click here.   AN INTEL UPDATE: CRITICAL FLAW FOUND IN INTEL PROCESSORS: A critical security flaw reported by The Register late Tuesday affects Intel processors produced over the last decade and has left programmers at Linux, Microsoft and Apple scrambling to update operating systems for their computer systems. Details about the vulnerability are still coming to light, but it is believed to affect chips in millions of computers worldwide. In worst-case scenarios, the flaw could be leveraged by attackers to read sensitive information like passwords and login keys contained in the memory of the computer's kernel, the central module of the machine's operating system. --Intel said in a statement on Wednesday afternoon that it had planned to disclose the flaw next week and said that the bug is not unique to its products. The firm said that it chose to bump its disclosure date to today following "inaccurate media reports." Intel downplayed concerns about the exploits in the statement, saying, "Intel believes these exploits do not have the potential to corrupt, modify or delete data." --Microsoft is expected to issue a patch for its Windows operating system next Tuesday. The Department of Homeland Security's Computer Emergency Readiness Team has not released any advisories about the vulnerability. On Wednesday, Britain's National Cyber Security Centre said it was aware of the reports but has seen no evidence of any "malicious exploitation" of the flaw. "The NCSC advises that all organisations and home users continue to protect their systems from threats by installing patches as soon as they become available," a spokesperson for the organization said. To read more about the flaw, click here.   A LIGHTER CLICK: Just in time to incite some post-holiday cheer: the founders of Amazon's defunct wine website are back.   AN EVENT IN FOCUS: ELECTION ASSISTANCE COMMISSION TO HOST ELECTION SECURITY SUMMIT: The U.S. Election Assistance Commission (EAC) has announced that it will host a summit this month focused on several issues including election security in preparation for the 2018 midterm elections. The event has been scheduled for Jan. 10 and is sure to delve into the issue of cybersecurity of election systems, which has become a hot topic in the wake of Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. According to an advisory issued by the EAC on Wednesday, the event will feature a keynote address from Christopher Krebs, a top cybersecurity official at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). Homeland Security is taking the lead on helping states shore up their digital voting infrastructure ahead of future elections as part of its critical infrastructure efforts. Various state and local election officials from across the country will also participate in the daylong summit next week. Issues covered will include election security, voting accessibility, and the use of election data, according to the EAC. The meeting comes as state officials are clamoring for more resources to tackle election cybersecurity after revelations that Russian hackers targeted election-related data systems in nearly two-dozen states before the 2016 vote. To read more about the event, click here.   WHAT'S IN THE SPOTLIGHT:  HUMA ABEDIN'S EMAILS: President Trump escalated his public attacks on Hillary Clinton and her close aide Huma Abedin on Tuesday, tweeting that Abedin didn't follow security protocols and put "classified passwords" in the hands of foreign agents. Trump appeared to be referencing a story in The Daily Caller reporting that Abedin had forwarded State Department passwords to her personal Yahoo email account that was likely compromised in subsequent breaches reported by the email provider. Taking to Twitter on Tuesday morning, Trump wrote: "Crooked Hillary Clinton's top aid (sic) Huma Abedin has been accused of disregarding basic security protocols. She put Classified Passwords into the hands of foreign agents. Remember sailors pictures on submarine? Jail! Deep State Justice Dept must finally act? Also on Comey & others." The revelations are once again dredging up Clinton's email controversy, which plagued the Democratic nominee throughout her campaign. It's a fight Trump wants to have. Republicans have been eager to relitigate the controversy as part of an effort to distract from and undermine the special counsel investigation into whether Trump's campaign colluded with Russia. The Daily Caller report hinges on government emails made public as a result of litigation from the conservative group Judicial Watch against the State Department in 2015. The headline highlights a Aug. 2009 email released by State in September that appears to show Abedin, who served as vice chair on Clinton's presidential campaign, forwarding passwords to her government laptop to her personal Yahoo account. To be sure, the FBI said in documents related to the Clinton email probe that Abedin "routinely" forwarded emails from her official account to her personal one because it was easier to print. Some of the emails cited by The Daily Caller contain information that was later determined to be classified, though none contain classified markings.   The article lays the groundwork for accusations that Abedin offered up sensitive information to hackers by detailing successive breaches at Yahoo, the first of which is now known to have impacted all 3 billion accounts in 2013. A second, unrelated breach in 2014 exposed account information on 500 million users. The Justice Department has charged two Russian intelligence agents in connection with the case. Cybersecurity experts cautioned that there is no evidence Abedin's account was targeted by hackers. "The classified information and other sensitive data was potentially exposed, but not definitely exposed based on what is known publicly," said Ryan Kalember, a top executive at cybersecurity firm Proofpoint. Still, her employment status would have made Abedin a top mark for a Russian spying operation. According to the criminal indictment, the hackers sought access to accounts of "Russian and U.S. government officials" on behalf of the FSB, Moscow's federal security service. To read the rest of our piece, click here.   IN CASE YOU MISSED IT: Links from our blog, The Hill, and around the Web. Deputy AG Rosenstein meeting with Paul Ryan about Russia investigation. (The Hill) Feinstein requests interview with WH social media director amid Russia probe. (The Hill) OP-ED: Bulk surveillance is the wrong way to approach security. (The Hill) Twitter says Trump's North Korea tweet doesn't violate terms of service. (The Hill) Low morale at the NSA is causing top personnel to flea. (Washington Post) A profile on the Canadian hacker implicated in the Yahoo breach case. (Toronto Life) The Pentagon plans to spend more time on cybersecurity. (Fifth Domain) An ex-NSA contractor accused of stealing classified documents will plead guilty. (Politico) Indonesia launches agency to combat 'fake news.' (AFP)   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 Health Care: Conservative groups push for 2018 ObamaCare repeal | Credit rater predicts stable year for ObamaCare markets | Price of new therapy for blindness set at $850K

View in your browser     Conservative groups are pushing President Trump to make ObamaCare repeal a priority in 2018, even as some Republicans signal a desire to move on from the issue. A letter to Trump signed by 43 right-leaning groups calls for health-care reform to be the focus of the fast-track process known as reconciliation this year. Using that process would allow Republicans to repeal ObamaCare in the Senate without Democratic votes, but it would also preclude them from using the tool for other priorities like welfare reform. "Now that tax reform legislation is signed into law, it is time to deliver on the rest of the promises made to the American people to free them from the shackles of ObamaCare," states the letter, which was led by Independent Women's Voice. Other groups on the letter included Heritage Action, Club for Growth, Americans for Tax Reform and Susan B. Anthony List. Republicans already failed to repeal ObamaCare after a months-long struggle in 2017, and nothing significant has changed since then that would now make the path easier. In fact, the obstacles appear even greater now that Democrat Doug Jones has been elected to the Senate from Alabama, cutting the GOP majority to a single seat, 51-49. Asked about ObamaCare repeal last month, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) told NPR, "we'll probably move on to other issues." Conservative groups don't want to move on, however, and are appealing to Trump for help persuading GOP leaders. Read more here.   White House: Trump hasn't shifted on not cutting entitlements President Trump has not changed his position on protecting entitlement programs from funding cuts, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Wednesday. After last month's GOP victory on tax reform, many Republicans are calling for changes to the social safety net as a way to cut government spending. But, asked about Trump's repeated campaign pledge to protect Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, Huckabee Sanders said he doesn't support cuts to the programs. "The president hasn't changed his position at this point," she said at a White House briefing, adding that conversations with lawmakers are ongoing. Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) has set his sights on entitlement reform for 2018.  "We're going to have to get back next year at entitlement reform, which is how you tackle the debt and the deficit," he said in an interview last month.  Medicare and Medicaid "are the big drivers of debt," Ryan said, "so we spend more time on the health-care entitlements, because that's really where the problem lies, fiscally speaking." Ryan has claimed Trump is beginning to warm to the idea of slowing the spending growth in entitlements.  Read more here.   Credit rater predicts stable year for ObamaCare markets The ObamaCare insurance markets will be relatively stable through 2018, analysts are predicting. Insurers have adapted to the uncertainty surrounding the Trump administration's handling of the law, A.M. Best, a global credit rating organization, wrote in a briefing released Wednesday. It said insurers should have a stable 2018. The analysts had previously predicted a negative outlook for insurers in 2018. Insurers benefited from high rate increases, limited competition and narrow provider networks in 2016 and 2017, the analysts note, as well as a stabilizing exchange population between sick and healthy customers. The analysts said while issues could arise if Republicans try to repeal and replace ObamaCare again, they believe Congress will focus on other issues this year. "Negative factors continue to impact the industry, but A.M. Best believes that insurers overall have been able to adapt and as a result, does not expect any significant deterioration in market conditions over the next year," the analysts wrote in their briefing.  Read more here.   Price of new genetic therapy for blindness set at $850K A breakthrough genetic therapy for a rare form of blindness will cost $850,000 per patient, its maker announced on Wednesday. Luxturna's price is less than what many analysts and outside investors expected, and commercially insured patients likely won't have to pay for the treatment. Still, the price tag is higher than any other such treatments on the market. Spark Therapeutics, its maker, said that Luxturna is priced fairly, noting it is a one-time treatment and that treatments for rare diseases are usually expensive because of small patient populations. The company is also offering new ways for patients and insurers to pay for the drug. Read more here.   Confirmation hearing for Trump's health secretary pick scheduled for next week President Trump's pick to lead the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) will face his confirmation hearing next week, Senate Finance Chairman Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) announced Tuesday. Alex Azar, a former HHS official and pharmaceutical executive, will go before the Finance Committee 10 a.m. Jan. 9. "Mr. Azar has demonstrated that he has what it takes to lead the Department of Health and Human Services and that he will tackle the challenges facing the American healthcare system head-on," Hatch said in a statement. Read more here.   What we're reading Care suffers as more nursing homes feed money Into corporate webs (The New York Times) Drugmakers raise 2018 U.S. prices, stick to self-imposed limits (Reuters) Lawyers seek to ease doctor's sentence for Medicare fraud (Associated Press) Hatch's retirement means the Senate could get even less bipartisan on health care (The Washington Post)   State by state If Virginia history stands, 2018 could be the year Democrats expand Medicaid (The Virginian-Pilot) Delaware Medicaid program to cover obesity treatment visits in 2019 (The News Journal) Mental health and substance-use disorders are growing problems in Colorado. Pairing police with mental health professionals could help. (The Denver Post)     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.

Overnight Regulation: Labor Department eyes drug test rule for unemployment pay | Families of plane crash victims press Trump on safety rules | US blocks sale of Moneygram to Chinese firm

View in your browser     Welcome to Overnight Regulation, your daily rundown of news from the federal agencies, Capitol Hill, the courts and beyond. It's Wednesday night in Washington, where everyone is talking about the public fall out between President Trump and former adviser Stephen Bannon.   THE BIG STORY The Trump administration is looking to bring back and broaden a rule that Congress killed last year requiring drug testing for unemployment benefits. Using the Congressional Review Act (CRA), Republicans in March repealed an Obama-era rule that limited the ability of states to drug test people applying for unemployment pay. Republicans said the 2016 rule was too narrow because it only allowed states to drug test people whose occupations already regularly required it. That category included airplane pilots, flight crews and air traffic controllers, commercial and public transit drivers and any job requiring an employee to carry a firearm. Now the Labor Department has signaled it plans to issue a broader rule that will redefine which occupations are those that regularly drug test. Why does this matter? Before 2017, the CRA had only successfully been used once, so the Labor Department's move on the unemployment rule will break new ground; never before has an agency tried to issue a new rule that's "substantially different" from a rule scrapped by a CRA resolution. What will the new policy be? That's unclear. It is not yet known what the Labor Department will ultimately propose or how broad the new rule will be. In a statement, Labor Department spokesman Eric Holland said only that the agency is "diligently working on a new proposal regarding unemployment compensation drug testing that will be substantially different from the prior rule." Read more from Lydia Wheeler here   REGULATORY ROUNDUP Transportation: The families of victims who died in a 2009 airplane crash are seeking a commitment from President Trump to protect aviation safety rules after he boasted this week that his administration has been "very strict" on commercial aviation. On Tuesday, Trump took credit for reports that 2017 was the safest global year of commercial airline travel, even though the U.S. has not seen a deadly crash in years. The last fatal crash involving a U.S. passenger airline was the 2009 Colgan Air crash in New York, which killed 49 people on board and one person on the ground. Stricter training requirements for pilots were put in place following the deadly incident, but there have been growing efforts to roll back the rules under the Trump administration. "We ask for your pledge to ensure that the crucial safety reforms that we have achieved are not changed in any way as the regional airlines, their lobbyists, and certain members of Congress pressure [Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao] to lower the flight hour experience requirements for entry-level regional airline first officers," the coalition wrote in a letter to Trump on Wednesday. The stricter training requirements have been under fire from regional air carriers and rural communities, who argue that the standards have fueled a pilot shortage because it's harder to find qualified pilots. Read more from Melanie Zanona here.   Technology: Ajit Pai, the Republican chair of the Federal Communications Commission, is pulling out of his scheduled appearance at the popular Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas next week. The Consumer Technology Association (CTA), a trade group that hosts the annual convention did not give a reason for the cancellation. Pai was slated to appear weeks after his agency scrapped its popular Obama-era net neutrality rules. "Unfortunately, Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai is unable to attend CES 2018," Gary Shapiro, CTA's president and CEO, said in a statement. "We look forward to our next opportunity to host a technology policy discussion with him before a public audience." Brian Hart, a spokesman for the FCC, told The Hill in an email, "We don't have anything to share at this time." Harper Neidig has more here.   Technology: States are moving to write their own net neutrality regulations after the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in December decided to scrap the Obama-era internet rules. California, New York and Washington are pushing their own versions of net neutrality rules and more state governments are expected to do the same, according to a report from Fast Company. The FCC's net neutrality rules prevented broadband service providers from blocking or slowing down websites or creating internet "fast lanes." The rules were intended to create a level playing field on the internet. FCC Chairman Ajit Pai's measure rolling back net neutrality, though, also pre-empts states from passing similar rules. According to the report, states are taking different paths to ensure companies follow net neutrality principles. In New York, for example, state legislators are crafting legislation that would only allow broadband providers that comply with net neutrality to receive state and local government contracts. California legislators are also considering regulating broadband providers directly via consumer protection laws. Ali Breland has more here.   Technology: A pro-net neutrality group is launching a new campaign to pressure members of Congress into saving the Federal Communications Commission rules from repeal. Fight for the Future announced a new website on Wednesday to turn up the heat on lawmakers ahead of the midterm elections later this year. "It's 2018. If they don't vote for net neutrality this spring, we can vote them out in November," reads a banner on votefornetneutrality.com. The FCC voted to repeal the Obama-era net neutrality rules in December, prompting a massive outcry from internet users and Democrats. Democrats in the House and Senate have promised bills to block the FCC's move using the Congressional Review Act, which gives Congress the ability to kill recently passed regulations with a simple majority in both chambers and the president's signature. Harper Neidig has the story here.   Finance: The Canadian government on Wednesday said it has launched a legal challenge to hefty duties imposed by the United States on its softwood lumber industry. Chrystia Freeland, Canada's minister of foreign affairs, said Ottawa is following through with an appeal of the U.S. International Trade Commission's (ITC) decision made in November to levy countervailing and anti-dumping duties on lumber imports. "The Government of Canada will continue to vigorously defend our industry and its workers against protectionist trade practices," Freeland said in a statement. "U.S. duties on Canadian softwood lumber are unfair, unwarranted and troubling," she said. Canada has won similar tariff fights in the past with the United States. Read Vicki Needham's story for more.   Finance: U.S. regulators are blocking the sale of MoneyGram, a money transfer firm, to a subsidiary of the Chinese company Alibaba. The chiefs of MoneyGram and Ant Financial said Wednesday that the sale was canceled after opposition from the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS). The CFIUS is as an interagency group of regulators based out of the Treasury Department that reviews pending foreign purchases of U.S. businesses for national security concerns. Ant Financial had been in talks to buy MoneyGram for "nearly a year" before the CFIUS blocked the deal, said MoneyGram CEO Alex Holmes. The CFIUS has blocked several other pending sales of U.S. businesses to Chinese firms since Trump took office amid growing tensions between the two countries over trade, intellectual property and Beijing's support for North Korea. Sylvan Lane has the rest here.   Environment: Pennsylvania regulators ordered construction crews to stop work Wednesday on a controversial major pipeline after recording numerous environmental violations in the building process, including spills and well contamination. The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) accused Sunoco Pipeline of "egregious and willful violations" of environmental rules in building the Mariner East 2 pipeline. The agency ordered the company to halt all work except some maintenance activities on the pipeline until it can demonstrate that it is abiding by all requirements from the permits the state granted. Timothy Cama has the rest of the story here.   Also in the news: Wild swings in money-market rates highlight limits of regulation (The Wall Street Journal) 'Big data' worries Europe's antitrust regulator (The Wall Street Journal) Former EPA intern: Trump's impact 'impossible to miss' (The Hill) Mifid II: Europe's new rules aimed at avoiding another crash (BBC News) China said to curb power supply for some bitcoin miners (Bloomberg) US finds Chinese tool chest imports hurt American makers, duties to remain (Reuters) The general data protection regulation is coming: How should newsrooms prepare? (Poynter)   Send tips, story ideas and pictures of puppies in the snow to nweixel@thehill.com and follow me on Twitter @NateWeixel         Did a friend forward you this email? Sign up for Regulation Newsletters     Forward Regulation 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.