| | | | | |  | | By Martin Matishak | With help from Eric Geller Editor's Note: Weekly Cybersecurity is a weekly version of POLITICO Pro's daily Cybersecurity policy newsletter, Morning Cybersecurity. POLITICO Pro is a policy intelligence platform that combines the news you need with tools you can use to take action on the day's biggest stories. Act on the news with POLITICO Pro.
| | | — The Senate has confirmed two of President Joe Biden's Cabinet-level appointees. What about the rest? — Former federal officials praised the Biden administration's planned hires for vital cybersecurity posts. — Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee want to know the full impact SolarWinds had on DOJ and U.S. federal courts. HAPPY MONDAY and welcome to Morning Cybersecurity! Send your thoughts, feedback and especially tips to mmatishak@politico.com and be sure to follow @POLITICOPro and @MorningCybersec. Full team info below. CABINET STATE OF PLAY— The Senate this week is poised to move on a number of President Joe Biden's Cabinet-level appointees. Here's a rundown of what to expect: — Treasury. The full chamber will vote Monday night on Janet Yellen's nomination to be the next Treasury secretary. The department is one of several federal agencies affected by the SolarWinds compromise. — State. The Senate Foreign Relations Committee will hold a business meeting Monday night to advance the nomination of Tony Blinken to be the nation's next top diplomat. If approved, the full Senate could hold a vote to confirm him before the end of the week. — Homeland Security. The Senate Homeland Security Committee will gavel in for a business meeting Tuesday morning to consider Alejandro Mayorkas' nomination. Senate Democrats had pushed to confirm Mayorkas to head DHS last week, noting that the recent national security challenges in the nation's capital demand steady leadership atop an agency that saw unprecedented turnover at the top levels during Trump's administration, but Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) objected to moving swiftly. — TBD. There's currently no information on the timing of a confirmation hearing, let alone a vote, on Merrick Garland, Biden's pick to lead the Justice Department.
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| | Building the Biden Administration | | THE RIGHT STUFF — Former federal cybersecurity officials are thrilled about Biden's likely candidates for three key cyber jobs. As Eric reported on Friday , Biden is expected to name former National Security Agency and National Security Council official Jen Easterly as national cyber director, former DHS cyber official Rob Silvers as Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency director, and Eric Goldstein as executive assistant director of CISA's Cyber Division. — High praise all around: All three people "are highly experienced, thoughtful, and smart," said Andy Grotto, who served as an NSC senior director for cyber policy under Presidents Barack Obama and Donald Trump. Easterly "is methodical, rational, and relentless," said Eric Greenwald, another former NSC senior director for cyber policy. Silvers is "a smart, capable, and deeply dedicated public servant," said Suzanne Spaulding, who worked closely with him when she led DHS' cyber wing during the Obama administration. Matthew Travis, CISA's former deputy director, said Goldstein "has terrific credibility within the cybersecurity community and is a no-kidding expert on technology risk." — Figuring out this new dance together: If confirmed by the Senate, Easterly and Silvers will quickly have to establish a working relationship — not just with each other, but also with Anne Neuberger, the deputy national security adviser for cyber and emerging technology. "Building collaborative, mutually-reinforcing partnerships" will be a challenge, said Grotto. But Silvers "has the chops and experience to make that work," said Chris Painter, who served as the U.S.' top cyber diplomat from 2011 to 2017. Painter said that he found both Silvers and Easterly to be skilled at managing relationships across multiple agencies. — Familiar faces: Career CISA staffers are likely to embrace Silver and Goldstein, who are veterans of DHS' cyber mission. Silvers "won't be a stranger to the folks at DHS," Painter said. Goldstein "knows the CISA cyber issues, people, and processes, so he can hit the ground running," Spaulding said. "He also understands the links between cyber and physical risks that are at the heart of CISA's mission." And Spaulding and Painter both praised Silvers for his work with the private sector and his understanding of its challenges. — The boss's ear: Silvers has a strong relationship with Biden's DHS secretary nominee Alejandro Mayorkas. When Mayorkas was deputy secretary under Obama, Silvers was his senior counselor. DHS has "lots of competing equities," and Silvers' relationship with Mayorkas will be "extremely helpful to CISA's continued growth and effectiveness," Travis said, "especially in light of some of the new authorities that Congress is investing in CISA." He said that he and and then-CISA Director Chris Krebs benefitted immensely from a similar closeness to then-Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen. — The military angle: With Easterly's expected nomination to be national cyber director, the three senior-most cyber officials in Biden's White House — Easterly, Neuberger and NSC senior director for cybersecurity Michael Sulmeyer — will be veterans of the military and the intelligence community. Painter expressed concern about this, saying that it was "always good to have a diversity of perspectives" in such a multifaceted policy area. Greenwald, who is friends with Easterly and worked at Cyber Command for two years, called such concerns "overblown," arguing that these officials' "experience in DoD/IC spaces will serve them well, though they might have to stretch their understanding on some issues in order to mesh well with some of their counterparts." | | | THE PEOPLE'S COURTS — Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee are pressing DOJ and the U.S. Courts for details about just how badly the SolarWinds compromise impacted their organizations. "We are alarmed at the potential large-scale breach of sensitive and confident records and communications held by the DOJ and the AO, and write to request information about the impact and the steps being taken to mitigate the threat of this intrusion," the group of nine lawmakers wrote in a Jan. 20 letter to senior officials. DOJ revealed earlier this month that hackers responsible for the digital espionage campaign had accessed the email accounts of roughly 3,500 employees. The federal judiciary soon disclosed it, too, had been breached. "Given the grave national security threat of this catastrophic compromise, we urgently request a briefing about the steps that DOJ and AO are taking to clean up the breach, account for the damage, mitigate the harm, and improve organizational cybersecurity," the group, which included incoming Judiciary Committee Chair Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), wrote. Lawmakers gave officials until Jan. 31 to respond to their missive. | | | JOURNALISTS ARE USERS, TOO — UC Berkeley's Center for Long-Term Cybersecurity issued a report reviewing existing cybersecurity guidelines for journalists and offering recommendations on how publishers can give digital advice better suited for reporters. "The digital age provides immense opportunities for investigative journalism, but it also offers thousands of ways in which journalists can get trolled or threatened," Kristin Berdan, the report's author, who is also a fellow at the Citizen Clinic and a research fellow at the University of Toronto's Citizen Lab, wrote. "Security education for journalists must be contextually informed, prioritized, and actionable to be effective in facilitating journalists' critical role in democratic society."
| | | | HAPPENING TUESDAY - DRAWING THE ETHICAL LINE ON ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE: As AI becomes increasingly ingrained in our everyday lives, there are concerns about biases in these systems and ethical standards to guide their fair use. Without an international framework or set of principles governing AI, the ethical guidelines for its use vary across countries and cities and sometimes even come down to individual policymakers, elected leaders, the private sector, and grassroots advocates' work. Join POLITICO for a conversation to explore the pace of global AI innovation and development and what it means for the future of ethical standards in this space. The virtual program features an executive conversation between POLITICO CEO Patrick Steel and Workday EVP of corporate affairs Jim Shaughnessy. REGISTER HERE. | | | | |
| | | Mark Jaycox, policy counsel at Google, will become a counselor to Travis LeBlanc, a member of the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board. TWEET OF THE DAY — A fashion trend begins... EG | | | — The Pentagon's intelligence arm admitted that it purchases location data. — How will the new Biden administration respond to the SolarWinds breach, exactly? — The Kremlin issued a warning about potential U.S. cyberattacks in response to SolarWinds. — Intel said the hack of a financial graphic forced the early release of a report. — Hacker leaks data of 2.28 million users on dating site MeetMindful. — A Russian national pleaded guilty to running an illicit web hosting service. — Opinion: The world needs a Cyber-WHO. That's all for today. Stay in touch with the whole team: Eric Geller (egeller@politico.com, @ericgeller); Bob King (bking@politico.com, @bkingdc); Martin Matishak (mmatishak@politico.com, @martinmatishak); and Heidi Vogt (hvogt@politico.com, @heidivogt). | | | | Follow us on Twitter | | | | Follow us | | | | |
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