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Trump's cybersecurity advisors resign en masse
Another Trump panel has taken a hit after eight out of 28 of its members resigned en masse. Members of the National Infrastructure Advisory Council (NIAC), which advises Homeland Security on matters of cybersecurity, have dropped out of the panel due to several reasons. In the resignation letter obtained by NextGov, they said the president doesn't give enough attention to the country's cyber vulnerabilities. "You have given insufficient attention to the growing threats to the cybersecurity of the critical systems upon which all Americans depend, including those impacting the systems supporting our democratic election process," the letter reads.
Judge orders DreamHost to hand over data from anti-Trump site
Earlier this week, after DreamHost challenged its warrant in court, the Department of Justice narrowed what sorts of information it would seek from the website host in regards to activity on the site disruptj20.org. The website was used to help organize protests against Donald Trump on Inauguration Day and the government claims visitors to the site used it to plan violence. Today, a judge ordered DreamHost to comply with the newly refocused warrant.
Internet wisdom clashes with political activism in downtown Phoenix
Don't feed the trolls. This advice is drilled into our heads: The most effective way to smother harassment on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, email or any other online outlet is to ignore it. Don't give it attention. Don't legitimize the taunts, the name-calling, the threats. Don't give them more reason to come after you. Don't feed the trolls. But that's online. In the real world, we're advised to do the opposite. We are compelled to stand up, speak out, and chant in the faces of people and ideas that would do us harm. When something unjust, tragic or deeply foreboding happens in America, the first instinct is to protest, make signs, march. Scream.
Trump announces he’s elevating the role of US Cyber Command
In a statement today, President Trump announced that he's elevating the US Cyber Command to a unified combatant command, bringing it the level of others like the US European Command and the US Special Operations Command. "This new Unified Combatant Command will strengthen our cyberspace operations and create more opportunities to improve our Nation's defense," said Trump. "The elevation of United States Cyber Command demonstrates our increased resolve against cyberspace threats and will help reassure our allies and partners and deter our adversaries."
Facebook shut down an internal forum because of harassment
Last year Facebook was home to an internal forum spouting sexist and racist comments, according to reports in The Wall Street Journal and Business Insider. The forum, called FB Anon, was set up in May 2015 for employees of the company to voice their opinions of the workplace freely and anonymously. But in the month's leading up to President Trump's election it was increasingly populated by right-leaning staff and, according to Mark Zuckerberg, used to harass others. The group was abruptly shut down in December 2016. These reports come during an increasingly challenging time for tech companies. In the wake of the white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, where violence resulted in the death of one protestor and injuries for many others, companies have taken a zero-tolerance approach to hate speech. GoDaddy and Google have revoked domain registrations for neo-Nazi website The Daily Stormer, crowdfunding sites have pulled campaigns supporting white supremacists and social media platforms have banned whole groups expressing violent alt-right ideologies.
Twitter’s dilemma: What to do with Trump?
"My use of Twitter is not presidential," said President Donald Trump on Twitter last month, before adding the kicker in emphatic all caps: "it's MODERN DAY PRESIDENTIAL." Yet nearly seven months into his presidency, Trump has so flabbergasted the public with his tweets that there has been a relentless stream of calls for Twitter to suspend his account.
US agriculture agency tells staff not to mention climate change
It's no secret that the Trump White House is no fan of climate change science, but that's been having more of a chilling effect than you might think. The Guardian has obtained emails showing that the US Department of Agriculture's farm conservation division, the Natural Resources Conservation Service, has been telling staff to avoid using language that directly references climate change. Instead of "climate change," workers are told to refer to "weather extremes;" instead of talking about how the country can "reduce greenhouse gases," they're asked to talk about "build[ing] soil organic matter."
Federal scientists: US already feeling effects of climate change
The EPA and the administration might not be fans of climate science, but government scientists from 13 federal agencies have concluded that Americans are feeling the effects of climate change right now. According to the draft report obtained by The New York Times (and available on the Internet Archive since January), the average temperature in the country has risen dramatically since the 1980s. Also, it emphasizes how "many lines of evidence demonstrate that human activities, especially emissions of greenhouse (heat-trapping) gases, are primarily responsible for recent observed climate change."
Obama's science advisors are reportedly still hard at work
The Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP), a group meant to provide the president and White House officials with scientific and technological analyses and advice, has largely emptied out since Donald Trump took office. But as STAT News reports, a fair amount of Obama-era OSTP staffers have kept up their work. "It is certainly true that MANY of the former OSTP staffers are working, in a variety of ways, to fill the void," John Holdren, the OSTP director under Obama, told STAT.
Pros weigh in on phishing the White House
Just before Anthony Scaramucci's 15 minutes -- er, I mean 10 days -- of White House fame were up, a man in the UK (who imaginatively calls himself "Email Prankster") had some choice words with him via email. Nothing weird there you think? Except that he did it while posing as former White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus. Not that getting "the Mooch's" metaphorical goat was expected to be difficult. Especially after he went ballistic on New Yorker reporter Ryan Lizza for merely mentioning his enemies. No, the remarkable thing was that Scaramucci was one of many the prankster fooled among Trump's totally cyber-savvy and not-chaotic White House cabinet of curiosities.
Twitter says everyone, even Trump, has to follow the rules
Earlier this week, journalists asked Twitter's VP of Trust and Safety, Del Harvey, whether the company could really treat President Trump's Twitter account the same way it does everyone else's. After first saying that she couldn't discuss individual accounts, which is a response Twitter representatives tend to use, Harvey added, "The rules are the rules, we enforce them the same way for everybody," as reported by Recode.
Poll suggests most Americans don't like how Trump uses Twitter
Do you think President Trump's penchant for Twitter diatribes is doing more harm than good? You're not alone... in fact, you might be in the majority. ABC News and the Washington Post have conducted a national poll suggesting that 67 of Americans disapprove of Trump's use of Twitter. They're more likely to use negative descriptions of his behavior, such as "dangerous," "insulting," and "inappropriate," and unlikely to use positives like "interesting," "effective" and "refreshing." And no, this isn't as skewed by political leanings as you might think: only 41 percent of Republican supporters believe the tweets are refreshing, for instance.
Kaspersky in the crosshairs
Kaspersky is in what you might call "a bit of a pickle." The Russian cybersecurity firm, famous for its antivirus products and research reports on active threat groups is facing mounting accusations of working with, or for, the Russian government.
Afghan girls robotics team will compete in the US after all
An all-girl robotics team from Afghanistan that was denied a visa to participate in the First Global Challenge robotics competition will be allowed to enter the US after all. The White House confirmed that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) reversed the visa denials for the six teen girls, reportedly after President Trump personally intervened.
Trump talked to Putin about creating a 'Cyber Security unit' (updated)
Yes, you're reading that headline correctly. In the wake of a meeting at the G20 summit, President Trump has revealed that he talked to Russian President Vladimir Putin about creating an "impenetrable Cyber Security unit" that would protect against "election hacking, & many other negative things." He didn't go into details as to what this meant, but the statement is baffling on its face. Multiple US intelligence agencies have determined that the Russian government conducted an election hacking campaign in the US, targeting the DNC's servers, elections officials and voting systems in a bid to help Trump win. Why would you trust the fox to guard the henhouse, especially when you're already taking heat over allegations of collusion with the Russians? Whether or not you believe the claims are well-founded, it doesn't look good.
Hacking Team is back
When you call yourself "Hacking Team," you're borrowing a legacy of persecution and suffering at the hands of legal authorities. The same kind that drove Aaron Swartz to become the most famous hacker suicide of our era. You're effectively wrapping yourself in a mantle bled into by the skins of coders and crackers who are considered criminals by wider society -- regardless of innocence. You've grafted your brandished title -- "Hacking Team" -- onto the backs of those living under the oppressive fear of being rounded up, stripped of rights, and imprisoned for vague, state-defined crimes.
Revived National Space Council will guide Trump admin policy
Today Donald Trump signed an executive order reviving the National Space Council, an organization that existed in two previous iterations, from 1958 - 1973, and more recently from 1989 to 1993. President Obama raised the idea of reviving the council during a speech in 2008, but did not do it. In this version, the council will be chaired by Vice President Mike Pence while other members include the secretaries of State, Defense, Commerce and Homeland Security. The list doesn't stop there, but the council's exact responsibilities aren't quite clear. Its directive is to advise the president, plus coordinate and implement his space policy, however it "shall not interfere with the existing lines of authority in or responsibilities of any agencies."
In 2017, tweets are official presidential statements
Does a tweet count as an official response to a federal inquiry? Unsurprisingly, the White House thinks so. As reported by Reuters, the White House sent a letter to the House of Representatives Intelligence Committee claiming that a pair of Trump tweets on Thursday were the president's official response to an inquiry from the committee. At question is the existence of any recordings or memos of Trump's conversations with fired FBI director James Comey, and Trump's latest tweets claim that he "did not make, and do not have, any such recordings."
'The Daily Show' celebrates the tweets of Donald Trump in new exhibit
The president tweets a lot. It's quickly becoming part of his legacy, offering an unprecedented level of access to the commander in chief and leaving others in government scrambling to deal with the after-effects of each post. Usually, reflections on presidential legacies tend to come at the end of the individual's term in office, with an official presidential library foremost on the list. However, given the current pace of the Trump administration, The Daily Show decided to act a little sooner. This weekend it opened its own presidential Twitter library in midtown Manhattan to illustrate how our interactions with the president may have changed forever.
Report: Russia hacked election systems in 39 US states
Russia's US election meddling was much more widespread than the public has been told, according to a report from Bloomberg. Hackers attacked voting systems in 39 states, accessed campaign finance databases in one state and tried to delete or alter voter data in Illinois. While officials don't believe the attackers changed any results, the situation was serious enough that President Obama took the unusual step of complaining to the Kremlin on "red phone" back channels.
