Crossroads Blog | Institute National Security and Counterterrorism

China, Congress, Current Affairs, Cyber Defense, Cybersecurity

UPDATE: Actual letter from Senators Included…Cyber Round Up: Six Senators Urge Obama to Prioritize Cybersecurity at G20; China Sets New Tone in Drafting Cybersecurity Rules; More

  • Six Senators Urge Obama to Prioritize Cybersecurity at G20 (ABCNews):   Six Democratic Senators wrote a letter to President Obama asking him to prioritize Cybersecurity at the upcoming G20 summit in China.   The ABC News article outlined the reasoning behind the letter signed by Gary Peters (D-MI), Sherrod Brown (D-OH), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), Martin Heinrich (D-NM), Debbie Stabenow (D-MI), and Mark UntitledWarner (D-VA).   Citing incidents such as the theft of $81 million from a bank in Bangladesh in February, the Senators urged Obama to push for a coordinated effort to ensure security at global financial institutions.   The article further emphasized the Senators’ belief in the need for increased global cooperation, stating that both individual and non state actors can “imperil this international system.”    The desire for an expanded focus on Cybersecurity this year follows the decision at last year’s G20 summit that international law is applicable to cyberspace.   The full text of the article can be found here.

 

  • China Sets New Tone in Drafting Cybersecurity Rules (WSJ):  China is allowing foreign companies to have a say in its new regulations for cybersecurity, a Wall Street Journal article says.   For the first time ever, the Chinese government allowed companies such as Microsoft and Cisco to play an active role in drafting legislation.  The article makes clear that how much influence the foreign companies will have is yet to be seen, but their participation as more than observers is a significant change.    The last two years, the WSJ says, have seen China battling western governments, including the U.S., as it attempts to tighten control on information technology.  While comments in the article  suggest that China may be slowly accepting and adjusting to the global market of the tech supply chain, there is still plenty of room for improvement.  Draft legislation earlier this year proposed to increase government monitoring which would separate China from the rest of the global market.   The full article can be seen here.
  • Nixon Opens First Missouri Governor’s Cybersecurity Summit (The Missouri Times):  Governor Jay Nixon opened the summit stressing the heavy burden on the State in regards to cybersecurity, The Missouri Times reports.  The summit has special relevance just one day after multiple other states’ election offices were hacked, noted the Times, reporting that the Governor mentioned tax records and health information as two prime examples of sensitive personal information the state holds.   The article  noted that Gov. Nixon acknowledged multiple attempts by hacker groups to access Missouri’s systems in the past.  The Governor ensured attendees that his office as well as multiple others were working to protect the legitimacy of the voting process.  The full article can be seen here.

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