Crossroads Blog | Institute National Security and Counterterrorism

Cybersecurity, Flynn, Trump

Cyber Round Up: Trump’s National Security Pick a Cybersecurity Hawk; McCain calls for Cyber Committee; Three Mobile Hack exposes six million

  • Trump’s national security pick is a cybersecurity hawk (PC World):  An article late last week analyzed President-elect Trump’s choice for national security adviser, Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, and his views on cybersecurity.    The article labeled Flynn as a cybersecurity hawk and discussed his strong views on the matter. The report says that Flynn has called U.S. cyber capabilities “underwhelming.”   It also discussed Flynn’s view that a cornerstone of a strong cyber policy is offensive capability.  Flynn also believes, according to the article, that in order to be successful one must have an unfair advantage, and for the U.S this means gaining a technological advances over other nations that have been passing the U.S. The full text of the article can be found here.
  • McCain dismisses Russian impact on election, stresses need for cyber committee (The Hill):  Senator John McCain commented on the role of Russian hacks throughout this past election cycle, but also went a step further.  A report yesterday laid out McCain’s plans for a cybersecurity committee.  According to the report, McCain said that cybersecurity has crossed jurisdictional lines and is too important not to have its own home.  The existing committees cannot, on their own, adequately address the issue, the report suggested.  The article also stressed the Senator from Arizona’s view that it was “disturbing” that Admiral Rogers has testified to Congress before stating, “I don’t know what I don’t know.”   The full text of the article can be found here.
  • Three Mobile cyber hack:  six million customers’ private information at risk after employee login used to access database (The Telegraph):  One of the largest cellular provides in the UK announced the potential damage from a recent cyber hack.   An article late last week said that Three Mobile admitted that hackers were able to access a massive customer database through an employee’s login.  Six million people’s names, addresses, DOBs, but no financial information was compromised, the report said.  The article cited company officials who said the hackers were upgrading customer’s devices and then intercepting the phones, presumably to sell.   This hack follows the release of the UK’s most recent cyber initiative, and comments from the Chancellor that companies have a duty to protect private information.  The full text of the article can be found here.

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