Our picksProtecting the Power Grid from Hacking | Cybersecurity Protection Agency | Domestic Spying Powers, and more

Published 16 April 2021

·  Armed “Quick Reaction Force” Was Waiting for Order to Storm Capitol, Justice Dept. Says

·  Biden Administration Reviewing Whether Trump’s Proposed DHS Hiring Sprees Were Ever Really Necessary

·  Capitol Police Overlooked Threats Before Jan. 6 Riot, Inspector General Report Finds

·  Biden Rushes to Protect Power Grid as Hacking Threats Grow

·  Nakasone Deflects Senators’ Invitations to Seek Domestic Spying Powers

·  DeSantis Recognizes the Threat Posed by Climate Change, but Hasn’t Embraced Reducing Carbon Emissions

·  The Need for a Cybersecurity Protection Agency

·  House Republicans Introduce Bill to Modernize Infrastructure Project Reviews, Cut Costs, Rebuild America

·  How to Save the Coastlines from Climate Change Disasters

·  Intelligence Community Actively Investigating Wuhan Lab as Possible COVID-19 Origin

Armed “Quick Reaction Force” Was Waiting for Order to Storm Capitol, Justice Dept. Says  (Rachel Weiner and Spencer S. Hsu, Washington Post)
As the Capitol was overrun on Jan. 6, armed supporters of President Donald Trump were waiting across the Potomac in Virginia for orders to bring guns into the fray, a prosecutor said Wednesday in federal court.
Judge Amit Mehta called the evidence among the “most troubling and most disconcerting” he has seen in nearly a dozen cases related to Oath Keepers.
It is “the strongest evidence that the government has presented that there was a quick reaction force outside the District of Columbia, the location of the quick reaction force and that members of this conspiracy provided weapons to this quick reaction force,” he said.

Biden Administration Reviewing Whether Trump’s Proposed DHS Hiring Sprees Were Ever Really Necessary  (Eric Katz, Government Executive)
Homeland Security officials are developing a new staffing model for border personnel after hiccups under Trump.

Capitol Police Overlooked Threats Before Jan. 6 Riot, Inspector General Report Finds  (Eliza Collins and Rachael Levy, Wall Street Journal)
Department’s internal watchdog found Capitol Police had been warned of potential for violence and that lawmakers were targets.

Biden Rushes to Protect Power Grid as Hacking Threats Grow  (Bloomberg Law)
A White House plan to rapidly shore up the security of the U.S. power grid will begin with a 100-day sprint, but take years more to transform utilities’ ability to fight off hackers, according to details of a draft version of the plan confirmed by two people.
The plan is the policy equivalent of a high-wire act: it provides incentives for electric companies to dramatically change the way they protect themselves against cyber-attacks while trying to avoid political tripwires that have stalled previous efforts, the details suggest.
Among its core tenets, the Biden administration’s so-called “action plan” will incentivize power utilities to install sophisticated new monitoring equipment to more quickly detect hackers, and to share that information widely with the U.S. government.

Nakasone Deflects Senators’ Invitations to Seek Domestic Spying Powers  (Justin Katz, FCW)
Senate lawmakers on Wednesday continued to press Army Gen. Paul Nakasone for solutions that might prevent another massive cybersecurity intrusion into federal networks, but the director of the National Security Agency and head of U.S. Cyber Command insisted the answer cannot be boiled down to a single authority or investment.

DeSantis Recognizes the Threat Posed by Climate Change, but Hasn’t Embraced Reducing Carbon Emissions  (James Bruggers and Amy Green, Inside Climate News)
Environmentalists are relieved the Trump-allied Florida governor isn’t a climate denier. Still, they criticize his opposition to renewables and say his climate record is half-baked.

The Need for a Cybersecurity Protection Agency  (an Thornton-Trump, Security Boulevard)
There hasn’t been much good news in cybersecurity lately. In the first three months of 2021, organizations have been exposed by zero-days in Microsoft Exchange and Accellion’s secure file transfer appliance, and there have been revelations of three more malware strains related to the SolarWinds Orion product. This brings the total number of malware related to Orion to eight, including some that have been attributed to both Russian and Chinese operatives.
Just before we turned the dial to 2021, we ended the previous year with a chilling statistic from McAfee and the Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS): “[C]ybercrime costs the world economy more than $1 trillion, or just more than one percent of global GDP, which is up more than 50 percent from a 2018 study that put global losses at close to $600 billion.” Given the action this year already, that figure is likely to rise.

House Republicans Introduce Bill to Modernize Infrastructure Project Reviews, Cut Costs, Rebuild America  (AJOT)
The BUILDER Act modernizes the outdated National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) to make infrastructure project reviews more efficient, reduce project costs, spur economic recovery and rebuild America.

How to Save the Coastlines from Climate Change Disasters  (Michael W. Beck, Los Angeles Times)

Coastal habitats serve as a critical first line of defense, and their loss puts communities at even greater risk from coastal flooding. Coral reefs work as natural breakwaters and reduce flooding by breaking waves offshore.

Intelligence Community Actively Investigating Wuhan Lab as Possible COVID-19 Origin  (Jerry Dunleavy, Washington Examiner)
The intelligence community is investigating whether COVID-19 originated through an accidental escape from a Wuhan lab or through a natural emergence, spy agency leaders confirmed, as they warned more broadly about the Chinese Communist Party’s influence efforts inside the United States.