The White House will host a forum this morning on a new public-private initiative to tackle botnets, featuring McAfee Co-President Michael DeCesare, Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano, outgoing Cybersecurity Coordinator Howard Schmidt and National Institute of Standards and Technology Director Patrick Gallagher. The event is likely also a last-ditch effort to rally support from industry and consumer advocates for the comprehensive cybersecurity bill currently pending in the Senate (S 2105). Both liberals and conservatives have come out against the bill for different reasons, leaving the administration without significant political support for what has become a key national security issue under President Obama.
Civil liberties and privacy advocates oppose the bill's information sharing provisions, with Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., arguing the legislation is an overreaction to the cyberthreats facing the nation. Industry has been up in arms over the prospect of new baseline security standards for the networks deemed crucial to the country's national and economic security. But all hope isn't lost, yet. The White House is working to mollify the privacy concerns and has expressed optimism about its ability to do so. Meanwhile, industry lobbyists have been working to gut the security requirements, to the point that some cybersecurity experts no longer view them as useful. But even a toothless version of the Senate bill faces an uphill climb in the House, which recently passed its own information sharing bill with industry support (HR 3523).
Regardless, expect some action on cybersecurity from the Senate after the recess. Senate Democrats appear to be warming up to the idea that they must pass something or risk being left behind as the GOP seizes control of another defense issue. Neither chamber will be eager to give in and hand the other party a political win by approving their bill, so a conference committee remains the most likely path to new cybersecurity laws. But the window for taking action this year is rapidly closing, making today's event crucial for a White House looking to regain its cybersecurity mojo.
Julian Assange Faces Extradition: The British Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange should be deported to Sweden to faces allegations of sexual abuse there, according to a report from the New York Times. British authorities are expected to announced an extradition date within 10 days. Assange spoke to Swedish police in August 2010 after two women there accused him of sexual abuse, before eventually fleeing to London. Assange has said the encounters were consensual. He has portrayed the charges as a prelude to an attempt by the U.S. and other governments to extradite him to the U.S., where he could face espionage charges for publishing thousands of classified documents on WikiLeaks. The site issued a statement citing reports the Obama administration has obtained a sealed indictment against Assange; those reports have not been confirmed by U.S. officials. WikiLeaks has not published significant material in more than a year, following a campaign by the American government to cut off its sources of funding. Support Growing for STEM Visas: CQ's David Harrison reports House Judiciary chairman Lamar Smith of Texas and Rep. Tim Griffin of Arkansas are working on a bill that would shift up to 50,000 green cards from a visa lottery to highly-skilled workers, the latest signal that lawmakers are in agreement on the need to recruit more science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) graduates. The pair of Republicans are hoping to attract Democratic support for their bill, which would eliminate the 50,000 so-called diversity visas awarded at random to foreigners with a high school diploma or equivalent work experience. Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, has introduced a Senate version of the bill. Tech companies have consistently maintained that the shortage of qualified workers is a limit on growth, prompting a slew of recent proposals that would increase the number of green cards available to STEM graduates. Griffin and Smith are hoping to attract bipartisan support for their bill, but the Democrats have been holding out on skilled-worker visas in hopes of tackling broader immigration reform. Senators Slam NOAA Reprogramming Request: Sens. Barbara Mikulski, D-Md., and Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, took aim at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration recently for shifting funds from important technology programs to support basic weather forecasting and preserve jobs at the expense of some equipment upgrades. CQ's Kerry Young and Niels Lesniewski report the National Weather Service revealed in a memo last week that it had moved funds between accounts without Congressional approval in 2010 and 2011, prompting NWS director Jack Hayes to resign. NOAA is now seeking approval from lawmakers to reprogram $26 million in fiscal 2012 funding to prevent furloughs and office closings in its local warnings and forecast unit. But the Senators objected to the shift, and said they won't approve it until NOAA figures out how to pay for its weather-watching operations. Malware That Won't Go Away: The Economist's Babbage blog notes an FBI raid in November to shut down a malware operation led to six arrests and one extradition, but officials haven't been able to prevent the DNS Changer Trojan horse from re-directing users to scam websites. Most users will have to reinstall their operating system or take similarly advanced steps to remove the malware, which is why the FBI secured a judge's permission to take over the DNS service until the malware was rooted out. That permission will run out on July 9, at which point hundreds of thousands of users may find themselves unable to connect to the Web. Tech companies are doing their best to inform consumers of the looming disruption, but even those warnings may appear to be a scam to those unaware of the threat. Further evidence that trust and verification remain the greatest barriers to securing the Web.