Summary:
Homeland Security Advisor Tom Bosser has said that cloud services are the security solution for the cyberinfrastructure of the 190 agencies within the Federal government.

Summary:
In Carpenter v. U.S., the government is asking for access to the numbers dialed by a cellphone without showing probable cause. Although previous Supreme Court decisions have denied such access, based on Fourth Amendment protections, the Justice Department may argue that such decisions should be re-examined in the light of law enforcement's reliance on technology in its investigations.

Summary:
Forensic analysis of malware samples associated with power grid disruptions in the US and the Ukraine shows that Russians are associated with the software development and deployment.

This report, by the Dragos cybersecurity company, describes the software: CRASHOVERRIDE, Analysis of the Threat, to Electric Grid Operations. It is designed to map out the power control devices on a network and to replace the communication protocols with ones controlled by the adversary. Tor network nodes were apparently involved in at least one attack.

Summary:
The Australian attorney general has suggested that some kind of cross-jurisdictional system would compel communication device makers and social media companies to "cooperate" by providing access to data encrypted by users. Although he has not suggested a "backdoor" for encryption, some experts wonder if there is any alternative solution to Brandis's dilemma.

Summary:
Attempts to interfere with the nuts and bolts systems associated with voting in the 2016 presidential election were detected in 39 states. The hacking is widely believed to have originated from Russians. "They're coming after America," former FBI director James Comey told the Senate Intelligence Committee investigating Russian interference in the election. "They will be back."

Summary:
The NSA says that the WannaCry ransomware worm was likely a product of North Korea. If it was an attempt to finance that secretive country, it was a decisive failure. The few Bitcoins that were paid are traceable, making them an undesirable asset for any currency exchange.

Summary:
Any software speciality has its vendor, and that includes malware. A recent indictment names a pair of Latvians with a co-conspirator in Virginia that have been running a site that offers a "buffet" of hacking software, including keyloggers and remote access Trojans to their 30K customers.

Summary:
Using his official communication channel on Twitter, the President of the United States spoke favorably of a partnership with Russia on cybersecurity. The two countries would create some sort of "impenetrable Cyber Security unit so that election hacking, & many other negative things, will be guarded." The idea was met with widespread skepticism and sarcasm. Later, the President said that the partnership could not happen.

Summary:
US Military emails go through the gateway "mail.gov" where they are screened for viruses. The email is not encrypted, and this has attracted the atttention of Senator Ron Wyden. His query to DISA, which runs the gateway, elicited a response blaming old technology for the omission. The servers cannot enable encryption and still scan the email for malware. The computers will be upgraded next year, and at that time the STARTTLS option for SMTP will be enabled by default.

Summary: The US Office of Science and Technology (OSTP) has only a fraction of the number of members that it did under the previous administration. The most significant position, that of science advisor, remain unfilled. The article points out that "... without a science adviser, OSTP career staff cannot establish new working groups, call meetings or approve budgets." This seems to leave cybersecurity without a clear direction.