Russia export controls and sanctions

Allegations that Russia-backed hackers tried to disrupt the U.S. political process prompted Senate Homeland Security Committee ranking member Tom Carper, D-Del., to get information from Twitter. A Thursday letter to CEO Jack Dorsey cited reports the Russian Federal Security Service and the nation's military intelligence may have been involved in trying "to influence public opinion through the malicious use of Twitter and other social networking services." Carper said such "social" cyberattacks through bots, which he described as automated and false accounts, "pollute information streams by generating messages that appear to come from many different users." He asked Dorsey how his company estimates the number of false or spam accounts and if it has the ability to track or estimate the number of such accounts controlled by potential Russian state actors. Carper wants information by Sept. 30. Twitter didn't comment Friday. It's been suspending accounts since 2015 for promoting terrorism (see 1608180066) -- which Carper acknowledged. Twitter, Facebook, Google and Microsoft have been fighting online hate speech in Europe (see 1605310051 and 1606030037).

The chairmen of the House and Senate Commerce and Judiciary committees jointly urged the departments of Commerce and Justice Thursday to reconsider proceeding with the planned Internet Assigned Numbers Authority transition Oct. 1, saying they have serious concerns about ICANN's existing transition-related plans. The letter to Attorney General Loretta Lynch and Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker follows increased interest from Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John Thune, R-S.D., and other Senate leaders in including an extension of a rider in the Department of Commerce's FY 2016 budget that bars NTIA from using federal funds on the transition via the planned short-term resolution to fund the government once FY 2016 expires Sept. 30 (see 1609070053). An extension of the transition funding ban rider would delay NTIA's plan to allow its existing contract with ICANN to administer the IANA functions to expire as planned just before midnight Sept. 30.

Charter Communications hires Elizabeth Biley Andrion, ex-FCC, as senior vice president-regulatory affairs, and moves in government affairs Senior Vice President Alex Hoehn-Saric to newly created position of senior vice president-policy and external affairs ... Wiley Rein promotes David Gross and Kathleen Kirby to co-chairs, Telecom, Media & Technology practice ... Covington & Burling hires Jadzia Butler, Center for Democracy & Technology privacy, surveillance and security fellow, as associate, effective Oct. 10 ... Goodwin law firm adds Karen Neuman, ex-Department of Homeland Security, as partner, Privacy & Cybersecurity practice, and as privacy lead in Washington office ... Wilkinson Barker hires Mark Settle, ex-FCC Office of Engineering and Technology, as senior engineering adviser, and Danielle Thumann, Catholic University graduate, as associate.

Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton and vice presidential running mate Tim Kaine, senator from Virginia, will fight “for an open Internet abroad,” they said in a 288-page policy book published by Simon & Schuster Tuesday. Clinton previously outlined a tech and telecom agenda and defended net neutrality, including in the latest order issued by the FCC. The book collects those promises and affirmatively says broadband will be part of her first-100-days infrastructure plan -- the largest investment since World War II, she's said (see 1606280071).

The internet industry continues to support the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority transition because it “aligns the interests of internet users, prevents capture by any one stakeholder group or government such as China or Russia, and lays the foundation for a stable and secure internet,” said Internet Association CEO Michael Beckerman in response to questions. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla, had sent follow-up questions about Beckerman’s testimony during a May Senate Commerce Committee hearing on the IANA transition. Rubio backed delaying the IANA transition during the hearing, in which Beckerman and several others strongly backed going forward with the transition as planned for Oct. 1 (see 1605240067). Beckerman responded to Rubio’s concerns about ICANN’s commitment to mitigate Domain Name System abuse via contract enforcement, saying IA “firmly supports the ability of ICANN to enforce its contracts with registries and registrars.” It's in IA’s interest “to prevent abusive behavior in” the DNS, Beckerman said: “Because the ICANN community is now empowered to challenge action or inaction by the [ICANN board] and is developing additional accountability mechanisms” via the Cross Community Working Group on Enhancing ICANN Accountability’s, work on a second set of accountability mechanism changes will make it “possible to ensure that the Board is exercising oversight that results in ICANN’s proper execution of its enforcement role according to ICANN’s bylaws.” Beckerman also said aspects of a set of changes to ICANN’s accountability mechanisms for the IANA transition preserved the entity's ability to enforce its existing contracts: “ICANN has a narrow technical remit and, as ICANN CEO Göran Marby recently pledged, does not have the authority or capability to ‘interpret or enforce laws regulating websites or website content.’”

More confidence in the process of information sharing between the public and private sectors would help in addressing cybersecurity challenges, Sen. Ben Cardin, D-Md., told county officials in Ocean City, Maryland, Thursday. “Every day we are being attacked,” Cardin said. “We are being attacked by criminals who are stealing. … They’re stealing money, they’re stealing industry designs, they’re stealing intellectual property.” He referred to “actively engaged” cybersecurity soldiers, citing threats from Russia, China and additional unnamed countries, and “cyberterrorists” striving to attack the U.S. financial, energy and transportation systems. He touted an amendment he backs -- and detailed in a May news release -- “to make the Cyber Command a full military command comparable to our regional command structures within DOD,” and touted Maryland’s leadership on cybersecurity. “Maryland is the cybersecurity center, we think, of the universe,” Cardin said, referring to Fort Meade and the National Institute of Standards and Technology, both in the state. There are “increased resources being made available to deal with the threat of cyber,” he said. He cited what he called the leadership of retiring Sen. Barbara Mikulski, D-Md., on this and other issues and said he met with her on “hand-off” issues to allow the Maryland delegation to “carry on” without any loss in pursuing its priorities. National Association of Counties Executive Director Matthew Chase cited a Thursday morning meeting with House committee staffers on cybersecurity in the context of the U.S. elections. There’s an “incredibly lengthy” list of priorities left between now and end of this Congress, Chase said. Cardin said Congress will have three weeks in session in September before the elections. Federal funding will expire Sept. 30 absent congressional action. “We need to get a budget number in September that gives you the predictability that your federal partner will be there to help you,” Cardin said.

NTIA “intends to allow” its current contract with ICANN to administer the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) functions to expire just before midnight Sept. 30 and therefore allow the IANA transition to occur Oct. 1 as planned, NTIA Administrator Larry Strickling said Tuesday. NTIA believes a Friday report from ICANN on its progress with pre-transition implementation work shows the transition can occur “barring any significant impediment,” Strickling said in a letter to ICANN CEO Göran Marby. ICANN told NTIA it believes it will be able to complete all necessary governance changes before the IANA transition, including all but three of the recommendations NTIA made in its June assessment of transition-related plans. The three remaining recommendations require ICANN’s Public Technical Identifiers (PTI) subsidiary, which will be in charge of administering the IANA functions post-transition, to be engaged in post-transition operations (see 1608150056).

Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, said he's a leader in fighting against the FCC Communications Act Title II net neutrality order and the Obama administration’s planned Internet Assigned Numbers Authority transition. “Knuckle-headed regulation” has been “strangling small businesses,” Cruz told the San Antonio Chamber of Commerce Wednesday. “The FCC has declared the internet a regulated public utility,” Cruz said. “It’s trying to apply the laws of telecoms to the internet. The phone industry, very heavily regulated, they want to make the internet the same thing.” That reclassification would require industry to seek permission for changes in terms of service and pricing and innovation and is “something I’ve been very active in the Senate leading the fight against,” Cruz argued. The FCC says it has no interest in regulating broadband rates. The internet should be “free of taxes, free of government, keep the government the heck out,” Cruz said, calling the internet an incubator for small businesses. He cited Sept. 30’s importance in the IANA transition, saying it “gives Russia and China a veto over control of the internet” and would allow other countries to do what they do in their own countries and silence voices. “I got to tell you, in my view, that’s nuts,” Cruz said, calling the transition proceeding contrary to the will of Congress. “I can tell you, in the Senate I’m leading the fight to stop the giveaway of the internet, to keep it open and free, which is important for jobs.” Cruz, a Commerce Committee member, invoked his internet policy positions last month in speaking to the Republican National Convention (see 1607210023) and is among GOP senators backing legislation to kill the FCC open internet order (see 1602260064).

Sens. Chris Coons, D-Del., and Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., urged Judiciary Committee Oversight Subcommittee Chairman Ted Cruz, R-Texas, to hold an oversight hearing into possible Russian government involvement in the hacking of Democratic National Committee servers. Coons is the Oversight ranking member. DNC-hired investigators said the hack, which resulted in WikiLeaks’ publication last month of almost 20,000 emails from seven top DNC officials’ accounts, had Russian government backing (see 1607270061). The FBI has been investigating the DNC hack and has avoided implicating Russia. An oversight hearing on the DNC hack should be used “to determine whether existing federal criminal statutes and federal court jurisdiction sufficiently address conduct related to foreign entities that could undermine our elections,” Coons and Whitehouse said in a letter to Cruz. Coons and Whitehouse also raised concerns about GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump’s comments on the DNC hack, which the senators said are an “unprecedented call for a foreign government to spy on a U.S. citizen and interfere with a U.S election.” Trump told reporters last week that he hopes Russia is “able to find the 33,000 emails that are missing -- I think you will probably be rewarded mightily by our press.” Trump later claimed he was being sarcastic. Trump’s comments “implicate U.S. criminal laws prohibiting engagement with foreign governments that threaten the country’s interests, including the Logan Act and the Espionage Act,” Coons and Whitehouse said. The comments also invite Russia to “engage in conduct that would violate the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act and, if performed by the U.S. government, would contravene the Fourth Amendment.” A cybersecurity lobbyist told us it’s unlikely a hearing on the DNC hack would focus on Trump’s comments, particularly if Cruz chaired it because the longstanding feud between Cruz and Trump would make a focus on the comments appear to be “unseemly.” Cruz’s office didn’t comment.

The recent leak of Democratic National Committee emails believed to have been stolen during a 2015 hack of DNC servers has the potential to increase the visibility of cybersecurity as an issue during the 2016 presidential campaign beyond the already-heightened profile that cybersecurity received in the Democratic and Republican parties' platforms, experts and lobbyists told us. WikiLeaks published the contents last week of almost 20,000 emails from the accounts of seven senior DNC officials, and the controversy over the emails' contents led to the resignation of Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Fla., as DNC chairwoman.