Tag Archive for: pushing

China eyes pushing US IPO-bound firms to hand over data control: Sources

/in


HONG KONG: Chinese regulators are considering pressing data-rich companies to hand over management and supervision of their data to third-party firms if they want US stock listings, sources said, as part of Beijing’s unprecedented scrutiny of private sector firms.

The regulators believe bringing in third-party information security firms, ideally state-backed, to manage and monitor IPO hopefuls’ data could effectively limit their ability to transfer Chinese onshore data overseas, one of the people said.

That would help ease Beijing’s growing concerns that a foreign listing might force such Chinese companies to hand over some of their data to foreign entities and undermine national security, added the person.

The plan is one of several proposals under consideration by Chinese regulators as Beijing has tightened its grip on the country’s internet platforms in recent months, including looking to sharpen scrutiny of overseas listings.

The crackdown, which has smashed stocks and badly dented investor sentiment, has particularly targeted unfair competition and internet companies’ handling of an enormous cache of consumer data, after years of a more laissez-faire approach.

A final decision on the IPO-bound companies’ data handover plan is yet to be made, said the sources, who declined to be identified due to the sensitivity of the matter.

The regulatory officials have discussed the plan with capital market participants, said one of the sources, as part of moves to strengthen supervision of all Chinese firms listed offshore.

IPO advisers are hopeful a formal framework on the data handover issue could be delivered in September, said the source.

The China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) and the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) did not respond to faxed requests for comment.

Chinese regulators have recently put companies’ overseas listing plans, particularly in the United States, on hold pending new rules on data security.

Last month, the CAC proposed draft rules calling for companies with over 1 million users to undergo security reviews before listing overseas.

The US Securities and Exchange Commission, which oversees US-listings, did not immediately respond to a request for…

Source…

SolarWinds hack has lawmakers pushing for national breach notification law

/in


Lawmakers will push to pass a mandatory data breach notification law following the high-profile attack last year on SolarWinds, the network management and IT security company.

The compromise of the SolarWinds Orion IT monitoring and management software package, suspected to be the work of hackers affiliated with the Russian government, has compromised about 100 companies and nine U.S. agencies, including the departments of Homeland Security, State, and Justice. Up to 17,000 SolarWinds customers downloaded the malware.

Microsoft President Brad Smith called the SolarWinds hack “the largest and most sophisticated attack the world has ever seen” during a Feb. 26 hearing before two House committees.

During the hearing, several lawmakers promised to push a national data breach notification law this year. An upcoming bill would require companies to share information about breaches with the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency but allow them to keep their names anonymous to the general public, said Rep. Michael McCaul.

The bill McCaul plans to introduce with Rep. Jim Langevin would presumably include penalties for failing to disclose breaches. All 50 states have their own data breach notification laws, some with significant fines for failure to disclose.

Lawmakers have for years tried to pass a federal breach notification law but have so far failed. Advocates of a national law say it would create a consistent breach notification standard with consistent penalties. However, some critics question whether federal law would water down tougher state laws.

In addition to a handful of lawmakers calling for a national breach notification law during the hearing, Smith also said it’s time for federal rules. Sharing threat information is “something that doesn’t happen broadly enough across the industry,” he said during the hearing.

Currently, reporting data breaches can open up companies to scrutiny from Congress and the public, Smith said. “A lot of companies choose to say as little as possible, and often, that’s nothing,” he added. “But silence is not going to make this country…

Source…

Editorial: Guard against manipulation that is pushing chaos

/in


Journal-Courier staff, [email protected]

Published

A day away from the 2020 presidential election, the United States finds itself in almost the opposite predicament from four years ago: Far from ignoring foreign interference, we’re in danger of imagining more of it than exists — and that in itself could cause big problems.

Adversaries from Russia to China to Iran are indeed assailing our democracy, a reality that should come as no surprise to anyone paying attention — but the good news is that this time, our government is paying attention. Influence operations on social media sites are getting caught before they can gain much ground. What the hack-and-leak experts have dreaded so far hasn’t happened.

President Trump has refused even to acknowledge what happened last time around, yet that hasn’t stopped top security agencies from taking action. The Treasury Department has sanctioned multiple individuals who have attempted to meddle, including Ukrainian lawmaker Andriy Derkach for acting as a Russian agent to launder disinformation through U.S. sources discrediting former vice president Joe Biden; this step, in turn, empowered platforms like Google and Facebook to kick the criminals off their sites. The State Department has revoked the visas of similar actors. U.S. Cyber Command and the National Security Agency are preemptively keeping malicious botnets off the Web to prevent ransomware attacks and other nefariousness on Tuesday.




The Department of Homeland Security is coordinating with officials in all 50 states and D.C. to secure their infrastructure and spot intruders — which may have helped authorities spot the same sort of probes by Moscow into local computer networks they missed in 2016. Last week, DHS said a group sometimes known as…

Source…