China chip hacking story continues to mystify — Half of agencies meeting email anti-spoofing standard
Election Day is four weeks away and MC will be watching several races closely for their potential impact on cybersecurity policy.
— Will Hurd: Considered to be one of the most vulnerable Republican incumbents in the country, the second-term lawmaker is facing off against Democrat Gina Ortiz Jones, an Iraq War veteran and former Obama administration official. Hurd — a former CIA officer, computer science major and cybersecurity executive — chairs the House Oversight Subcommittee on Information Technology and serves on the Homeland Security and Intelligence committees. There isn’t a lot of polling for the race, though a survey conducted last month by The New York Times and Siena College showed potential good news for the incumbent.
— Tom Reed: While the GOP incumbent isn’t known for working on digital issues, Reed faces a challenger with a lengthy cyber background. Tracy Mitrano was the Director of Information Technology Policy at Cornell University between 2001 and 2014, according to her campaign website. Polling has been practically nonexistent, though Mitrano’s campaign issued a poll that contended Reed — who received a Twitter shoutout from President Donald Trump — is unpopular in the upstate New York distract.
— Bill Nelson: The top Democrat on the Senate Commerce Committee and the Armed Services Cybersecurity subpanel is in a slugfest with Gov. Rick Scott. Nelson landed in hot water this summer when he said Russian hackers penetrated Florida’s election system. Scott and the National Republican Senatorial Committee seized Nelson’s remarks, accusing him of illegally releasing classified information. The basis of Nelson’s claim, apparently, is a 2016 hack of Tallahassee election vendor VR Systems, which according to a cyber expert briefed on it is an “ongoing” threat, according to NBC News. A handy Real Clear Politics breakdown of polling averages gives Nelson a slight edge.
— Claire McCaskill: The ranking member on the Senate Homeland Security Committee is in perhaps the most contentious race in the country right now. A CNN poll released last week showed McCaskill in a statistical tie with Missouri Attorney General Josh Hawley. McCaskill scored a legislative win last month when her committee passed a bill (S. 3085) she co-sponsored that would create an interagency council to establish rules that augment the cybersecurity of government supply chains.
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