Late Wednesday, Johnny Kaufman of WABE (90.1FM) tweeted out a letter signed by officials from both Google and Microsoft, urging Gov. Nathan Deal to veto Senate Bill 315, which would create a new crime of "unauthorized computer access."
The bill was authored by state Sen. Bruce Thompson, R-White, and has the backing of Attorney General Chris Carr.
SB 315 had already come under criticism because it would outlaw so-called “white hat” hacking by individuals who then report security weaknesses to those operating the computer system.
One spur for the bill was that incident in which a security researcher alerted Georgia election officials of voter data breach by Kennesaw State University, which was handling the data for the secretary of state’s office.
But this ban on “ethical hacking” is not what Google and Microsoft are worried about. They pointed to an exception written into the measure. It would not apply to “cybersecurity active defense measures that are designed to prevent or detect unauthorized computer access.”
In the trade, this is known as a "hack back" provision. On the federal level, U.S. Rep. Tom Graves, R-Ranger, made it part of his Active Cyber Defense Certainty Act that he introduced last year. From TechBeacon:
The bipartisan bill, known as the Active Cyber Defense Certainty (ACDC) Act, gives individuals and companies the legal authority to take action on servers, networks, and infrastructure they do not own to establish attribution of an attack, disrupt an ongoing attack, protect data, and monitor the attacker.
"At a time when the federal government is struggling to defend its own networks, it's unsurprising that they don't have the capability to respond effectively to millions of cyberattacks targeting individuals and businesses," Rep. Tom Graves, R-Georgia, the primary sponsor of the bill, wrote in a column published in The Hill in October.
Graves’ bill didn’t get good reviews from the tech industry. What’s the difference between “active defense” and offense? asked some cyber experts. Others warned that bad actors could raise false flags and “bait” companies into hacking into and sabotaging each other’s systems.
In their letter to the governor of Georgia, Google and Microsoft characterized the “hack back” provision in SB 315 as “potentially a grave step” that could turn Georgia into a cyber haven for bad behavior. From their letter:
"Network operators should indeed have the right and permission to defend themselves from attack, but, before Georgia endorses "hack back" authority in "defense" or even anticipation of a potential attack with no statutory criteria, it should have a much more thorough understanding of the ramifications of such a policy. Provisions such as this could easily lead to abuse and be deployed for anticompetitive, not protective purposes…
"We believe that Senate Bill 315 will make Georgia a laboratory for offensive cybersecurity practices that may have unintended consequences and that have not been authorized in other jurisdictions."
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The morning broke with news that Rear Adm. Ronny Jackson, personal physician to President Donald Trump, had withdrawn his nomination to lead the Department of Veterans Affairs amid allegations that he created a toxic work environment, wrecked a car while drunk and mishandled prescribed drugs.
The statement from Johnny Isakson, who chairs the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee that would have handled his confirmation hearing:
"I respect his decision, and I thank Admiral Jackson for his service to the country. I will work with the administration to see to it we get a VA secretary for our veterans and their families."
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Republican members of Congress took a small but major step on Tuesday, returning to the Alexandria, Va., baseball field where a gunman opened fire on them last summer as they practiced for Capitol Hill's annual charity game.
On hand yesterday for the security-heavy first practice was U.S. Rep. Barry Loudermilk, R-Cassville, one of the GOP's designated hitters. The two-term lawmaker donned the same yellow Kennesaw State University jersey he was wearing last year when shooter James Hodgkinson began spraying bullets on the field, Loudermilk told CNN:
"One of the things that stayed with me was we never got to finish the practice that we started, and that's why I wore the same uniform I was wearing on the field that day because it was important to come out here and show the world that we're not going to be deterred."
The shooting was the first of four traumatic events that befell Loudermilk and his family last year.
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U.S. Rep. Doug Collins' big day in Washington ended up being a 1 for 2 affair. Lawmakers unanimously approved the Gainesville Republican's pet music licensing bill, sending it to the Senate, but a key committee postponed consideration of a prison reform measure that sought to tackle recidivism in federal prisons, much like Georgia has at the state level.
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Stacey Evans is trying to burnish her support among black voters ahead of the start of early voting on Monday. She plans a series of meet-and-greets with in south Fulton, Clayton and DeKalb counties - three majority-black areas whose voters will be pivotal to the May 22 primary. The South Fulton event, scheduled for Sunday, is hosted by former state Rep. LaDawn Jones and includes South Fulton Mayor Bill Edwards and state Rep. Roger Bruce and former state lawmaker Virgil Fludd.
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During the recent session of the state Legislature, Gov. Nathan Deal gave a hefty push to HB 673, the distracted driving measure. So it was no surprise when he made clear on Wednesday that he might ink the bill as early as next week.
Deal told Channel 2 Action News that he believes the bill will have a “very positive effect to keep unnecessary crashes and unnecessary deaths from occurring.”
The measure would make it illegal for drivers to manually operate their cellphones in their hands, requiring motorists to use Bluetooth or another hands-free device to talk on the phone while operating a vehicle.
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Former acting Attorney General Sally Yates is continuing her most recent public swing with a half-day conference at Georgetown Law, where she's now a guest lecturer.
The longtime Atlanta lawyer is hosting the D.C. summit, called “Democracy in the Balance: The Essential Role of Democratic Institutions and Norms,” where she and other panelists are slated to discuss the importance of the rule of law, a free press and an independent judiciary.
Yates, who was fired by the president in January 2017 for defying him on his travel ban, has been giving lectures and interviews lately about her fears that Trump is eroding the nation’s confidence in its institutions.
