Unswayed by hacking breach, Trump threatens to veto a bill aimed at fortifying cyberdefense.
President Trump is surrounded by Naval Midshipmen during the 121st Army-Navy football game at West Point, N.Y., on Saturday.
President Trump is surrounded by Naval Midshipmen during the 121st Army-Navy football game at West Point, N.Y., on Saturday.Credit…Samuel Corum for The New York Times
Even in light of statements from federal officials that a recently-discovered hack by foreign agents penetrated deep into some of the most heavily guarded corners of government networks, President Trump on Thursday threatened to veto a military spending bill that contains provisions aimed at protecting against similar hacking operations.
Mr. Trump’s veto threat has focused on his demands that Congress roll back legal protections for social media companies.
The military bill contains two dozen provisions to strengthen cyberdefenses from a congressionally established bipartisan commission. It gives the federal government the ability to actively hunt for foreign hackers trying to penetrate computer networks and establishes a national cyberdirector who would coordinate the government’s defenses and responses to such attacks.
While the full extent of the breach is still being investigated, it already appears to have extended beyond critical government systems such as those of the Pentagon, Treasury and Commerce Department, and also affected dozens of companies and think tanks. The scope of the intrusion expands each day as investigators have learned more, but officials have revealed nothing about what information the Russian spies stole or what they were seeking.
Had the provisions in the bill been in place this year, the Trump administration might have had a better shot at detecting and stopping the breach more quickly, according to a number of lawmakers.
On Friday, six Republican members of the House Armed Services Committee, including a member of Republican leadership, released a joint statement in support of the bill, highlighting its cybersecurity provisions.
The statement does not address Mr. Trump’s planned veto, instead stressing that the bill is vital for national security, as American adversaries “will take advantage of any opportunity to attack vulnerabilities in our cyber infrastructure.” Representative Liz Cheney of Wyoming, the No. 3 Republican leader in the House, and Representative Mac Thornberry, the ranking Republican on the armed services committee, were among the signatories of the statement.
“Our nation must respond to the reported cyber espionage operation targeting America’s nuclear infrastructure and federal government and hold the perpetrator accountable. This attack serves as a stark warning that our nation must bolster its cybersecurity posture and capabilities, and it must do so without delay,” the lawmakers said.
Other commission recommendations that might have also helped discover the recent Russian hack far sooner, including giving the government the power to search for threats on some private networks, did not make it into this year’s bill.
The commission announced its recommendations in March. Congress wrote 23 of them into the annual military bill that passed both houses with veto-proof margins this month. Representative Mike Gallagher, Republican of Wisconsin and chairman of the congressional commission, said that none guaranteed the hack would have been stopped but that giving the Department of Homeland Security more power to hunt for threats across the federal government would have provided “a shot” at detecting the intrusion earlier.
Mr. Trump has until next week to veto the bill, and the longer he waits, the more difficult it could be for Congress to override his decision, which could require bringing lawmakers to Washington after Christmas, or squeezing in a last vote on Jan. 3, just before the next Congress is seated.
— Julian E. Barnes
UNDER THREAT
A veto by the president could kneecap efforts to fend off future cyberattacks. The New York Times
Me: you have to ask yourself why?