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Happy Friday and Happy Holidays!

The Truman/CNP office will be closing next Wednesday till January 5 so this
is the last round up of the year. Please continue to send in your hits in
the interim and we will include them in the January edition.

-Steph


Media week of 12.13.14


12/12/14, E&E News: 'Latent' cyberthreats bring new challenges to bulk
power system -- security official [paywalled], by Blake Sobczak and Peter
Behr, mentions the Center for National Policy (full text below)


12/15/14, Huffington Post: Tragedy or Pittance?
<http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jonathanfreeman/tragedy-or-pittance_b_6324246.html>,
by Jonathan Freeman, Truman Project Fellow


12/15/14, TIME: Dick Cheney’s Belief in the Value of Torture Undoes America
<http://time.com/3634999/dick-cheneys-torture-report/>, by David L. Knoll,
Truman Project Fellow


12/15/14, Cagle: Obama Can't Win on Oil Prices
<http://www.caglecartoons.com/column.asp?columnID=%7B63A73FC5-A30F-4C92-A979-07C0403C38D0%7D>,
by Jason Stanford, Truman Project Partner


12/15/14, Defense One: Ash Carter’s Asia Plans
<http://www.defenseone.com/management/2014/12/ash-carters-asia-plans/101301/?oref=d-river>,
by Adam Tiffen, Truman Project Defense Council


12/16/14, Defense One: The D Brief
<http://www.defenseone.com/news/2014/12/d-brief-dec-16/101331/>, by Gordon
Lubold, mentions Adam Tiffen, Truman Project Defense Council


*…And, Carter is under no illusions about the security dynamics at play in
the Asia-Pacific, *where the Pentagon will continue to deliver on the
president’s multi-faceted pivot to the region, *argues Iraq and Afghan war
veteran Adam Tiffen, now with the Truman National Security Project’s
Defense Council*
<http://www.defenseone.com/management/2014/12/ash-carters-asia-plans/101301/?oref=d_brief_nl>
*.*


12/17/14, PR Newswire: Measure, A 32 Advisors Company Announces DC and
Dakar hires
<http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/measure-a-32-advisors-company-announces-dc-and-dakar-hires-300011347.html>,
mentions Sidney Olinyk, former Truman Project Leadership Development
Director


12/17/14, MSNBC: Fmr. White House Cyber Advisor: White House Breach “Not
Out Of The Question”
<http://www.msnbc.com/hardball/fmr-white-house-cyber-advisor-white-house-breach-not-out-the-question>,
by Jesse Bergman, quotes Truman Fellow Chris Finan, Center for National
Policy


12/17/14, Cagle: 2016 Presidential Campaign Already Boring
<http://www.caglecartoons.com/column.asp?columnID=%7B769A8771-289E-466B-B94C-9D1C905A7235%7D>,
by Jason Stanford, Truman Project Partner


12/17/14 The Diplomat Support for Democracy Should Be the US Strategy for
Asia
<http://thediplomat.com/2014/12/support-for-democracy-should-be-the-us-strategy-for-asia/>
by Scott Bates, CNP President


12/18/14, War on the Rocks: James Bond And Japan’s Understated Whisky
Craftsmanship
<http://warontherocks.com/2014/12/james-bond-and-japans-understated-whisky-craftsmanship/>,
by Joshua Walker, Truman Project Fellow


12/18/14 Al Jazeera America ISIL Segment
<http://mediacenter.tveyes.com/downloadgateway.aspx?UserID=172084&MDID=4391530&MDSeed=2816&Type=Media>
feat. Mike Lyons, Truman Project Fellow


12/18/14 MSNBC Hardball with Chris Matthews Sony Hack
<http://mediacenter.tveyes.com/downloadgateway.aspx?UserID=172084&MDID=4390408&MDSeed=4366&Type=Media>
feat. Chris Finan Part 2
<http://mediacenter.tveyes.com/downloadgateway.aspx?UserID=172084&MDID=4390413&MDSeed=2253&Type=Media>


12/18/14 NBC Bay Area Security Experts on Sony Hack: "WWIII Looks Like This"
<http://www.nbcbayarea.com/video/#!/on-air/as-seen-on/Security-Experts-on-Sony-Hack---22WWIII-Looks-Like-This-22/286308281>
quotes Michael McNerney, Truman Project Fellow


12/19/14 Inside Sources The Only Thing We have to Fear is Ourselves
<http://www.insidesources.com/the-only-thing-we-have-to-fear-is-ourselves/>
by Brian Wagner, Truman Project Partner


12/19/14 MSNBC Ronan Daily Segment on Sony Hack
<http://mediacenter.tveyes.com/downloadgateway.aspx?UserID=172084&MDID=4391690&MDSeed=6597&Type=Media>
feat. Chris Finan, Truman Project Fellow


12/19/14 Roll Call FDR Would Have Supported the TPP; Congress Should Too
<http://www.rollcall.com/news/fdr_would_have_supported_the_tpp_congress_should_too_commentary-238871-1.html>
by Steve Glickman, Truman Project Fellow


12/19/14 BBC World Segment on Women in Combat feat. Kristen Rouse, Truman
Project Defense Council (link pending)


Non-Truman/CNP byline

12/14/14, Philadelphia Enquirer: The need to defeat the ISIS 'center of
gravity'
<http://www.philly.com/philly/opinion/20141214_The_need_to_defeat_the_ISIS__center_of_gravity_.html#tYQHqU5ktcmEpJtF.99>,
by Paul McHale, CNP Board Member


12/15/14, Roll Call: Washington Needs to Embrace the Now Generation |
Commentary
<http://www.rollcall.com/news/washington_needs_to_embrace_the_now_generation_commentary-238759-1.html?pg=1&dczone=opinion>,
by Ross Seidman, Truman Project & CNP Intern


12/16/14, Al Jazeera America: ‘I’ll ride with you’ movement grows
<http://america.aljazeera.com/watch/shows/live-news/2014/12/-i-ll-ride-with-youpresencegrows.html>,
feat. Hussein Rashid, Truman Project Fellow


12/18/14, The Westerly Sun: Crouse named 1st selectman in Stonington
<http://www.thewesterlysun.com/news/latestnews/6410663-129/its-official-crouse-is-named-new-first-selectman-in-stonington.html#.VJEKyK5FD8c.email>,
by Nancy Lavin, quotes Scott Bates, CNP President


12/18/14, Overt Action: A CIA Officer Runs for Congress
<http://www.overtaction.org/2014/12/a-cia-officer-runs-for-congress/>, by
Kevin Strouse, Truman Project Partner


*'Latent' cyberthreats bring new challenges to bulk power system --
security official*

Blake Sobczak and Peter Behr, E&E reporters

Published: Friday, December 12, 2014

A new breed of hackers may wait patiently to strike the bulk power system,
forcing grid operators to "crowdsource" their expertise on cyberthreats, a
leading security official said yesterday.

"They move so fast -- they might even be latent right now -- that we don't
know exactly when they're going to arrive," said Fred Hintermister, manager
and key member of the Electricity Sector Information Sharing and Analysis
Center (ES-ISAC), an industry-run source for cyber intelligence.
Cyberattacks "arrive in the middle of the night. They arrive on
a Friday afternoon when operators are changing shifts. They arrive when we
have low reserve margins on a very hot day in the summer."

Hintermister's warning comes just three weeks after the head of the
National Security Agency said state-sponsored hackers already have access
to critical U.S. systems, including parts of the power grid (*EnergyWire*
<http://www.eenews.net/energywire/stories/1060009391/>, Nov. 21).

NSA Director Michael Rogers told members of the House Select Committee on
Intelligence that "it is only a matter of when, not if, we are going to see
something dramatic."

Hintermister called Rogers' statements "responsible," given the importance
of highlighting and countering risks to critical infrastructure.

The looming cyberthreat to the grid "could be latent, or it could be
kinetic, and do we want as a society and as a community to wait for that
moment that it's kinetic?" Hintermister told reporters in Washington, D.C.,
yesterday at a breakfast hosted by the consulting firm ICF International.

He added that it is important to keep the dialogue "risk-informed and
data-driven."

Hintermister's organization pools threat data from government and industry
sources, analyzes them and sends intelligence out to power companies. The
ES-ISAC is part of the North American Electric Reliability Corp. (NERC), a
nonprofit grid overseer that also drafts and enforces cybersecurity
standards for electric utilities.

The ES-ISAC is kept separate from NERC's enforcement division so executives
feel comfortable sharing information, Hintermister noted. His managing
position grants him a front-row seat to the most pressing cyberthreats and
vulnerabilities in the North American bulk power system.

Due to its sensitivity, much of that information doesn't get shared beyond
the boardrooms and operating floors of ES-ISAC's industry members. However,
companies are required to report potential grid disturbances -- including
cyberattacks -- to the Department of Energy, and a Department of Homeland
Security division occasionally offers public alerts on pressing
cyberattacks or flaws in equipment.

On Wednesday, DHS issued an update to a previous alert about an "ongoing
sophisticated malware campaign," offering new technical details about how
to root out a variant of the "BlackEnergy" malware known to target and
infect industrial control systems (*EnergyWire*
<http://www.eenews.net/energywire/stories/1060008193/>, Oct. 31).

*The quiet and the noisy*

The BlackEnergy attack is an example of an "advanced persistent threat"
campaign that involves multilayered intrusion and compromise techniques,
highlighted most recently by last month's breach of Sony Pictures
Entertainment's corporate email and internal data systems. Parts of the
Sony network were taken down and, in addition, large amounts of Sony
content -- including unreleased films -- were leaked to unauthorized
file-sharing websites.

The Sony attack was a major topic in a security conference in Washington,
D.C., yesterday sponsored by the Center for National Policy and the Council
on Cybersecurity.

"I think very little is actually known in the public space about what
happened in the Sony attack," said Jane Holl Lute, president of the Council
on Cybersecurity. It will take more analysis to understand whether this was
a more commonplace breach that effective defenses could have stopped, or
whether it was a one-off, highly specialized and targeted attack, she said.

Some cybersecurity analysts have theorized that the attack had North Korean
origins and was meant to punish Sony for the company's backing of the film
"The Interview," a comedy due for release this month about two CIA recruits
hired to assassinate North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

"This is not a terribly unusual attack in terms of the size and scope of
the theft and the data loss," said conference panelist Jacob Olcott, a
principal at Good Harbor Security Risk Management. "The difference is, this
is the first time that anyone is actually hearing about it."

The decision to expose data is the "big new twist," Olcott said. "What
seems unusual is that if it's true that a nation-state was involved, this
is probably the first time we can think of that a nation-state actually
exposed a significant amount of information."

Tony Sager, chief technologist at Council on Cybersecurity, agreed that the
content of the hack was its most "fascinating" part.

"It's the sum total: the embarrassment, the negative consequences for their
partners, movie stars, movie practices, the way Sony approaches
negotiations," he said. "This will reverberate for a while."

In contrast to the BlackEnergy cyberattacks and their quiet, patient
attempts to reach critical infrastructure, experts said the Sony hack was
meant to grab attention and shake the studio, which had already been seeing
some financial troubles.

"I will be watching for the legal fallout here," Olcott said, "which I
think will be very, very significant."

Twitter: @BlakeSobczak <https://twitter.com/BlakeSobczak> | Email:
bsobczak@eenews.net


Stephanie Dreyer
Communications Director
Truman National Security Project & Center for National Policy

Cell: 914.715.6087
Office: 202.216.9723 ext 232