Exclusive: Secret Trump order gives CIA more powers to launch cyberattacks

[InfoSec News <alerts () infosecnews org>]

https://news.yahoo.com/secret-trump-order-gives-cia-more-powers-to-launch-cyberattacks-090015219.html

By Zach Dorfman, Kim Zetter, Jenna McLaughlin and Sean D. Naylor
Yahoo News
July 15, 2020

The Central Intelligence Agency has conducted a series of covert cyber 
operations against Iran and other targets since winning a secret victory 
in 2018 when President Trump signed what amounts to a sweeping 
authorization for such activities, according to former U.S. officials with 
direct knowledge of the matter.

The secret authorization, known as a presidential finding, gives the spy 
agency more freedom in both the kinds of operations it conducts and who it 
targets, undoing many restrictions that had been in place under prior 
administrations. The finding allows the CIA to more easily authorize its 
own covert cyber operations, rather than requiring the agency to get 
approval from the White House.

Unlike previous presidential findings that have focused on a specific 
foreign policy objective or outcome — such as preventing Iran from 
becoming a nuclear power — this directive, driven by the National Security 
Council and crafted by the CIA, focuses more broadly on a capability: 
covert action in cyberspace.

The “very aggressive” finding “gave the agency very specific authorities 
to really take the fight offensively to a handful of adversarial 
countries,” said a former U.S. government official. These countries 
include Russia, China, Iran and North Korea — which are mentioned directly 
in the document — but the finding potentially applies to others as well, 
according to another former official. “The White House wanted a vehicle to 
strike back,” said the second former official. “And this was the way to do 
it.”

[...]

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