Tag Archive for: proposal

Inside TikTok’s proposal to address US national security concerns


TikTok has presented a detailed proposal to a secretive federal panel that will decide its future in the U.S. that relies extensively on the American tech giant Oracle to mitigate perceived security risks of the viral video app.

A TikTok official speaking on condition of anonymity described the company’s proposal to the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States to CyberScoop. Aspects of the proposal, known as Project Texas (a likely reference to Oracle’s Austin headquarters), have been previously reported and briefed to members of civil society, but as negotiations have stalled with CFIUS, which will decide whether the company can continue to operate in the U.S., the company has begun to describe the proposal in greater technical detail. 

Under the terms of the proposal, TikTok would divulge core segments of its technology to Oracle and a set of third-party auditors who would verify that the app is not promoting content in line with Beijing’s wishes or sharing U.S. user data with China. 

“Project Texas effort clearly reflects a serious effort to address U.S. government concerns and has been informed by years of negotiation,” said Samm Sacks, a senior fellow at Yale Law School’s Paul Tsai China Center who has been briefed on the plan. “My key takeaway is that you don’t have to trust TikTok or the Chinese government, because at least from what I can understand of the contours of this plan is that the U.S. government would have the ultimate oversight and monitoring of compliance with whatever they agree to.”

The proposal from TikTok, which is owned by the Chinese company ByteDance, represents an attempt to end a battle between TikTok and the U.S. government dating back to the Trump administration over whether it represents a national security threat. In 2020, President Trump attempted to ban the app and force its sale to a U.S. firm. That effort collapsed, and when President Biden entered office, he rescinded the ban, which had been ruled unlawful in U.S. courts. Yet, calls to outlaw TikTok have resurfaced over the past year, and nearly half of all states have moved to ban the app on government-owned devices. 

The ongoing…

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Experts Say Biden’s Latest Immigration Proposal Will Do Little To Alleviate Border Crisis


President Joe Biden is pledging to get tough on the border, but the measures he proposed won’t alleviate the crisis unless he starts enforcing the laws on the books, immigration experts say.

At the center of Biden’s plan to deter migrants from flooding to the border is a mobile phone application that allows migrants in Venezuela, Nicaragua, Haiti, and Cuba to apply for asylum from their home country. But critics say that until the Biden administration enforces federal law that mandates the detention of all migrants, even those with credible asylum claims, until they come before an immigration judge, migrants will continue to flood to the border.

Without enforcing that law, those who cross the southern border and claim a credible fear of returning home will simply be released into the United States. Biden’s proposal, which makes it easier for migrants to get into the country, sidesteps that central problem, experts say.

“This program started with Ukraine, expanded to Venezuela, and now includes three other countries. It will be expanded further and further because the Biden administration looks for any way to staunch the flow at the border that doesn’t include enforcing the laws,” a senior Department of Homeland Security official told the Washington Free Beacon. “They have learned nothing in two years and figure packing airports with immigrants will relieve the pressure amassing at the border. Something for Americans to think about as they experience long lines at customs.”

Given court backlogs, asylum seekers may not see an immigration judge for years. In the meantime, they can live in the United States, get work permits, and apply for social services in some cities and states. Even if their asylum claims are ultimately denied, the Biden administration has ground deportations to a halt, with Immigrations and Customs Enforcement removing the smallest number of illegal aliens since 2015.

Although Biden pointed to studies showing that pilot versions of the program led to a lower number of Venezuelans applying for asylum, the total number that aimed to apply is unknown due to migrants who were never detained by law enforcement. In 2022, Customs and Border Protection recorded more…

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Shaheen Announces More Than $89M for Key NH Projects & Priorities in New Government Funding Proposal


August 01, 2022

**A senior member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, Shaheen worked to include federal support for a myriad of NH projects in the proposal released by Senate Democrats, including expanding access to health care, updating water infrastructure, increasing affordable housing and more.** 

(Washington, DC) – U.S. Senator Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), a senior member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, announced that a government funding proposal for fiscal year (FY) 2023 released last week by Senate Democrats includes $89,126,000 for 95 New Hampshire projects, which she helped secure. The robust federal dollars, appropriated through the Congressionally Directed Spending (CDS) process, invest in a range of Granite State priorities throughout the state, including water infrastructure, health care facility investments, educational training, resources to combat homelessness and food insecurity, support for substance use disorder programs and much more. 

In addition to the CDS listed below, Shaheen announced last week numerous Granite State priorities she fought to include in the Commerce, Justice, Science and Related Agencies (CJS) funding legislation released, which Shaheen spearheads as Chair of the subcommittee. She also announced 23 of the 95 New Hampshire projects that she secured funding for through the CJS subcommittee. 

“The Congressionally Directed Spending process is a crucial opportunity to ensure small states like New Hampshire aren’t shortchanged the resources we deserve, particularly as we continue to grapple with the fallout from the pandemic. I’m thrilled to announce that I successfully secured over $89 million for New Hampshire in the Senate Democrats’ government funding proposal announced last week. This funding supports 95 projects that respond to a variety of needs across our state – from expanding access to health care in underserved areas to investing in workforce development, expanding access to affordable housing and shelter services, supporting victims of violence, updating aging infrastructure and much more,” said Senator Shaheen. “This bill is an important first step in the appropriations…

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EU’s eIDAS Proposal Attracts Growing Criticism


BRUSSELS, July 13, 2022 /PRNewswire/ — There is a serious threat to existing internet security measures stemming from the European Commission’s proposed revision to the eIDAS regulation. If implemented, experts say it could open individuals browsing online to additional security risks and set a precedent to allow state-sponsored internet surveillance. As currently drafted, article 45.2 could undermine the EU’s own ambitions to be the frontrunner of a more secure, responsible and competitive internet that protects people from illegal activity.

Under the revised article 45.2 of the eIDAS regulation, browsers would be mandated to accept the EU-designed Qualified Web Authentication Certificates (QWACs) even though they have weaker security properties than those most browsers currently allow. Moreover, browsers would be prevented from applying any of the existing security due diligence checks to the entities which issue these certificates, thereby bypassing the critical first line of defense against cybercrime.

Article 45.2 is attracting growing attention from parliamentarians and cybersecurity experts alike. In her draft report, MEP Romana Jerković, the file’s rapporteur, deleted it in order to have more time to figure out an approach that doesn’t compromise security. Meanwhile, in a letter sent to MEPs and EU countries, academics said that mandating the use of QWACs could introduce “significant weaknesses into the global multi-stakeholder ecosystem for securing web browsing.” They added that the move could make it “more difficult to protect individuals from cybercriminals.”

Attempts have been made in the past to forcefully bypass browser security checks for rights-interfering ends, most notably in Kazakhstan in 2020 and Mauritius in 2021. In both cases, the governments aimed to use so called “man-in-the-middle” attacks to carry out state-sponsored surveillance of internet traffic.

Marshall Erwin, Chief Security Officer at Mozilla, said: “While this is not the intent of the EU, the inclusion of article 45.2 in eIDAS will make it more difficult to push back on these surveillance attempts in future. The EU sets many global standards and we’re concerned that if this is copied…

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