Hillicon Valley: Senate panel upholds finding Russia backed Trump | ZTE temporarily allowed back in business | Trump targets the NSA | Court rules Yelp can’t be forced to remove bad reviews

Welcome to Hillicon Valley, The Hill’s newsletter detailing all you need to know about the tech and cyber news from Capitol Hill to Silicon Valley.

Welcome! Follow the cyber team, Olivia Beavers (@olivia_beavers) and Morgan Chalfant (@mchalfant16), and the tech team, Harper Neidig (@hneidig) and Ali Breland (@alibreland).

 

HOLIDAY EVE BREAKING NEWS: SENATE INTEL BACKS OBAMA-ERA RUSSIA ASSESSMENT: The Senate Intelligence Committee has unequivocally upheld the conclusion of the intelligence community that Russia developed a “clear preference” for then-candidate Donald Trump in the 2016 election and sought to help him win the White House.

The assessment, announced in an unclassified summary released Tuesday, represents a direct repudiation of the committee’s counterpart in the House — and of President Trump himself, who has consistently rejected assertions that Moscow sought to bolster his candidacy.

“The Committee has spent the last 16 months reviewing the sources, tradecraft and analytic work underpinning the Intelligence Community Assessment and sees no reason to dispute the conclusions,” said Chairman Richard Burr (R-N.C.) said in a statement.

The so-called “intelligence community assessment,” or ICA, is a “sound intelligence production,” according the Senate panel.

“A body of reporting, to include different intelligence disciplines, open source reporting on Russian leadership policy preferences, and Russian media content, showed that Moscow sought to denigrate Secretary Clinton,” the unclassified summary reads.

The ICA relied not only on public Russian leadership commentary and state media reports, but also “a body of intelligence reporting to support the assessment that Putin and the Russian Government developed a clear preference for Trump,” the committee found.  Senate investigators also rejected the notion that the ICA was inappropriately influenced by politics, as some of Trump’s supporters have alleged.

Read more from our national security reporter Katie Bo Williams here, and read the full summary of the committee’s initial findings here.

Remember: Burr said earlier this year that he expects the committee to wrap up its work on the probe in August.

 

TRUMP GOES AFTER THE NSA: President Trump on Tuesday slammed the National Security Agency for deleting scores of call records, calling it a “disgrace.”

The president cited recent revelations that the spy agency was forced to delete scores of call records it stores for foreign spying efforts because of “technical irregularities.”

Trump, who lashed out at the NSA on Twitter, also seemed to suggest that the intelligence collection errors contributed to the “witch hunt” against him — a term he regularly uses to refer to the special counsel investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.

“Wow! The NSA has deleted 685 million phone calls and text messages. Privacy violations? They blame technical irregularities. Such a disgrace. The Witch Hunt continues!” Trump tweeted Tuesday morning.  

The background: The NSA disclosed late last week that it has been deleting all call detail records collected since 2015 because analysts discovered “technical irregularities” that resulted in the spy agency obtaining some records that it was not authorized to receive. The announcement mentioned nothing about the Russia investigation.

How it’s playing: Steve Vladeck, a University of Texas law professor, has an interesting take on the tweet.

 

And in case you missed it, here’s our original story on the data deletion from last week.

ZTE IS BACK: The Trump administration will allow the Chinese phonemaker ZTE to temporarily resume some of its business operations as the U.S. government considers undoing its seven-year ban on the manufacturer doing business with American companies.

The new authorization from the Commerce Department will go from July 2nd to Aug. 1, according to a document obtained by Bloomberg. The company told the outlet that it will be in compliance with U.S. demands by the end of this period.

President Trump has said that he is working to ease the penalties on ZTE that the Commerce Department imposed on the company for violating sanctions with Iran.

Read more here.

 

ENLIST THE FEDS: Florida’s bipartisan pair of U.S. senators is pressing state election officials to ask the Department of Homeland Security for help securing voting systems from cyberattacks ahead of upcoming elections.

Following Russian interference in the 2016 presidential vote — which included efforts to target or hack into state voter databases and other systems — Homeland Security began offering cybersecurity assessments and other services to state and local officials who request them in order to secure systems.

On Monday, Florida Sens. Marco Rubio (R) and Bill Nelson (D) wrote to Florida Secretary of State Ken Detzner encouraging him to request help from the department in guarding the state’s systems before voters head to the polls later this year, pointing to the risk of future foreign meddling efforts.

“County election boards should not be expected to stand alone against a hostile foreign government. The Committee recommended – and DHS now offers–a wide range of services to state and local officials that will support your efforts to make your systems secure,” the senators wrote.

“DHS will follow your lead and meet your needs with a tailored set of options. We encourage you in the strongest terms to take advantage of those resources, and to let us know about your experience with DHS and FBI,” they wrote.

Some updated figures from DHS: A Homeland Security official told The Hill Tuesday that the department has received requests from 17 states for its more rigorous risk and vulnerability assessments, and has completed 12 of them.

Homeland Security is also conducting remote “cyber hygiene” scans for systems in 34 states and 34 counties or localities, the official said. And, the department has stepped up information sharing on cyber threats with state election officials.

Read more here.

 

NEW YORK TIMES REASSIGNS REPORTER LINKED TO LEAK CASE: The New York Times is reassigning a reporter at the center of a controversial leak investigation whose phone records were seized by federal prosecutors. Ali Watkins, 26, will be transferred to the newspaper’s main office in New York City, where she will be given a new beat and a mentor, the Times reported on Tuesday.

The Times began an internal review of Watkins after it learned of her three-year relationship with James Wolfe, 57, an aide on the intelligence committee. Watkins covered the intelligence beat for the Times and had previously covered it for other news organizations. Wolfe was arrested last month as part of a federal leak investigation.

 

HEARING ALERT: FBI AGENT SUBPOENAED TO TESTIFY PUBLICLY: Two powerful House committees issued a subpoena for FBI counterintelligence agent Peter Strzok to testify publicly at a joint hearing slated for next week.

What we don’t know… It was not immediately clear whether Strzok will comply with the order issued by the Judiciary Committee and the Oversight and Government Reform Committee. The committees issued their subpoena for 10 a.m. EDT on July 10.

Read more here.

 

ABOUT THAT MERGER: AT&T has increased the prices of some of its services since the company officially merged with Time Warner last month, USA Today reported.

The cost of the company’s DirecTV Now streaming plans will go up to $40 a month starting on July 26, a $5 increase. AT&T said the increase is to bring “the cost of this service in line with the market,” according to USA Today.

The company also recently unveiled an Unlimited & More wireless plan at $70 a month. That’s $5 more than the already existing basic unlimited plan.

The new wireless plan includes a new WatchTV streaming service, which can bought separately for $15 a month. The older, less expensive wireless plan will still be offered.

Critics of the company and its merger are jumping on the price hike, noting that AT&T said the deal would help keep prices lower for consumers.

Read more here.

 

TRUMP ADMINISTRATION WANTS TO BLOCK CHINA MOBILE FROM US MARKET: The Trump administration recommended to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) on Monday that China Mobile not be allowed to enter the U.S. telecommunications market.

The National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) said in a press release that concerns about national security risks were too great to come to an agreement with the Chinese company.

“After significant engagement with China Mobile, concerns about increased risks to U.S. law enforcement and national security interests were unable to be resolved,” David Redl, assistant secretary for communications and information at the NTIA, said in a statement.

 

GOOGLE CLOUD LOSES ITS COO AFTER LESS THAN A YEAR: Diane Bryant, the chief operating officer of Google Cloud, has left the company after less than a year.

“We are grateful for the contributions she made while at Google and we wish her the best in her next pursuit,” a Google spokesperson said in a statement.

Bryant joined Google in November 2017 after retiring from a 32-year career at Intel.

 

COURT RULES THAT YELP CAN’T BE FORCED TO TAKE DOWN NEGATIVE REVIEWS: The California Supreme Court ruled Monday that Yelp.com can’t be forced to remove negative posts on the reviews site, overturning a lower court ruling.

NBC News reported that judges on the California Supreme Court ruled 4-3 in favor of Yelp. The majority opinion argued that forcing online publishers to remove material “could interfere with and undermine the viability of an online platform.”

An attorney for Yelp praised the decision, calling it a victory for “those of us who value sharing one another’s opinions and experiences.”

“With this decision, online publishers in California can be assured that they cannot be lawfully forced to remove third-party speech through enterprising abuses of the legal system,” Yelp deputy counsel Aaron Schur wrote in a blog post on the company’s site.

 

A LIGHTER CLICK: Some Fourth of July ‘hacks’ (no, not the cyber kind). Happy early Birthday, America!

 

NOTABLE LINKS FROM AROUND THE WEB:

Plea agreement for ex-congressional IT aide debunks right-wing conspiracy theories. (The Washington Post)

A top lawyer at the Justice Department is resigning. (NPR)

Technology experts recount stories that demonstrate the impact of ‘digital life.’ (Pew)

Israel accuses Hamas of trying to spy on soldiers by peddling fake dating applications. (Associated Press.)

Siri has some words for British defense secretary Gavin Williamson. (The Daily Mail)

How pleasure lulls us into accepting surveillance. (JSTOR)

Whole Foods’ employees and suppliers aren’t thrilled about Amazon’s management. (The Wall Street Journal)

Malware infections drop 20 percent on World Cup game days. (Yahoo Finance)

Facebook is arguing in court that it’s a publisher. In public, it says otherwise. (The Guardian)