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Welcome to OVERNIGHT CYBERSECURITY, your daily rundown of the biggest news in the world of hacking and data privacy. We're here to connect the dots as leaders in government, policy and industry try to counter the rise in cyber threats. What lies ahead for Congress, the administration and the latest company under siege? Whether you're a consumer, a techie or a D.C. lifer, we're here to give you ...

THE BIG STORY:

--COMEY, ROGERS IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD: House Intelligence Committee members emerged tight-lipped from a closed-door briefing with FBI Director James Comey and National Security Agency head Adm. Michael Rogers on Thursday. Rep. Mike Conaway (R-Texas), who is leading the committee's investigation into Russian interference in the election, appeared briefly alongside the committee's ranking member, Rep. Adam SchiffAdam SchiffSchiff: Yates testimony could come within 'weeks' Overnight Cyber: FBI, NSA chiefs brief House Intel behind closed doors | DHS warns Congress on phone security Comey, NSA chief brief House panel amid Russia probe MORE (D-Calif.), at the close to characterize the meeting as valuable -- but said little else. Conaway took over the probe early last month following the recusal of committee Chairman Devin Nunes (R-Calif.), whose relationship with Schiff had deteriorated to the level of dueling press conferences over how Nunes was handling the investigation. In a joint statement issued after the hearing Thursday, Conaway and Schiff indicated that an open hearing with several high-ranking Obama officials including former acting Attorney General Sally Yates is still in the cards. "We are currently sending out invitations for witnesses to testify and requests for pertinent documents, and look forward to the next steps of this investigation, including witness interviews and an open hearing with Sally Yates, [former Director of National Intelligence] James Clapper, and [former CIA Director] John Brennan," the statement read.

To read the rest of our piece,click here.

Yates will testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Monday.

--...NOT TESTIFYING? SUSAN RICE: Susan Rice, however, will not testify before the Senate Judiciary panel. Sen. Lindsey GrahamLindsey GrahamOvernight Cyber: FBI, NSA chiefs brief House Intel behind closed doors | DHS warns Congress on phone security Overnight Healthcare: House passes ObamaCare repeal | Meet the 20 Republicans who voted no | Dems vow to avenge vote on Election Day | Senators plan their own bill White House considering Cindy McCain for State Dept. job: report MORE (R-S.C.) on Wednesday jabbed Rice, Obama's former national security adviser, for declining to testify before a Judiciary subcommittee. "At an appropriate time, I expect we will continue down this path," Graham, who chairs the subcommittee on crime and terrorism, said in a statement. "I hope Ms. Rice will come before the committee and not just the press." President Trump accused Rice last month of improperly unmasking the identities of members of his transition team who were caught up in surveillance by the intelligence community. Earlier Wednesday, she declined an invitation from Graham to testify before the subcommittee. In a letter to Graham and the subcommittee's ranking member, Sen. Sheldon WhitehouseSheldon WhitehouseOvernight Cyber: FBI, NSA chiefs brief House Intel behind closed doors | DHS warns Congress on phone security Dems tear into 'shameful' ObamaCare repeal vote GOP senators hit Rice for refusal to testify before Senate panel MORE (D-R.I.), Rice's lawyer, Kathryn Ruemmler, dismissed Graham's invitation as a "diversionary play" to distract from a broader congressional investigation into Russian election meddling and alleged ties between the Trump campaign and Moscow. Ruemmler also argued that Whitehouse had not agreed to invite Rice to the hearing and that Graham acted on his own. "Declining to attend because you didn't get an invite from a member of your party is a poor excuse and makes it appear as though she's hiding something," full committee Chairman Chuck GrassleyChuck GrassleyOvernight Cyber: FBI, NSA chiefs brief House Intel behind closed doors | DHS warns Congress on phone security No. 2 Senate Republican: 'No timeline' on ObamaCare replacement bill Five takeaways from Comey's testimony MORE (R-Iowa) said in a statement. "No investigation will be complete until her role is understood. Likewise, the committee's top Democrat, Sen. Dianne FeinsteinDianne FeinsteinOvernight Cyber: FBI, NSA chiefs brief House Intel behind closed doors | DHS warns Congress on phone security Five takeaways from Comey's testimony GOP senators hit Rice for refusal to testify before Senate panel MORE (Calif.), seemed unmoved by Rice's argument and urged her to reconsider her decision not to testify. "She has gone public. I saw her on Fareed's show Sunday. I saw her today," Feinstein said on MSNBC's "MTP Daily" shortly after the letter was made public. "I've never heard that it has to be a bipartisan letter -- this is sort of a new criteria."

To read the rest of our piececlick here.

--...IS GRAHAM LAUNCHING A DIVERSIONARY PLAY? Though a Republican, Graham has been a hawk against Russia through the investigation process, including criticizing fellow senators for not codifying new sanctions against Moscow last week.

--...THAT'S ONE OF THE LEAST POPULAR DISEASES: Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) said early Thursday, well before the closed door testimony, that James Comey is "about as popular as cholera" with lawmakers in an interview one day after the FBI director testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee. "It's no secret Comey doesn't get invited to many parties on Capitol Hill," Kennedy, a member of the committee, told CNN's "New Day." "He's about as popular as cholera. But I respect that about him."

To read the rest of our piece,click here.

A REGULATORY UPDATE:

Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Ajit Pai says advocates of net neutrality are misrepresenting his plan to roll back the controversial Obama-era internet rules.

"For example, saying that you will lose your internet access. That's simply absurd," Pai told Recode's Decode podcast on Wednesday.

"Anyone who had internet access before these rules in 2015 knows that that's not the case. We weren't living in a dystopia before the FCC delivered these Depression-era rules to save us," he added.

In the interview, Pai defended his plan to end net neutrality, arguing it would help foster competition in the telecommunications industry by making it easier for smaller broadband providers to grow and gain market share.

The net neutrality rules make internet service providers treat all web traffic equally. The rules also classified broadband companies as "common carriers," subjecting them to tougher regulation by the FCC similar to public utilities.

His plan would scrap that "Title II" provision reclassifying the companies and hand over authority to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). While Title II is best known in recent years for net neutrality, making ISPs common carriers was also at the core of privacy rules passed by the FCC that ultimately never went into effect and were rescinded by Republican lawmakers.

Companies would be asked to voluntarily enact net neutrality principles through terms of service with customers, under Pai's plan.

Pai said the Justice Department and FTC would be strong regulators.

To read the rest of our piece,click here.

A LIGHTER CLICK:

AMERICAN INGENUITY: Seattlephotocopies a cell phoneto answer a Freedom of Information Act request.

A REPORT IN FOCUS:

A WARNING FOR CONGRESS: The Department of Homeland Security has sent Congress a study warning of security threats to mobile devices used by the federal government.

The study on mobile device security, mandated by a 2015 law, offered a series of recommendations for the U.S. government to safeguard smartphones and tablet computers against threats from nation-states, criminal hackers, and others, DHS said on Thursday.

The study was produced by DHS's Science and Technology Directorate in coordination with the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), a government body that produces optional standards on information technology and cybersecurity.

"The [study] has found that threats to the mobile device ecosystem are growing, but also that the security of mobile computing is improving," Dr. Robert Griffin, acting undersecretary for Science and Technology, said.

To read the rest of the piece, click here.

WHAT'S IN THE SPOTLIGHT:

ELECTION DATABASE HACKING: The hackers that breached the Illinois election database do not appear to have been looking for anything in particular, IT professionals told the state Senate subcommittee on cybersecurity during a hearing Thursday.

In August, federal intelligence agencies believe one of the same Russian hacking operations that struck the Democratic National Convention last summer breached an online voter database in Illinois. A similar attack struck Arizona as well, the only other state breach attributed to Russia in the 2016 election season.

While prior reports had pegged the number of breached files at 200,000, the IT officials that testified Thursday said that figure was incorrect. The actual number was 70,000.

At the hearing, state elections employees described the attack in detail, including reasons that they did not believe the attackers had data they were specifically targeting.

The hackers amassed records by searching local voter identification numbers, systematically searching nine-digit codes starting from "000000001" and incrementally adding one.

The identification codes in the database were issued locally and are not in a standardized statewide format. That limited the number of records that could successfully be returned. Though some cities use nine character codes, others use more or fewer. Any user with a code in a different format would not be searchable using that method.

That method of searching is good for taking large datasets but only guarantees that the attacker would steal the files with the lowest number codes -- an administrator could easily discover the attack and shut it down before it reached higher number codes.

"They were just on a fishing expedition to get whatever they could," said Kevin Turner, director of information technology at the Illinois State Board of Elections.

To read the rest of our piece,click here.

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT:

Links from our blog, The Hill, and around the Web.

Japansigned a treaty for threat information sharing with the U.S. (The Hill)

Qualcomm is seeking toblock iPhonesfrom being imported into the U.S. (The Hill)

Rural ISPsare celebrating the FCC's net neutrality rollback, but not on net neutrality grounds. (The Hill)

REQUIRED READING: Afake cybersecurity statistichas gotten so popular it's been written into legislation. (Nextgov)

Researchers discovered a largebotnet mining cryptocurrencyon servers. (GuardiCore)

Researchersalso discoveredrarely used malware targeting North Korea-related organizations. (Security Week)

Newly discovered ransomware charges you more or less depending onhow rich your nationis. (ZDNet)

Government portals for India's new functionally mandatorybiometric ID systemmay have leaked more than 100 million users data. (Naked Security)

There may not be a great way tokeep murder videos off social media.(Motherboard)

Did U.S. sanctions haveany effecton Russia's election hacking efforts? (Wired)

Republican Sens. Ted CruzTed CruzOvernight Cyber: FBI, NSA chiefs brief House Intel behind closed doors | DHS warns Congress on phone security In Senate, pessimism over ObamaCare repeal THE MEMO: Comey commands the stage MORE (Texas), Ron JohnsonRon JohnsonOvernight Cyber: FBI, NSA chiefs brief House Intel behind closed doors | DHS warns Congress on phone security Overnight Tech: Republicans offer bill to kill net neutrality | Surveillance, visa reforms top GOP chair's tech agenda | Panel pushes small biz cyber bill Senate Republicans introduce anti-net neutrality legislation MORE (Wisc.) and Mike LeeMike LeeOvernight Cyber: FBI, NSA chiefs brief House Intel behind closed doors | DHS warns Congress on phone security In Senate, pessimism over ObamaCare repeal Overnight Tech: Republicans offer bill to kill net neutrality | Surveillance, visa reforms top GOP chair's tech agenda | Panel pushes small biz cyber bill MORE (Utah) arguethe case against net neutrality.(Washington Post)

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Overnight Cyber: FBI, NSA chiefs brief House Intel behind closed doors | DHS warns Congress on phone security - The Hill