After being relatively quiet during the 2016 political campaign season, Microsoft has gradually begun to speak more forcefully and publicly on election security threats. That approach is embodied by a report the tech giant released Tuesday showing how state-linked hackers are targeting NGOs and think tanks in high volume. “I have no reason to believe that they’ll be quiet between now and Nov. 3,” Microsoft’s Tom Burt said of Fancy Bear. Sean Lyngaas has an exclusive interview with Burt.

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Big US health care provider grapples with security incident

Universal Health Services, which oversees some 400 hospitals, became the latest health care organization to revert to pen and paper following what the company called an “IT security issue.” Ransomware is the suspected cause. Patient care is still being delivered safely and effectively, UHS said, adding that efforts to restore computers are ongoing. It’s a familiar issue for the medical sector, even during a once-in-a-century pandemic. Sean has this one, too.

McAfee wants to cash in on the rush to IT stocks

Investors have been pouring money into the stocks of IT firms, and a famous cybersecurity company wants to get back into the market before 2020 is over. McAfee filed Monday for an initial public offering that reportedly could be worth upwards of $8 billion if the Nasdaq listing performs as expected. It's been a long trip back to public trading for the company, which also had two IPOs in the 1990s. Intel acquired McAfee in 2010 and spun it off to buyout firm TPG in 2017. Joe Warminsky has more.

Another PSA on election security from the feds

The FBI and DHS’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency have issued their third public advisory on election security this month, this time on the subject of false claims of voter data being hacked and leaked. This elections season, “foreign actors and cybercriminals are spreading false and inconsistent information through various online platforms in an attempt to manipulate public opinion, discredit the electoral process, and undermine confidence in U.S. democratic institutions,” the agencies said Monday. The advisory follows a debunked, but viral, report from a Russian news outlet that claimed voter data had been hacked. Check out our previous coverage.

Twitter gets a new CISO

Rinki Sethi, a former security executive at IBM and Palo Alto Networks, is Twitter’s new CISO, the social media company announced Monday. “At Twitter, [Sethi] will lead our growing InfoSec team, protecting our customers and our company to earn trust,” Twitter’s Nick Tornow said, fittingly, in a tweet. Sethi has likely been studying the high-profile July breach of celebrity Twitter accounts by scammers, who used the access to promote bitcoin. More from Twitter.

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