Chris Strohm

The FBI, National Security Agency and CIA are likely to gain expanded surveillance powers under President-elect Donald Trump and a Republican-controlled Congress, a prospect that has privacy advocates and some lawmakers trying to mobilize opposition. President-elect Trump’s first two choices to head law enforcement and intelligence agencies -- Sen Jeff Sessions (R-AL) for attorney general and Rep Mike Pompeo (R-KS) for director of the Central Intelligence Agency -- are leading advocates for domestic government spying at levels not seen since the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. The fights expected to play out in the coming months -- in Senate confirmation hearings and through executive action, legislation and litigation -- also will set up an early test of Trump’s relationship with Silicon Valley giants including Apple and Alphabet’s Google.

Three US public companies identified as Chinese hacking victims didn’t report the theft of trade secrets and other data to investors, despite rules designed to disclose significant events.

Two of the companies -- aluminum maker Alcoa and metals supplier Allegheny Technologies -- said the thefts weren’t “material” to their businesses and therefore don’t have to be disclosed under Securities and Exchange Commission rules designed to give investors information that may affect share prices.

Scott Kimpel, a lawyer who previously worked on disclosure rules as a member of the SEC’s executive staff, said there is “a gray area where a lot of the companies are not perfectly clear on what they should be disclosing.”

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler said “the prospect of a gatekeeper choosing winners and losers on the Internet is unacceptable.” That’s what the FCC will be, no matter how it fashions final rules.

If it adopts toughened rules as demanded by advocacy groups, some Democratic lawmakers and content providers including Google and Netflix, Chairman Wheeler and carriers foresee years of litigation. If the FCC adopts the Chairman Wheeler proposal advanced to allow some priority arrangements as long as they aren’t “commercially unreasonable,” it could determine winners and losers on a case-by-case basis.

If it kills the preliminary proposal that passed 3-2, there would be no rules to prevent Internet service providers including AT&T, Comcast and Verizon Communications from charging to distribute Web content.

“Without rules governing a free and open Internet it is possible that companies -- fixed and wireless broadband providers -- could independently determine whether they want to discriminate or block content, pick favorites, charge higher fees or distort the market,” Democratic Commissioner Mignon Clyburn said.

The Obama Administration is letting law enforcement keep computer-security flaws secret in order to further US investigations of cyberspies and hackers.

The White House has carved out an exception for the Federal Bureau of Investigation and other agencies to keep information about software vulnerabilities from manufacturers and the public.

Until now, most debate has focused on how the National Security Agency stockpiles and uses new-found Internet weaknesses, known as zero-day exploits, for offensive purposes, such as attacking the networks of adversaries.

The law enforcement operations expose a delicate and complicated balancing act when it comes to agencies using serious security flaws in investigations versus disclosing them to protect all Internet users, according to former government officials and privacy advocates.