Quick Hits

*** Security firm Symantec is reporting that a China-linked hacking group was using offensive cyberweapons developed by the National Security Agency at least one year prior to the Shadow Brokers leak that included the theft of multiple NSA zero-day exploits. The exploits included what Symantec calls a "previously unknown Windows zero-day vulnerability" that was reported last September and patched in March 2019.

*** Presidential hopeful Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) reintroduced a bill from the last session of Congress designed to make credit reporting agencies financially liable for the loss of consumer data to hacks. Warren is joined by Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) in the Senate and in the House by Reps. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) and Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-Ill.)

*** The U.S. Department of Agriculture released a short list of sites that are finalists to become locations for new headquarters of the Economic Research Service (ERS) and National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA). USDA has been at the forefront of a Trump administration push to relocate government operations outside of the National Capital Region. Leading the pack are locations in Indiana, the Greater Kansas City Region that includes parts of Kansas and Missouri and the Research Triangle in North Carolina.

*** Internal Revenue Service CIO Gina Garza is retiring at the end of the month after more than three decades of government service. She will be replaced on an interim basis by Nancy Sieger, who is currently an IRS deputy CIO. Federal News Network first reported Garza’s retirement plans.