Overnight Cybersecurity: Trump wishes Comey ‘luck’ | Russia denies voting firm hack

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 stories...

GREETINGS AHEAD OF COMEY EVE:

--TRUMP: "I WISH HIM LUCK." President Trump on Tuesday offered a cryptic message for fired FBI Director James Comey ahead of his highly anticipated testimony before Congress. "I wish him luck," Trump told reporters at the White House before a meeting with GOP congressional leaders. The comments were Trump's first offline, public reaction to Comey's decision to testify publicly about his interactions with the president.

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--REPORT: COMEY WILL STOP SHORT OF SAYING OBSTRUCTION. A source familiar with Comey's thinking on the matter told ABC News that Comey will not say Trump interfered with the FBI's investigation, but will dispute Trump's assertion that the former FBI director told him three times that he was not under investigation. "He is not going to Congress to make accusations about the President's intent, instead he's there to share his concerns," the source told ABC News.

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PRO-TRUMP GROUP BUYING ANTI-COMEY ADS: A pro-Trump group is hitting former FBI Director James Comey as a political "showboat" in a new ad airing later this week, the Associated Press reported. The ad -- paid for by Great America Alliance -- will run digitally Wednesday, and then on CNN and Fox News on Thursday. The ad comes just ahead of Comey's highly anticipated testimony Thursday before the Senate Intelligence Committee. In the 30-second ad, titled "Showboat," a narrator says that Comey "put politics over protecting America," according to the AP. It also says the former FBI director was "consumed with election meddling" as "terror attacks were on the rise."

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--FLYNN TURNS IN 600 PAGES OF DOCUMENTS: Former White House national security adviser Michael Flynn provided the Senate Intelligence Committee with over 600 pages of documents, CNN reported Tuesday. While most of the documents included business records, some were also personal files that Flynn provided "based on the narrowed requests from the committee," a source familiar with the matter told the news outlet. The Senate panel issued a second subpoena on Flynn's businesses after he invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination following the first individual subpoena. Flynn handed in the documents on the last day of the deadline to the committee in order to comply with the subpoena.

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--MCCAIN WILL QUESTION COMEY: Playing theex-officio card.

McCain serves as an ex-officio member of the intel panel because he is chair of the Armed Services Committee. As such, he is invited to attend the hearing during which the committee will hear testimony from Comey on Russian election interference.

THE BIG STORY:

--RUSSIA DENIES ATTACKING ELECTION SYSTEMS MANUFACTURER: The Kremlin is pushing back against a leaked NSA report thatRussian intelligence services hacked a U.S. voting equipment manufacturer."This assertion has absolutely nothing to do with reality," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told a conference call with reporters, Reuters reported. "We have heard no arguments proving the veracity of this information. ... Therefore we strongly deny the very possibility that this could have happened."

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--...TOP SENATE DEM - IT GETS WORSE: The top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee said Tuesday that Russian election interference expanded beyond what was detailed in an explosive leaked intelligence report this week. "[T]he extent of the attacks is much broader than has been reported so far," Sen. Mark WarnerMark WarnerIt's time for Comey to put up or shut up Top intelligence officials dodge questions about Trump interactions Dem senator: FBI director announcement clearly an attempt to 'distract' from hearings MORE (D-Va.) told USA Today. "None of these actions from the Russians stopped on Election Day." The website The Intercept reported Monday that Russian intelligence conducted a cyberattack on at least one manufacturer of U.S. voting software and sent phishing emails to more than 100 local election officials just days before the November election. Warner stressed Tuesday that he does not believe that Russian intelligence agents were able to affect the vote totals. "I don't believe they got into changing actual voting outcomes," Warner said, adding he was urging intelligence agencies to declassify which states were targeted in an effort to put their electoral systems on notice before the 2018 midterm elections.

--...WARNER HIGHLIGHTS WHAT WE DON'T KNOW: Though the report involves hacking an anonymous election systems manufacturer, the report is not about Russia hacking voting machines. In fact, the report never mentions voting machines - it does not specify what type of elections systems the manufacturer made. The report has clues the manufacturer might be VR Systems, which specializes in a wide range of equipment not used to directly record ballots. The only product mentioned in the report, EViD, is for managing poll books - checking people into the voting station. The underplayed component of the report may be the more consequential: Data taken from the manufacturer was used to phish its customers -more than 100 U.S. elections officials.

--...WIKILEAKS WANTS BLOOD: WikiLeaks offered a $10,000 bounty Monday aimed at getting a reporter for The Intercept fired, following the arrest of a government contractor who allegedly leaked an NSA report to the site. The Justice Department announced earlier Monday that it had arrested Reality Leigh Winner, a 25-year-old government contractor, for leaking classified documents to a news organization. It has been widely reported that Winner allegedly leaked documents from the NSA to The Intercept about Russian attempts to hack U.S. elections officials.

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--...AND A SENATE DEM WANTS A BRIEFING: Sen. Amy KlobucharAmy KlobucharOvernight Cybersecurity: Trump wishes Comey 'luck' | Russia denies voting firm hack | WikiLeaks wants Intercept reporter fired Dem wants Senate panel briefed on alleged Russia hacking Franken dodges on backing 'terrific' Klobuchar for 2020 bid MORE wants the Senate Rules Committee to get a classified briefing on allegations that Russia hacked a U.S. voting systems manufacturer ahead of the 2016 election. The Minnesota senator, who is the top Democrat on the committee, sent a letter to H.R. McMaster, President Trump's national security adviser, requesting that he meet with the panel. "As the Senate continues to investigate the full extent of Russia's attack on our election system, it is vital that we have all of the information necessary to ensure that future elections are safeguarded from foreign interference," Klobuchar wrote in the letter.

A LIGHTER CLICK:

COMEY, COMI, COME.

WHO'S IN THE SPOTLIGHT:

YOUR POLITICAL CLIMATE IN A NUTSHELL:

The attorney for a man charged with trying to illegally obtain President Trump's personal income tax returns last year argued in a court filing that the then-presidential candidate "openly encouraged" hacking against then-opponent Hillary ClintonHillary Rodham ClintonBudowsky: Comeys moment of truth Mayors of Pittsburgh, Paris team up for climate change op-ed It's time for Comey to put up or shut up MORE during his campaign.

In the filing, Politico reported, attorney Michael Fiser argues for felony charges to be dropped against his client, Louisiana private investigator Jordan Hamlett.

Hamlett was indicted in November after he allegedly USED a federal student loan application tool to try to obtain information from Trump's tax returns. As a presidential candidate, Trump broke decades of precedent by refusing to release his personal tax records.

Last July, as concerns mounted among U.S. intelligence officials about Russian efforts to interfere in the 2016 election, Trump appeared to urge Moscow during a news conference to hack Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton's emails from her private server.

"I will tell you this, Russia: If you're listening, I hope you're able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing," Trump said at the time. "I think you will probably be rewarded mightily by our press."

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