Eight major technology companies, including Google, Facebook and Twitter, are joining forces to call for tighter controls on government surveillance, according to The Associated Press. The companies say in an open letter to President Barack Obama that while they sympathize with national security concerns, recent revelations make it clear that laws should be carefully tailored to balance them against individual rights.

Protecting the United States from terrorism means more to Americans than promoting democracy abroad, a Pew Research Center study found. Since the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, Americans consider protecting U.S. shores from terrorism a top priority, according to a UPI report. The study, conducted every four years, found 83 percent of those questioned held that opinion in 2013, which is slightly down from its high of 86 percent in 2005.

Thousands of tax delinquents, including one who owes the IRS $2 million, have sensitive security clearances, posing a risk that has gone undetected by federal agencies, congressional investigators will report this Thursday.

Amid calls for stronger cyber security laws, the Department of Homeland Security is working on getting its threat-tracking system to work across its own operations and the Department of Defense. An October 24 memo from the Office of the Inspector General found that although the DHS can keep track of threats and provide updates on ongoing issues, “federal cyber operations center do not have a common incident management system tool that tracks, updates, shares, and coordinates cyber information with each other.”

Jeh Johnson served as a top official in the Department of Defense, and he would succeed Janet Napolitano, who stepped down earlier this year.

The U.S. Senate approved President Obama’s nomination of James Comey with a 93-1 vote as the new Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Director, Monday, July 29. 

The pact would promote information-sharing, and it would set up a cyber hotline and working group between the two countries to foster cyber security cooperation.

U.S. border agents are allowed to search a traveler’s laptop, cellphone or other electronic device and keep copies of any data on them based on no more than a hunch, according to an internal study from the Homeland Security Department. 

The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) cannot be challenged by Americans without proof that the law would directly affect them, the Supreme Court rules.