The Department of Homeland Security’s plan for filling the cyber talent gap is intended to focus on talent, more so than established credentials, which means leaving behind some of the traditional methods of hiring, paying, and retaining skilled employees. At the bottom line, DHS wants to take off the General Schedule handcuffs. […]

Ransomware strain LockerGoga has struck two U.S.-based companies in recent days. On March 22, Hexion, a provider of thermoset resins, and Momentive, a provider of silicones and advanced materials, both announced they were the victims of a ransomware attack, which experts believe is the LockerGoga strain. […]

Two men were found guilty on Wednesday of charges related to an international cyber fraud scheme. […]

Forcepoint announced Wednesday that the Federal Bureau of Investigation awarded it a 5-year Blanket Purchase Agreement (BPA) worth $23.5 million. […]

The National Security Agency is broadening the menu of technologies it wants to help the private sector develop. […]

Norsk Hydro, an aluminum producer based in Norway, was hit hard by a ransomware attack on Tuesday. […]

The Office of Inspector General (OIG) Export-Import Bank ((EXIM Bank) of the United States released KPMG’s independent audit report on EXIM Bank’s information security program for FY2018 on March 13. In the report, KPMG, a public accounting firm, provided 14 recommendations that “should strengthen…EXIM’s information security program.” […]

The Cyber Diplomacy Act, H.R. 739, was scored by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) on Wednesday and the CBO found it would not have a material impact on government spending. […]

Two members of the House Armed Services Committee said at a hearing on Wednesday they support continuation of the “dual-hat” command structure which finds Gen. Paul Nakasone heading both U.S. Cyber Command and the National Security Agency. […]

Sens. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., and Tom Cotton, R-Ark., asked the Senate Sergeant at Arms in a March 13 letter to disclose to each member of the Senate “the extent of the cyber threats faced by the U.S. Senate–and by extension, our democracy,” and said disclosure of that information was “imperative in order to help the U.S. Senate address important cyber-security needs.” […]

The Director of National Intelligence has announced the appointment of Erin Joe as director of the Cyber Threat Intelligence Integration Center (CTIIC), which as its name suggests integrates cyber threat data from government and other sources, facilitates threat-data sharing and supports government interagency planning of responses to adversaries. […]

Christopher Krebs, director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) at the Department of Homeland Security, provided an update to Congress today about how CISA is working to secure election infrastructure ahead of the 2020 Presidential election. […]

John Legere, CEO at T-Mobile U.S., told members of the House Energy and Commerce Committee’s Communications and Technology Subcommittee at a hearing on Tuesday that the carrier does not use equipment provided by China-based Huawei or ZTE in its network, and pledged to “never” use gear from the two Chinese firm in T-Mobile’s 5G network. […]

The National Security Agency (NSA) and the Trusted Computing Group (TCG) industry consortium have come up with validation software that can be used with any device and could go a long way to securing the supply chain for computing devices. […]

Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick , R-Pa., on March 7 introduced H.R. 1612, dubbed the “Nonpartisan Bill For The People.” The legislation is the GOP’s answer to the Democrat-backed H.R. 1, which cleared the House last week. Both bills include measures to increase voter participation and election security, among other election-related measures. The House bill does not currently have a companion bill in the Senate. The GOP-backed House bill includes measures to: […]

Jackson County, Ga., paid cybercriminals $400,000 to remove ransomware that infected its IT systems. The ransomware, known as Ryuk Ransomware, hit the county on March 1 and impacted multiple county agencies, including the Sheriff’s Office. […]

Sens. Ron Wyden, D-Ore, Martin Heinrich, D-N.M., and Kamala Harris, D-Calif., wrote Dan Coats, director of National Intelligence, on Monday urging him to declassify information regarding China’s attempts to influence U.S. elections. […]

In a survey released today, Tripwire found that security professionals believe their teams are understaffed and that skilled cybersecurity workers are harder to find. […]

The Cybersecurity Tech Accord announced yesterday that it has added 11 new companies to its pledge, bringing its total to 90 signatories. AnchorFree, Domain Tools, Flowmon Networks, MarkMonitor, NTT, Paladion, Percipiet.ai, Silent Breach, Tanium, Telecom Italia, and Unisys all signed on and pledged to “defend customers everywhere from malicious attacks by cybercriminal enterprises and nation-states.” […]

In a letter dated Feb. 27, Sens. Mark Warner, D-Va., and Marco Rubio, R-Fla., requested Dan Coats, director of National Intelligence, produce “an unclassified report on the participation of China and other adversarial nations in the international standard setting bodies (ISSBs) for fifth-generation wireless telecommunications technologies (5G).” […]

The Congressional Budget Office (CBO), in a report released Friday, pegged the cost of H.R. 1–the For the People Act of 2019–at $2.6 billion over the next five years, with $1.5 billion of that going for states and counties to purchase new voting technology. […]

During a meeting with reporters, Federal CIO Suzette Kent highlighted the successes of the Federal Cyber Reskilling Academy so far, and raised the potential of expanding the program in the future. […]

A bipartisan group of senators reintroduced legislation on March 1 intended to ensure that public companies are prioritizing cybersecurity and data privacy. […]

IT security technology provider Webroot said in a recently issued threat report document that the United States in 2018 led the rest of the world by a wide margin in hosting what the firm classifies as “high-risk URLs.” […]

Credit rating agency Moody’s said in a report issued today that it considers banks, securities firms, financial market infrastructure, and hospitals at “high risk,” from a ratings perspective, due to their exposure to the impacts of cyberattacks. […]

If you’re just regular people, the answer is probably not. […]

Senior Defense Department officials told House members on Tuesday they are taking additional steps to boost cybersecurity workforce ranks at the Pentagon through means including the Cyber Excepted Service (CES) personnel system authorized in 2016 that allows DoD to expedite and simplify recruiting and hiring for civilian cyber professionals. […]

While much of the country was focused today on the testimony of Michael Cohen–President Trump’s former lawyer–before the House Committee on Oversight and Reform, elsewhere on the Hill the House Committee on Appropriations Financial Services and General Government Subcommittee was hearing testimony on election security. […]

Most private and public sector CIOs have, are, or will be increasing their spending on cybersecurity and automation software deployments, according to a survey released today by Grant Thornton and the TBM Council. […]

While the CDM program has made tremendous strides in providing access to cyber hygiene data in near-real time, there is still progress to be made. With DHS leading the pack to help agencies become more AWARE and DEFEND against attackers, all Federal agencies must band together to outsmart advancing adversaries. […]