The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Office of Inspector General (OIG) has identified several management and performance challenges at the agency in a report dated Oct. 7. […]

NetChoice, a business trade group focused on promoting free speech and free enterprise on the internet, launched a public campaign on Oct. 7 to defend law enforcement’s use of facial recognition technology, and is taking aim at anti-facial recognition effort in Massachusetts. […]

When cybersecurity works at its best, you barely know anything about it. Because highly secure and efficient networks rarely create their own reasons to make the news. […]

Perhaps the most ambitious and transformational information security project ever attempted by the Federal government – the Continuous Diagnostics and Mitigation (CDM) program – is set to go under the microscope on October 10 at MeriTalk’s CDM Central conference dedicated to navigating the Federal cybersecurity roadmap. […]

The FBI issued a warning regarding “high-impact” ransomware attacks on Oct. 2, stressing the risk they pose to U.S. businesses and organizations. […]

Tenable’s Federal Business Development Manager Chris Jensen Shares his Thoughts on CDM Progress, Priorities, and Challenges […]

Now seven years from the launch of the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Continuous Diagnostics and Mitigation (CDM) program, aimed at engineering lasting improvement in Federal agency network security, the move from legacy to cloud-based infrastructure is accelerating rapidly toward the next world of managed services. […]

The vast majority of U.S. primary election voters want presidential candidates to make reducing cybercrime a top priority, according to a Sept. 30 poll from think tank Third Way. […]

The Department of Justice (DoJ) announced Sept. 27 that a former Federal contractor was sentenced to two years in prison for “illegally accessing his former employer’s network systems, stealing critical servers and information, and causing a loss of over $1.1 million.” […]

The CyberPeace Institute, an independent non-governmental organization (NGO), launched Sept. 26 with the mission to “assist vulnerable communities, promote transparency, and advance global discussions on acceptable behavior in cyberspace.” […]

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) identified in a new report several cybersecurity risks to the U.S. electric grid and called upon the Department of Energy (DoE) to develop an improved Federal strategy to protect against cyber threats to the grid. […]

The House Homeland Security Committee approved legislation on Sept. 25 a cyber committee within the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA). […]

The Senate on Sept. 24 passed a bill that would increase the Federal government’s ability to respond to and aid government agencies and private-sector companies that are involved in major cyber incidents. […]

Rep. Patrick McHenry, R-N.C., on Sept. 24 introduced H.R. 4458, the Cybersecurity and Financial System Resilience Act of 2019, to combat cybersecurity threats facing the Federal Reserve System. […]

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and its National Cybersecurity Center of Excellence (NCCoE) have released a draft cybersecurity guide for energy sector asset management.  NCCoE is seeking comments on the draft through Nov. 25. […]

Amidst the United Nations (UN) General Assembly, the United States and 26 other countries released a joint statement on advancing responsible state behavior in cyberspace on Sept. 23. […]

Microsoft announced Sept. 20 that it is extending free security support for Federally certified voting systems running Windows 7 through the 2020 election. Microsoft had previously announced it was ceasing to support Windows 7. […]

In the President’s Management Agenda (PMA), the Justice Department was tasked with combating cyber-enabled threats and attacks by “conducting 8,400 computer intrusion program deterrences, detections, disruptions, and dismantlements, while successfully resolving 90 percent of its cyber defendant cases.” According to a Q3 FY2019 update, the Justice Department has not only met its quarterly targets, but it has also exceeded them. […]

While the Department of Education is somewhat on track to meet its goal of improving student privacy and data security at institutions of higher education, it still has room to improve, according to an update to the Department of Education’s agency priority goals – part of the President’s Management Agenda (PMA) – released September 19. […]

“Never trust; always verify,” is emerging as the new slogan for information security in a cloud-based world. At its core is Zero Trust – the idea that access to agency resources should be restricted until the user has proven their identity and access permissions, and the device has passed a security profile check. […]

In a panel at the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) Cybersecurity Summit today, House Committee on Homeland Security (CHS) Aide Moira Bergin stressed Chairman Bennie Thompson’s, D-Miss., desire to reestablish the White House cybersecurity advisor position. […]

More than a year after the White House Cybersecurity Coordinator position was eliminated, Rep. Bennie G. Thompson, D-Miss., is urging the Trump administration to reestablish the role, according to a statement released Sept. 18. The recent push comes as President Trump named Robert O’Brien as his new National Security Advisor, following the resignation of John Bolton. […]

Federal cybersecurity officials spoke about the strategies they’re pursuing to address workforce issues within their agencies during a Sept. 18 Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) Cybersecurity Summit panel. […]

“Never trust; always verify” – it’s the new slogan for information security in a perimeter-less landscape. While 93% of Federal agencies have implemented security solutions mapping to this modern mindset, the majority haven’t outlined a clear Zero Trust initiative fit for cloud, hybrid cloud, and multi-cloud demands. […]

The head of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) said today that the spate of ransomware attacks that hit school systems in Texas and Louisiana over the past month “got pretty close” to qualifying as a “large-scale cyber event,” which he said begs the need to further develop Federal doctrine about how to respond to major events. […]

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) announced the first-annual President’s Cup Cybersecurity Competition, an interagency effort to identify, challenge, and reward the “best personnel supporting cybersecurity and cyber excellence” in the government. […]

Seven years after its inception, how is DHS’ Continuous Diagnostics and Mitigation (CDM) program performing? We surveyed more than 160 Federal and industry CDM stakeholders to understand their experiences with the program and recommendations for its future direction. […]

The Department of Treasury released a cloud acquisition roadmap based on the department’s cloud strategy that took effect July 1, 2019, according to special notice. […]

With Department of Homeland Security (DHS) looking to close its Data Center 2 (DC2) by June 2020, DHS Infrastructure Services Division Executive Director Carlene Ileto provided progress updates indicating that most DHS components are in the process of or planning to move their data to the cloud by the DC2 closure deadline. […]

Accenture has announced the appointment of Aaron Faulkner as head of the Federal Cyber practice at Accenture Federal Services. He is the vice president of cybersecurity at ECS. […]