On Tuesday and Wednesday of this week, the European Union Agency for Law Enforcement Cooperation, better known as Europol, met with the European Cybercrime Centre Advisory Groups on Financial Services, Internet Security and Communication Providers to discuss phishing attacks and how to fight and prevent them. […]

President Trump on March 26 said he was extending by one year–to April 2020–the national emergency regarding cybersecurity threats that was declared by President Obama in 2015 under Executive Order 13694, and amended in 2016 by Executive Order 13757. […]

Congress must take action to ensure that consumer data is being adequately protected at consumer reporting agencies (CRAs), witnesses said at Tuesday’s House Committee on Oversight and Reform Subcommittee on Economic and Consumer Policy hearing. […]

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 Defense Health Agency (DHA), which enables the military to provide medical services to combatant commands during both peacetime and wartime, has migrated to the cloud. […]

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

A new analysis from Apptio, a maker of technology business management (TBM) software as a service applications, finds that Federal agencies were on average spending less than two percent of their IT budgets on cloud services in fiscal year 2018, lagging far behind a reported spend rate for the private sector. […]

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

With the new Artificial Intelligence (AI) executive order and Federal data strategy on the horizon, MeriTalk connected with Rob Davies, Executive Vice President of Operations, ViON, to discuss how agencies can prepare their infrastructure to handle demands from AI, IoT, advanced analytics, blockchain, and more. […]

The question of the best way for transitioning to cloud infrastructures is a big one for Federal agencies. One approach to solve this issue is a slow, measured migration. Another approach is a more dramatic transformation in a shorter period that might be painful, but allows agencies to reap the benefits of cloud migration much sooner. The best approach for agencies to successfully transition depends on the agency itself, its mission, and what officials are looking to achieve. […]

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. […]

Digital transformation efforts are top of mind for Federal IT professionals, but few programs will succeed without the necessary network to support them. […]

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. […]

In what it calls a “strategic decision” that will allow its personnel to concentrate on cyber operations and its warfighting mission, the Air Force is trying to get out of the business of providing end-user services, such as device management, help desks, and the underlying network infrastructure. Instead, it is contracting those jobs out to industry as part of a network-as-a-service (NaaS) experiment. […]

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. […]

Controlling cloud costs in today’s hybrid and multi-cloud environments can be a challenge for many Federal technology managers after a migration or cloud-native application deployment. There are so many variables to consider, from operational to contracts and licensing issues, that if the process is not well managed costs can spiral out of control. […]

The General Services Administration announced Thursday that they are adding a category for cloud-oriented IT professional services to IT Schedule 70 under the Cloud Special Item Number (SIN), as well as draft updates for existing software SINs. […]

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.” […]