Congressional staffers on House and Senate committees with strong interest in cybersecurity issues said today they are watching for “low-hanging fruit” in the form of easy-to-enact legislative proposals expected to make up some of the recommendations in the Cyberspace Solarium Commission (CSC) report set to be released on March 11. […]
In a report released Feb. 25, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) said that “most” of nine agencies tasked with protecting the 16 critical infrastructure sectors “have not developed methods to determine the level and type of adoption of the National Institute of Standards and Technology’s (NIST) Framework for Improving Critical Infrastructure Cybersecurity.” […]
State and local election officials said at the RSA security conference in San Francisco on Feb. 24 that Federal election assistance funding has been vital to their efforts to shore up election infrastructure security over the past few years. […]
Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) Director Christopher Krebs pledged today that there is no issue drawing more focus and attention at the Federal government level than election security leading up to the 2020 elections later this year. […]
The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) found that the Cybersecurity Vulnerability Identification and Notification Act of 2020 (H.R. 5680) could slightly lower the deficit, but not by a significant amount. The bill, introduced by Rep. Jim Langevin, D-R.I. on Jan. 27, would authorize the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) to issue administrative subpoenas in rare […]
Sixty-four Federal agencies have experimented with artificial intelligence (AI) or machine learning (ML) techniques, a new report, submitted to the Administrative Conference of the United States, shows. […]
Sean Connelly, Trusted Internet Connections (TIC) program manager at the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), said this week his office expects to issue finalized documents sometime this spring for version 3.0 of the TIC initiative. The agency issued draft guidance documents for TIC 3.0 late last year. […]
For Yemi Oshinnaiye, Deputy Chief Information Officer at the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), DevOps is a movement toward a workplace culture that increases flow. It’s about getting things to the user faster, said Oshinnaiye, speaking today at the DevOps Forum hosted by the American Council for Technology and Industry Advisory Council (ACT-IAC) […]
According to checks with conference organizers, the show will go on, and Federal government officials are still planning to travel to the conference next week despite concerns about the coronavirus that are keeping at least some others away. […]
The Department of Defense (DoD), Federal Bureau of Investigation, and Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) detailed a North Korean hacking operation that employs even pieces of malware. […]
Senator Ed Markey, D-Mass., questioned the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) use of cellphone data for immigration enforcement in a Feb. 12 letter to the agency. […]
While the 2020 election cycle has been officially underway for less than a month, there have already been significant technology concerns. While the most notable tech concern was the Feb. 3 Iowa Caucus, researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) raised additional concerns in a report published Feb. 13. […]
The House Homeland Security Committee advanced the State and Local Cybersecurity Improvement Act out of committee on Feb. 12. […]
Department of Homeland Security Acting CIO Beth Cappello said she is directing the move of the Cybersecurity Operations Center from the CISO Directorate to the Information Technology Operations Directorate (ITO). […]
Paul Beckman is leaving his position as Chief Information Security Officer at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), MeriTalk has learned. […]
During today’s Senate Homeland Security Committee Hearing, both Committee Chairman Ron Johnson, R-Wis., and Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) Director Chris Krebs agreed that CISA’s role is largely similar to the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s mandate. […]
The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) issued a statement today offering assurance that efforts by the Federal government and state and local authorities have resulted in installation of intrusion detection sensors on election infrastructure in all 50 states. […]
The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) released the president’s Fiscal Year 2021 budget proposal Feb. 10, which comes in at $4.8 trillion including billions slotted for cyber investments at the Departments of Defense (DoD), Homeland Security (DHS), Energy (DoE), and Veterans Affairs (VA). […]
The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) released its #Protect2020 Strategic Plan for election security Feb. 7, one day after the Government Accountability Office (GAO) slammed the agency’s election security preparedness. […]
Last night, five Federal agency CIOs and their senior staff members brought home awards and well-earned praise for raising their Federal Information Technology Acquisition Reform Act (FITARA) Scorecard grades at MeriTalk’s FITARA Awards (LINK) ceremony. […]
The Government Accountability Office found in a Feb. 6 report that the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) need to work together to modernize the United States’ emergency alert capabilities. […]
The Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) is not yet well-positioned to secure nationwide election infrastructure before the 2020 election cycle, according to a Feb. 6 Government Accountability Office (GAO) report. […]
Members of the House Homeland Security Committee today questioned Federal government officials about the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) use of facial recognition technologies, and potential racial bias in the technology. […]
For Federal agencies, a zero-trust model means not only knowing who might be on their networks accessing data and information, but making sure a user has an authorized reason to access that information. […]
The Departments of Energy (DOE), Homeland Security (DHS), and Defense (DoD) announced Feb. 3 a collaborative initiative to prepare for and respond to cyberattacks on critical energy infrastructure, in part by putting energy infrastructure threat response plans to the test. […]
The Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Countering Weapon of Mass Destruction Acquisition Division (CWMD) is seeking cloud software engineering services to help with its mission of combating the use of WMDs. […]
A group of privacy and civil liberties groups wrote a letter to the Privacy and Civil Liberties Board (PCLOB) urging the board to demand that the President and Secretary of Homeland Security suspend the use of facial recognition systems by Federal agencies. […]
In a short note on its website, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) encouraged cloud administrators and users to review the National Security Agency’s (NSA) Jan. 22 guidance on mitigating cloud vulnerabilities. […]
Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) Director Chris Krebs told the nation’s mayors this week that Federal government needs to ensure that state and local governments have the resources needed to combat growing cybersecurity concerns, and said that heightened security threats from Iran and elsewhere may help provide governments with the leverage to get that done. […]
Sens. Maggie Hassan, D-N.H., John Cornyn, R-Texas, Rob Portman, R-Ohio, and Gary Peters, D-Mich., introduced legislation on Jan. 16 that directs the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to establish a Cybersecurity State Coordinator program. […]