Smarter Gov Tech, Stronger MerITocracy
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In the last year, cybersecurity spending rose by 24 percent, but cyberattacks increased by 17 percent, according to a report from ServiceNow released Oct. 29. […]

The Pentagon’s award late last week of its ten-year Joint Enterprise Defense Initiative (JEDI) contract for general purpose cloud computing to Microsoft took center stage on Capitol Hill today at a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing to consider the nomination of Dana Deasy as the Defense Department’s (DoD) CIO. […]

The Continuous Diagnostics and Mitigation (CDM) program has an important role to play in protecting Federal systems, but the adoption process can be downright scary for some agencies. On Halloween, MeriTalk will host a webinar to dig through the skeletons and challenges in CDM’s closet, shine a flashlight on the success stories of the program, and ultimately help demystify the CDM program for vendors and agencies alike. […]

In a Friday letter to President Trump’s acting Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney, Rep. Ted Lieu, D-Calif., demanded answers about recent departures from the administration of key Federal cybersecurity officials. […]

Cyber Security Brainstorm
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Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Ala., ranking member of the House Homeland Security Committee, announced updated Republican subcommittee assignments on Oct. 25. Among the changes, Rep. John Joyce, R-Pa., will join the Cybersecurity, Infrastructure Protection, and Innovation Subcommittee. […]

NIST

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is tackling managed service provider (MSPs) cybersecurity by developing a customizable reference model that MSPs can adapt to fit their program needs. […]

FDIC

A spotty risk management strategy, along with poor security control assessment procedures, are undermining the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC)’s ability to identify and detect network security threats, according to an FDIC Office of the Inspector General (OIG) report released on Oct. 23. […]

Cybersecurity flag

Federal agency CISOs obviously have a lot to do – like securing networks, for one – but they’re also busy “selling” cybersecurity within their agencies to leadership across the organization, a panel of Federal security chiefs explained Oct. 22 at the ACT-IAC Imagine Nation 2019 conference. […]

Sen. Edward Markey, D-Mass., and Rep. Ted Lieu, D-Calif., on Oct. 22 reintroduced legislation in the Senate and House aimed at creating a voluntary system to certify cybersecurity protections for internet of things (IoT) devices. […]

capitol washington dc senate house congress-min

Reps. Robin Kelly, D-Ill., and Cathy McMorris, R-Wash., introduced the US SAFE WEB Extension Act on Oct. 22, which would enable the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to protect Americans from fraud, spam, and deception online. […]

During a House Judiciary Committee hearing on securing elections, witnesses from law enforcement agencies were asked a litany of questions related to the security of U.S. elections for 2020, including what kind of new measures were being taken during this cycle. […]

cyber workforce

Officials from the Departments of Defense (DoD), Veterans Affairs (VA), and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) are bootstrapping an effort to further clarify and detail roles and career paths of the Federal cybersecurity workforce, the officials said Oct. 21 at the ACT-IAC Imagine Nation 2019 conference. […]

There’s a government and national responsibility in communicating the minimum standards for cyber security engineering, according to Chief of Missions for the Department of Defense’s (DoD) Joint Artificial Intelligence Center (JAIC) Col. Stoney Trent. […]

Federal money spending government
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According to an Office of Inspector General (OIG) Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) report, the PBGC’s overall cybersecurity performance independent assessment rating is “not effective.” […]

election security

White-hat hackers have scooped up $33,750 through Hack the Proxy, the eighth hacker-focused cyber challenge created through a partnership between the Defense Department (DoD) and HackerOne. […]

In an Oct. 10 letter to Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Director Mick Mulvaney, Sens. Gary Peters, D-Mich., Ron Johnson, R-Wis., Ron Wyden, D-Ore., and Tom Cotton, R-Ark., called for “stronger coordination of supply chain risk management for information and communications equipment across the Federal government.” […]

The Department of Defense (DoD) is partnering with Defense Digital Service (DDS) and HackerOne to launch the second Hack the Army bug bounty challenge. The challenge, which will run from Oct. 9 to Nov. 8, encourages hackers to attack more than 60 publicly accessible web assets to improve the DoD’s cyber defenses. […]

Nakasone US Cyber Command

Army Gen. Paul Nakasone – who heads both the National Security Agency and U.S. Cyber Command – said today that the first focus of NSA’s recently launched Cybersecurity Directorate will be to shore up protection of companies that make up the nation’s Defense Industrial Base (DIB), and specifically to prevent the theft of intellectual property from DIB companies. […]

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