When it comes to eliminating botnets, Jeanette Manfra, assistant director for Cybersecurity for the Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, stressed the importance of thinking differently and considering new solutions at the unveiling the 2018 International Anti-Botnet Guide today. […]
Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., is thanking the Senate Rules Committee for its work to improve the Senate’s cybersecurity posture by moving to begin encrypting data stored on Senate computers. […]
Dell said on Nov. 28 that it “detected and disrupted” unauthorized activity on its network on Nov. 9 that aimed to steal Dell.com customer information including names, email addresses, and hashed passwords, but not credit card or other sensitive data. Dell said “it is possible” that some data was stolen, but that “our investigations found no conclusive evidence that any was extracted.” Dell said its security measures in place–including hashing of customer passwords and a mandatory Dell.com password reset–are in place to limit the impact of any potential data disclosure. The company also said it has hired an digital forensics firm to conduct an independent investigate, and also has “engage law enforcement.” […]
More than 200 Google engineering, research, and project management employees have signed a petition calling on the company to cancel its Dragonfly project, which the employees said aims to create a “censored search engine for the Chinese market that enables state surveillance.” […]
The United Kingdom’s Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) said it fined ride-sharing provider Uber 385,000 pounds (U.S. $490,000) for failing to take adequate steps to protect the personal data of its customers during a cyberattack suffered by the company in 2016. […]
In an Inspector General (IG) report released Nov. 20, the Department of the Interior got taken to task for allowing an employee to visit 9,000 pornographic websites in under seven months. This is the IG second report chastising the department for an employee viewing porn on agency time and technology. […]
The European Union Agency for Law Enforcement Cooperation (Europol), meeting last week to consider data protection issues broadly, discussed the importance of protecting digital information and privacy in an era of increasing global terrorism and cybercrime. […]
The U.S. Postal Services (USPS) has fixed a security flaw within its Informed Delivery service that was allowing criminals to perpetrate a multitude of identity theft and credit card fraud schemes. […]
Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., announced Tuesday her intention to restore the Elections Subcommittee of the Committee on House Administration, which was created during the 110th Congress but abolished in 2013. Pelosi, who will likely be elected House majority leader when Democrats take control of the House in January, also announced that Rep. Marcia Fudge, D-Ohio, will serve as chairwoman of the subcommittee. […]
With November being National Critical Infrastructure Security and Resiliency Month, cyberattacks on electricity providers like the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) are being brought into focus, and a new report from TVA’s Inspector General raises some concerns about the organization’s ability to deal with potential ransomware attacks. […]
Federal agencies are using the National Institute of Standards and Technology’s (NIST) Cybersecurity Framework to manage their agencies’ cybersecurity risk, a year after the White House issued an executive order directing the heads of executive agencies and departments to use the NIST framework, according to an agency official. […]
A report from the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) released Monday argues that devices infected by botnets need to be eliminated. The report proposed increasing regulations and holding more organizations accountable for malicious botnet activity to achieve its goal. […]
On Monday, defense ministers from 25 European Union (EU) countries signed a military pact to create a joint electronic warfare capability project, among other initiatives. […]
The Global Cyber Alliance (GCA) on Monday released an interactive tool that consumers, businesses, and governments can use to “measure and quantify” the deployment of the Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting & Conformance (DMARC) email security protocol. […]
Hackers with ties to the Russian government are using a spear-phishing campaign to impersonate Department of State employees, according to cybersecurity firms FireEye and CrowdStrike. […]
The Department of Homeland Security’s Science and Technology Directorate (S&T) on Friday announced that S&T and the Dutch government are each putting up $1.25 million to fund “collaborative cybersecurity research and development” across five U.S.-Dutch research teams. […]
In a letter released Thursday, Rep. Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., questioned the Trump administration’s commitment to election security and pressed administration officials to communicate more clearly with Congress about the issue. […]
The Office of Financial Research (OFR), which is an independent bureau within the Department of the Treasury, said in its 2018 Annual Report to Congress on Thursday that cybersecurity “a key risk” to U.S. financial stability. […]
Bulgarian police announced Nov. 8 that they have arrested Alexander Zhukov, a Russian national and suspected cybercriminal, on behalf of the United States. […]
Federal agencies need to get into second gear in their efforts to defend against insider threats, as outlined in the “Insider Threat Program Maturity Framework” released this month by the National Insider Threat Task Force (NITTF). Agencies must move past the minimum standards many have established and become more proactive in countering what the task force said is a dynamic threat that has moved beyond basic defenses, according to the framework. […]
The General Services Administration (GSA) announced Wednesday that the GSA Federal Acquisition Service (FAS) Information Technology Category (ITC), IT Schedule 70 program is restructuring its Highly Adaptive Cybersecurity Services (HACS) Special Item Numbers (SINs). […]
Cybersecurity industry leaders and former military cyber experts told the Senate Armed Services Committee on Wednesday that the Pentagon needs to adopt more commercial cybersecurity technology. […]
The State of North Carolina, Cisco and industry partners will work together to implement a cybersecurity training initiative for veterans in the state, as the state announced today. […]
Senior officials from the Departments of Defense (DoD) and Homeland Security (DHS) told House members on Wednesday that they are busy working out details of a recently finalized cybersecurity coordination agreement focused on improving Federal government cyber defenses generally, and specifically the cyber defenses of critical infrastructure components on which DoD facilities rely, among other areas. […]
Fraudsters are using the U.S. Postal Services’ (USPS’) Informed Delivery service to perpetrate a multitude of identity theft and credit card fraud schemes, according to an alert the Secret Service sent its law enforcement partners on Nov. 6. […]
The House late Tuesday approved long-pending legislation that authorizes the Department of Homeland Security to reorganize its existing National Protection and Programs Directorate (NPPD) in order to create a new component agency–the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency–within DHS. […]
With a new session of Congress–and a power shift in the House–looming in January, big tech companies are looking toward 2019 and possible new privacy legislation that will alter the shape of their business models. […]
In a report released today, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) said the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) has yet to implement a full one-third of GAO’s information security recommendations issued to OPM in recent years. […]
Two House subcommittees will convene a hearing tomorrow, Nov. 14, at 3 p.m., to hear officials from the Departments of Defense (DoD) and Homeland Security (DHS) discuss how the two agencies cooperate on cybersecurity issues. […]
The ability of adversaries to attack in cyberspace with low consequence creates the need to impose friction and leads to the tenants of defending forward and continuous engagement with adversaries in cyberspace espoused in the National Cyber Strategy and the Department of Defense (DoD) Cyber Strategy, said Rob Joyce, senior adviser for cybersecurity strategy to the Director of the National Security Agency (NSA). […]