IBM released its new mainframe, IBM z14, which offers encryption for 100 percent of user data and achieves the highest level of government security standards currently on the market. The mainframe will be made available in mid-September and IBM is working with the Federal government to integrate this technology into its IT strategies. […]
The Department of Justice announced on July 20 that it was recently able to take down dark website AlphaBay and its administrator. The action was in conjunction with Europol as well as law enforcement authorities in Thailand, the Netherlands, Lithuania, Canada, the United Kingdom, and France. […]
BlackBerry announced the expansion of its public sector cybersecurity offerings to include SecuSUITE for Government, which provides end-to-end encryption of calls and texts and supports iOS, Android, and BlackBerry 10 smartphones and tablets. […]
Cyber criminals are more and more often using tools and processes already installed in target computers, called “living off the land,” to ease hacking efforts and reduce the chance of detection, according to a recent Symantec study. […]
The White House is celebrating Made in America Week, while many U.S.-based technology companies advocate for H-1B visas to sponsor foreign workers who engineer some of the nation’s most lucrative technology products. […]
The State Department’s cyber coordinator will be stepping down at the end of this month, according to reports from Politico. Chris Painter has been creating a strategic framework for cybersecurity during peacetime and gaining support from other countries. […]
Members of Congress urged Defense Secretary James Mattis in a letter to incorporate cybersecurity into high school Junior Reserve Officers Training Corps (JROTC) programs. […]
While President Donald Trump talks about creating a Cybersecurity Unit with Russia, government officials told the Washington Post that Russian government hackers were behind recent cyber intrusions into the business systems of U.S. nuclear power and other energy companies. […]
In 2012, the Office of Management and Budget listed 14 cross-agency priority goals as part of the Government Performance and Results Modernization Act. One topic identified was continuous monitoring of Federal IT networks. The next year, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced a $6 billion program to address this: the Continuous Diagnostics and Mitigation (CDM) program. […]
Many states and localities don’t have the resources to upgrade and protect their election systems from malicious cyber intrusion, and the Federal government should work to provide them with those resources, according to a recent Brennan Center report on election cybersecurity. […]
Kaspersky Lab is willing to turn over its source code to the U.S. government to dispel rumors that the company has ties to the Russian Kremlin, CEO Eugene Kaspersky told the Associated Press on July 1. “If the United States needs, we can disclose the source code,” Kaspersky said. “Anything I can do to prove that we don’t behave maliciously, I will do it.” […]
Reps. Anna Eshoo, D-Calif., and Susan Brooks, R-Ind., and Sens. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, and Ed Markey, D-Mass., introduced legislation June 29 to combat cyber crime by mandating that the National Institute of Standards and Technology, the Federal Trade Commission, and the department of Homeland Security (DHS) establish baseline best practices for the private sector. […]
The cyberattack that spread across Europe on June 27 was declared not a ransomware attack after further observation by researchers. The “Not Petya” attack didn’t encrypt files on the infected computers. Instead, it wiped the entire drive, making it impossible to retrieve files if they weren’t backed up on another device. […]
The United States and Israel announced plans June 27 to cooperate on cybersecurity issues, including domestic and international cyber policy, critical infrastructure protection, research and development, and workforce development. […]
Barracuda Networks announced the release of Barracuda Sentinel, an artificial intelligence-based solution to the increasingly targeted spear phishing campaigns experienced by all sizes of government and industry. […]
Companies that paid the ransom to retrieve their data from the Petya ransomware attack have no way of receiving the encryption key. Although Symantec has verified the Ukrainian accounting service, MeDoc, as “patient zero” for the attack, the cybersecurity company hasn’t discovered who is behind the attack. The email account that the attack stemmed from has been shut down, so that companies that pay the ransom of $300 won’t receive the encryption key needed to return their data. […]
Another cyberattack with links to the stolen cache of National Security Agency materials is spreading across Europe on June 27, targeting banks, businesses, and a Ukraine power company. Infections have been reported in Russia, Ukraine, Spain, France, the United Kingdom, and India. […]
The number of reported Internet crimes and the costs incurred by those crimes are on the rise, according to the FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center’s recently released 2016 Internet Threat Report. The “hottest” Internet crimes of 2016 were business email compromise, ransomware, tech support fraud, and extortion. […]
Both members of the private sector and state governments are struggling under the burden of inconsistent and overlapping Federal cybersecurity regulations, according to experts who spoke before the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee. […]
Strategy in cyberspace should be treated like the strategy used in traditional military battle spaces, according to Ray Letteer, chief of the cyber division of the Command, Control, Communications, and Computers (C4) Department at Headquarters of the U.S. Marine Corps, who spoke at Tenable’s GovProtect17 on June 21. […]
The underreporting of cyber incidents is a chief issue across Federal agencies, according to Kevin Cox, Continuous Diagnostics and Mitigation program manager for the department of Homeland Security. However, when the CDM Federal dashboard launches in July, agencies will be able to view not only their own cybersecurity issues, but also those of their fellow agencies. […]
The Federal government needs to set standards for cybersecurity and hold the proper people accountable, technology executives that gathered at the White House on June 19 told Rob Joyce, cyber coordinator for the White House. […]
Creative thinking is one solution for Federal agencies that defend against cyberattacks, according to Amit Yoran, chairman and CEO of Tenable. […]
The cybersecurity executive order, signed by President Donald Trump, could enable a shift in culture that will help entire agencies gain the cybersecurity knowledge that they need to be successful in their missions, according to agency CIOs. […]
To protect the nation’s digital infrastructure, Rep. Will Hurd, R-Texas, said it’s important to empower agency leadership and expand information sharing between the Federal government and other entities. […]
The Unisys 2017 Security Index found that public concern over Internet security has increased more than any other security concern since their 2014 survey. “Our biggest percentage increase was in viruses, malware, and hacking activities,” said Bill Searcy, Unisys vice president of global justice, law enforcement, and border security. […]
The personal details of nearly 200 million voters were left exposed online by data firm Deep Root Analytics, which was working on behalf of the Republican National Committee, according to UpGuard, which reported the exposure on June 19 and characterized it as “the largest known exposure of voter information in history.” […]
Eighteen technology company CEOs are expected to attend the White House Tech Summit on June 19 to talk about modernizing the government’s tech infrastructure and keeping its computers safe from cyberattacks. The technology leaders could benefit if the government moves to modernize with the help of their hardware, software, and cloud-computing services. […]
The Federal government currently lacks the empowered leadership necessary to address U.S. cyber vulnerabilities, according to former Federal experts testifying before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. “For the entire apparatus, there currently isn’t an empowered, either an individual or an agency, to do what I think is necessary,” said Samantha Ravich, senior adviser for the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and former national security adviser for Vice President Dick Cheney. […]
Former CIA Director John Brennan said that the Federal government should create an independent commission to regulate the digital domain. Brennan said that the commission should be made up of former government officials and private sector engineers to ensure that there are representatives of both backgrounds. […]