Multiple tech-related issues including cybersecurity, social media manipulation, and intellectual property theft took center stage today at a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing featuring six U.S. intelligence organization chiefs fielding senators’ questions about threats to the country from adversaries who they said are becoming more dangerous as they better understand and use technology. […]

The National Intelligence Strategy, released yesterday by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), names cyber threat intelligence as one of seven mission objectives for the intelligence community, and addresses threats and opportunities from emerging technologies.

The Senate on Wednesday passed the Securing Energy Infrastructure Act, which would appropriate $10 million to create a pilot program to look at nondigital control systems and how to protect them against cyber attacks.  

Performance.gov disclosed yesterday that it updated its Security Clearance, Suitability/Fitness, and Credentialing (SSC) Reform CAP Goal Action Plan.

Federal agencies identified 26 long-range emerging threats to U.S. national security, including emerging technologies and foreign cybersecurity threats, a new report by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) found.

Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., on Dec. 6 introduced a bill that aims to modernize the Federal government’s security clearance system and reduce the government’s backlog of security clearances which the senator said now stands at about 600,000.

The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) released its updated fiscal year 2019 guidance and deadlines for the Federal Information Security Modernization Act of 2014 (FISMA), containing similar deadlines and requirements to the prior year but featuring new language on using Continuous Diagnostics and Mitigation (CDM) vehicles for acquisitions of monitoring tools.

The Office of the Director of National Intelligence, alongside the Justice Department, Federal Bureau of Investigation, and Department of Homeland Security, released a joint statement today that expresses their concern over election interference and calls identification and prevention of interference a “top priority for the Federal government.”

La’Naia Jones, Deputy CIO of the Intelligence Community, said today that the commoditization of hacking capabilities, expansion of IT supply chain exploits, and nation-state use of ransomware have come to the attention of the IC as primary areas of interest in the fight for better cybersecurity.

The Department of Homeland Security on Aug. 13-15 hosted “Tabletop the Vote 2018: DHS’ National Election Cyber Exercise,” which invited vendors and Federal, state and local election officials to participate in election security preparation.

Wayne Belk, director of the National Insider Threat Task Force (NITTF), said today at an event hosted by Nextgov and Equifax that his unit in the Office of the Director of National Intelligence is now working with the Defense Department to clarify and strengthen the roles of the Federal government’s insider threat staff, beginning with its security analysts.

Bill Evanina, director of the National Counterintelligence and Security Center (NCSC) in the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, said today that the billions of dollars the U.S. government and private sector spend each year on cybersecurity are not being properly and efficiently utilized unless government and industry wrap human resources departments tightly into security discussions.

Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats said Monday that the intelligence community (IC) will be prioritizing a comprehensive cyber posture, machine-augmented intelligence, and modern data management as “foundational priorities” in the coming years, following a year-long reexamination of the IC known as the IC2025 initiative.

Various arms of the Federal government are grappling with how to best curb critical infrastructure risk despite uncertainty regarding the best path forward and knowledge barriers surrounding the underlying technology.

The White House isn’t doing enough to address in a public forum a range of artificial intelligence issues and needs to institute a public process to seek comments on AI-related issues, said a group of six industry groups and more than 80 individuals from academia and the private sector in a July 4 letter to the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP).

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is piloting a new artificial intelligence (AI) initiative with Canada’s Department of National Defense that kicked off today and aims to provide first responders and paramedics with information to help make potential life-saving decisions in the field.

The House Foreign Affairs Committee today approved by voice vote the Cyber Deterrence and Response Act, which would “address state-sponsored cyber activities against the United States” by directing the President to designate “critical cyber threat actors.”

Welcome to MeriTalk News Briefs, where we bring you all the day’s action that didn’t quite make the headlines. No need to shout about ‘em, but we do feel that they merit talk.

Joyce Corell, assistant director for the supply chain directorate at the Officer of the Director of National Intelligence’s (ODNI) National Counterintelligence and Security Center, predicts that regulation or other means to manage IT supply chain security risk is inevitable, given increased emphasis on the topic across government. Speaking at an Information Security and Privacy Advisory Board meeting Friday, Corell said rumblings across the Federal space concerning supply chain risk will soon likely lead to even more formal steps.

It is imperative for Federal agencies to effectively utilize threat intelligence combined with the power and agility of the cloud to better defend their networks. But, today, agencies are lacking adequate situational awareness to give their IT and security teams more clarity about what is going on in their networked environments. So, what’s holding them back?