Federal Newscast

CISA faces challenges to sharing cyber threat information

The IG said CISA made some good improvements to the Automated Indicator Sharing program in recent years.

Michele Sandiford

October 2, 2024 1:02 pm

< a min read

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency’s (CISA) program for sharing cyber threat data is struggling with a steep decline in participants. That’s according to a new report from the Department of Homeland Security inspector general. The IG said CISA made some good improvements to the Automated Indicator Sharing (AIS) program in recent years. But the number of participants dropped from 304 in 2020 to 135 in 2022. The IG said CISA did not have a good outreach strategy for AIS. In response, CISA told auditors that it’s working on a new threat intelligence strategy aimed at addressing challenges with AIS.
(CISA faces challenges sharing cyber threat information as required by the Cybersecurity Act of 2015 - Department of Homeland Security OIG)

The Army is seeking industry input for its Next Generation Command and Control (NGC2) initiative. The Army’s program executive office for command, control, communications-tactical wants industry to guide the Army's experimentation, pilot programs, and prototyping efforts in establishing the next generation C2 architecture. The request for information comes after the industry day held last month. The service plans to test out NGC2 at the beginning of 2025. Comments are due by Oct. 4.
(Army to seek industry input on next generation command and control initiative - SAM.gov)

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is building out a “one-stop shop” for cybersecurity. HHS’ Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response has a new cyber division. The focus of the new office at ASPR help hospitals and health organizations when they get hit by a cyber-attack. Brian Mazanec is deputy director of ASPR’s Center for Preparedness. “We come in and try to understand, well, what are the patient impacts, what systems are down, what things can we offer to potentially help or be monitoring, to maybe take further actions to again, blunt those patient impacts.” ASPR is also working with the healthcare sector to adopt voluntary cybersecurity performance goals. But HHS will soon update privacy rules to incorporate new cyber requirements for the sector.
(Inside HHS’ ‘one-stop shop’ for health sector cybersecurity - Federal News Network )

The General Services Administration (GSA) is facing new questions from its inspector general about its effort to ensure vendor prices are reasonable. In a new report, the IG said GSA didn’t follow its own policies by frequently accepting unsubstantiated most favored customer and commercial pricing information when it consolidated contracts under the schedules program. Auditors said the Federal Acquisition Service (FAS) also did not consistently leverage the government’s collective buying power. The Federal Acquisition Service disagreed with some of the IG’s recommendations, saying the use of readily available data to determine price reasonableness meets GSA’s policy requirements. This is the fifth IG report looking at price reasonableness since 2017.
(FAS should strengthen its price analyses when consolidating schedule contracts - General Services Administration OIG)

Agency progress to improve the digital experience of citizens and businesses is uneven at best. New data from the Government Accountability Office (GAO) shows nearly six years since Congress passed the 21st Century IDEA Act, agencies made progress on 109 of the 192 requirements in the law. But the measure of real progress is limited because only 18 of 24 CFO Act agencies submitted IDEA Act reports. The departments of State, Health and Human Services and Transportation, and the Social Security Administration were among the agencies not submitting progress reports.
(Digital experience: Agency compliance with statutory requirements - Government Accountability Office)

Federal agencies awarded high customer satisfaction scores to the Government Publishing Office (GPO). In a new survey from GPO, more than 500 federal customers gave GPO the highest ratings around staff professionalism, value of GPO products and services and staff technical knowledge and expertise. This biennial survey also found the satisfaction rating for Onsite Document Services increased from 92% in 2022 to 97% in 2024. GPO will use data from the survey to identify new business opportunities and develop plans to address issues from their customers.
(GPO receives high customer satisfaction score - Government Publishing Office)

The Pentagon’s Defense Security Cooperation Service has reached its initial operating capability. The establishment of the security cooperation service is a key milestone in the department’s effort to professionalize its security cooperation workforce. The launch of the Defense Security Cooperation Service is part of the dozens of reforms compiled by the Pentagon’s tiger team, which was tasked with improving the foreign military sales process. The Defense Security Cooperation Services is similar to the Defense Attaché Service but focuses on ensuring that security cooperation officers are better prepared to engage with allies and partners.
(Pentagon launches Defense Security Cooperation Service - Federal News Network)

A proposed grant program from the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) would help vets upgrade their military discharge status and access VA benefits. The program would fund legal services for veterans with other-than-honorable discharges to navigate the review process and apply for VA care and benefits. This effort is part of the Biden administration’s Unity Agenda to support underserved vets. Over the past 10 years, VA has granted eligibility to 57,000 former service members with other-than-honorable discharge status. The VA will accept public comments on the proposal starting Oct. 2.
(VA grant program - Department of Veterans Affairs)

Michele Sandiford

Michele Sandiford is a digital editor at Federal News Network.