Cybersecurity

  • Evan Lesser, founder and director of ClearanceJobs.com, joins host Derrick Dortch to discuss how federal workers with security clearances have been impacted by the OPM cyber breach. He will also talk about the state of the clearance job market. July 24, 2015

    July 23, 2015
  • The breaches of the Office of Personnel Management's networks underscore how vulnerable the government is to hackers. Every federal employee can strengthen or weaken the government's cybersecurity. Federal News Radio's Emily Kopp asked two experts to share some tips for being safe online during a training conference hosted by Gov Loop. The first voice you'll hear is Kristina Dorville, the Homeland Security Department’s branch chief for cyber education and awareness. We'll also hear from Celia Paulsen, an IT security specialist at the National Institute of Standards and Technology.

    July 23, 2015
  • The breach of Office of Personnel Management databases that compromised information of more than 22 million people should convince the Senate to pass cybersecurity legislation, Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas), the chairman of the House Committee on Homeland Security, said Thursday.

    July 23, 2015
  • A bipartisan group of six senators introduced the Federal Information Security Management Reform Act of 2015 to give DHS the clout it’s been lacking over the last five years and, in some respects, put it on par with the National Security Agency.

    July 23, 2015
  • Federal employees and other security-clearance holders do not trust the Office of Personnel Management to protect victims of the hacks on its databases, an exclusive Federal News Radio survey shows. Yet they'll accept the agency's credit- and identity-protection services. Moreover, they'll continue to give OPM their sensitive personal information if it means they'll keep their security clearances.

    July 23, 2015
  • Postal Service employees know the effects of a major cyber breach all too well. Hackers stole personally identifiable information for more than 800,000 employees back in November 2014. But the USPS Inspector General said the agency from the top to bottom wasn't prepared for the attack. Aron Alexander is the IT audit director in the Office of Inspector General for the U.S. Postal Service. He tells In Depth with Francis Rose that the agency doesn't have the staffing and the resources to handle cybersecurity functions.

    July 22, 2015
  • The federal government has a trust problem after the OPM cyber breaches. Federal News Radio wanted to know what the people who were affected by the breach thought about the response from OPM and from the government overall. Federal News Radio's Emily Kopp has a preview of the survey results and she explains what we wanted to know from the people who participated.

    July 22, 2015
  • UPDATED: A key Senate committee approved an amendment today to give federal employees no less than 10 years of identity and credit-monitoring services and $5 million in liability protection for related damages.

    July 22, 2015
  • A new report from the Institute for Critical Infrastructure Technology cites OPM's scattered IT governance, lack of cybersecurity experts and lack of cyber threat detection technology as the major pitfalls leading to OPM's cyber breach. The Federal Drive's Tom Temin spoke with Dan Waddell, a lead contributor on the study, about what OPM needs to do to secure its systems for the future.

    July 22, 2015
  • The Office of Personnel Management is turning to the Homeland Security Department to help it set the standard for better federal cybersecurity. OPM is still recovery mode as it deals with the consequences of the biggest breach of federal employee data in history. Chris Cummiskey is the CEO of Cummiskey Strategic Solutions, a senior fellow at the Center for Cyber and Homeland Security at George Washington University and former acting undersecretary for management at DHS. He tells In Depth with Francis Rose that says DHS has five big items to tackle before it can — and should — lead the effort.

    July 21, 2015
  • A new piece of cybersecurity technology is out from the Homeland Security Department's Science and Technology Directorate. The Network Mapping System tells users what's connected to their networks so they know how to protect them best. It's the third technology out of the S&T Directorate's Transition to Practice program. DHS is licensing the system to Cambridge Global Advisors in Arlington. Michael Pozmantier is in the Transition to Practice office at the DHS Science and Technology Directorate. He tells In Depth with Francis Rose how the system works.

    July 21, 2015
  • UPDATED: Agencies with the largest percentage of security clearances, such as DoD, DHS and VA, will end up shouldering a huge part of the burden to pay for the credit monitoring services for 21 million current and former federal employees impacted by the second data breach. AFGE and federal officials are angered after acting OPM Director Beth Cobert tells agencies about OPM’s plans to raise its fees for security clearance services it provides in order to recoup the costs of the identity protection services it must purchase for the victims of the attack.

    July 21, 2015
  • The Internet of Things has lots of promise. Program managers and researchers of all types can get a clearer view of what is going on in their world when they can process information from unlimited numbers of data gathering points. But the expansion of network traffic and data from the Internet of Things also carries serious new cybersecurity threats. Chris Eng is the vice president of research at Veracode. He's studied the security implications, and joined Tom Temin on the Federal Drive to review them.

    July 21, 2015
  • Agencies are nearing the end of a 30-day cybersecurity sprint to fix major vulnerabilities in their systems. But every agency can't afford to maintain its own critical infrastructure. Dave McClure is the chief strategist at the Veris Group. John Marshall is founder and CEO of the Shared Services Leadership Coalition. They tell In Depth with Francis Rose that the key to a modern federal cyber strategy starts at the shared services marketplace.

    July 20, 2015