Chief legal counselor to NSA says intelligence disclosures may have set back efforts to improve nation's cybersecurity posture because of increasing unease about public-private cooperation, and that it's time to reexamine the digital privacy trust relationship between government and the public.
House Oversight and Government Reform Committee members approved the Federal Records Accountability Act, which mandates preservation of digital correspondence. The committee also passed the Searching for and Cutting Regulations that are Unnecessarily Burdensome Act, which would establish a presidential committee to find and review outdated, burdensome, costly or obsolete regulations.
The cyber attacks on the Government Printing Office and Government Accountability Office are the latest in a trend of heavier attacks on small agencies. Darren Van Booven, the chief information security officer and assistant chief administrative officer for the House of Representatives, tells Federal News Radio attackers are more sophisticated and they're starting to target small agencies. Rob Zitz is senior vice president and chief systems architect at Leidos, formerly part of SAIC. He's my guest for Industry Chatter today. He's my guest for Industry Chatter today. He says better cybersecurity starts with three letters: CDM.
The National Academy of Public Administration says the Social Security Administration is not ready for the challenges of the future. NAPA says shrinking budgets, retiring workers and rapidly changing technology are all issues that need to be addressed in the next 15 years.
Larry Zelvin is stepping down as the director of DHS's National Cyber and Communications Integration Center (NCIC) next month after almost 30 years of government service.
Agencies should be archiving all business communication to avoid mayhem such as at the IRS. While the agency shifts blame from e-mail to instant messenger, Nancy Flynn, founder of ePolicy, told Federal News Radio that agencies need to better manage the many communication options.
By some estimates, taking out just nine critical electrical substations could plunge the whole nation into darkness. Threats to the electrical grid aren't just from cybersecurity, but also from a lack of physical security. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission asked the Battelle Memorial Institute to look into security of the bulk electricity system. Jason Black is the research leader at Battelle. He joined Tom Temin and Emily Kopp on the Federal Drive to talk about his findings.
Federal officials say Chinese hackers broke into the networks of the Government Accountability Office and the Government Printing Office back in March. While news of Chinese cyber attacks on federal agencies isn't unprecedented, the March attacks, first reported by the New York Times, have some observers scratching their heads. They say it's unclear why those two agencies would be targeted -- particularly in the case of GPO. Steve Bucci is director of the Douglas and Sarah Allison Center for Foreign and National Security Policy at the Heritage Foundation. He's also former deputy assistant Defense secretary. He said the attacks shouldn't come as a surprise on In Depth with guest host Jared Serbu.
Cyber criminals are adjusting so quickly that it's become an 'arms race' between them and agency technology officers trying to guard against threats. During a recent Federal News Radio panel discussion, officials shared expertise and tactics for protection.
The nation's top intelligence official says transparency is going to have to be a feature of the intelligence community from now on. Gen. James Clapper, the director of national intelligence says that's his main takeaway from the Edward Snowden leaks and their continuing fallout. Clapper is the guest on the latest edition of AFCEA Answers on Federal News Radio. In this excerpt, he told host Max Cacas he makes no apologies for the programs Snowden exposed, but intelligence agencies need to do a better job of explaining why they do what they do.
The Justice Department is asking Congress for more resources to fight cybercrime. Yesterday, a top official told Senators cyber criminals are becoming so sophisticated that the department, and the FBI in particular, are adapting their tactics and tools on a minute-by-minute basis. That might not be fast enough. The FBI estimates 500 million computers are infected by botnets each year, meaning that there are 18 victims per second. Levi Gundert is a former secret service agent and now a technical lead with Cisco's Threat Research, Analysis and Communications team. He told Emily Kopp on the Federal Drive that the government deserves credit for building partnerships that can track and find cyber criminals.
Anne Altman, general manager of Federal Government for IBM, will discuss a wide range of contracting topics with host Mark Amtower. July 14, 2014
Despite steps forward, agencies fell short of their 2014 targets for cybersecurity. The Obama administration is pushing chief information officers to focus on priorities of continuous monitoring, phishing and malware, and authorization processes for 2015, according to the newly released cross-agency priority goals on Performance.gov.
Talent acquisition manager Mike Bruni will discuss how to get a job in what is a competitive and challenging federal market. July 11, 2014
Julie Perkins hosts a roundtable discussion of the latest developments in cybersecurity. July 11, 2014