Cybersecurity
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Chinese hackers broke into OPM computer networks earlier this year with the intention of accessing the files of tens of thousands of federal employees who had applied for top-secret security clearances, according to a media report. OPM tells Federal News Radio, "neither OPM nor US-CERT have identified any loss of personally identifiable information."
July 10, 2014 -
When it comes to critical infrastructure cybersecurity, White House policy has federal agencies and the private sector joined at the hip. So it matters to the federal government how good the private sector is at cyber. Unisys and the Poneman Institute surveyed companies who operate critical infrastructure. The picture isn't great. Mark Cohn, the chief technology officer of Unisys Federal Systems, joined Tom Temin and Emily Kopp on the Federal Drive to discuss the results of the survey.
July 10, 2014 -
The Senate Intelligence Committee has approved the Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act. The legislation is designed to expand information shared about cybersecurity threats and defensive mechanisms between the government and companies and within the private sector. The goal is to combat the rapid increase in attacks on computer systems that have resulted in the theft of millions of Americans' personal information and hundreds of millions of dollars in losses for businesses.
July 09, 2014 -
The first change of command at U.S. Cyber Command is complete. General Keith Alexander made way for Admiral Mike Rogers recently. But new revelations from Edward Snowden are a reminder that the first four years of the combination of CYBERCOM and the National Security Agency aren't without controversy. William Lynn was Deputy Secretary of Defense when the Defense Department stood up Cyber Command. He wrote about the strategy behind it in Foreign Policy at the time. He is now Chief Executive Officer of Finmeccanica North America and DRS Technologies. He explained on In Depth with Francis Rose the chain of events that caused DoD leadership to stand up Cyber Command.
July 08, 2014 -
The Senate would like to grant new powers to federal chief information officers and update federal IT laws that haven't gotten much attention for the past dozen years. Those are a couple of the effects of new legislation the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs approved recently. One of the bills is the Senate version of the Federal IT Acquisition Reform Act -- the other is an update to the Federal Information Security Modernization Act, which Senators have been trying to modify for the past several years, without much success. She said on In Depth with Francis Rose the proposals are a big step in the right direction.
July 07, 2014 -
Bill Lay, the State Department's chief information security officer, said his budget for cybersecurity doubled in 2014 to help address the recommendations outlined by the agency's inspector general.
July 02, 2014 -
The National Information Assurance Partnership, the U.S. implementation of what was supposed to be a faster, cheaper process to verify the cybersecurity of commercial IT products, turned out to be so slow and expensive that few companies could afford to go through it. But officials said they hope a recent overhaul in the procedures will breathe new life into the program.
July 02, 2014 -
The General Services Administration and the Homeland Security Department are putting the final touches on the next set of contracts that will truly kickstart the federal move toward dynamic cybersecurity protections of agency networks and computers. The two agencies will release six task orders under the $6 billion CDM program in the coming year to implement tools and services across more than 40 agencies.
July 02, 2014 -
The Defense Department's request for its overseas contingency operations is about $20 billion less than initial estimates. Former Defense officials say realistic goals and managed expectations usually spelled success for weapons systems.
June 30, 2014 -
The Science and Technology Directorate issued a Broad Agency Announcement and four specific solicitations to get industry, academia and others thinking about how to improve cybersecurity. Over the next nine months, the agency will review white papers, proposals and make awards, with expectations of the development of commercial or open source projects in the next year or two.
June 27, 2014 -
A new report from the Government Accountability Office suggests the Department of Homeland Security and the Office of Management and Budget need to take a more active role in monitoring and guiding small agencies when it comes to their security and privacy-protection programs.
June 26, 2014 -
Lt. Gen. Robert Ferrell, the Army's CIO/G6, said the service now is requiring all enterprise software titles to be modernized, virtualized and migrated to an approved data center.
June 26, 2014 -
The Justice Department has rewritten the playbook on catching cyber criminals. It recently led an international effort to disrupt a global cybertheft ring. A Russian-led gang allegedly stole millions of dollars by infecting computers with malware known as Gameover Zeus. Robert Anderson is the executive assistant director of the Criminal, Cyber Response and Services Branch at the FBI. He joined Tom Temin and Emily Kopp on the Federal Drive to discuss how the sting operation worked.
June 25, 2014 -
The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee members will introduce and markup the Federal Information Security Modernization Act of 2014 Wednesday. The bill would require OMB to rescind a major section of Circular A-130 in order to fix long-standing complaints with FISMA's reauthorization requirements.
June 24, 2014 -
The Homeland Security Department will channel its efforts into battling terrorism, cyber threats and natural disasters, according to a quadrennial review the agency released Wednesday.
June 23, 2014
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