The Surface Transportation Security Advisory Committee (STSAC) – which acts as an advisor to the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) – has opened registrations for the public to attend its annual public meeting on Nov. 17 where the agenda features a variety of cybersecurity-related issues. […]

The Department of Education and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) need to do better in coordinating efforts to aid K-12 schools in cybersecurity, according to a recent report by the Government Accountability Office (GAO). […]

The White House’s Office of the National Cyber Director (ONCD) is calling on stakeholders across the tech industry to provide their insight and expertise on the agency’s strategy to address the severe shortages in cyber workforce, training, and education. […]

The U.S. Air Force has released its final solicitation for a $5.3 billion contract vehicle that will aid warfighters in supporting and enabling the Defense Department’s entire cyber framework. […]

Technology and cybersecurity issues took a big step up today in the Federal government’s process for approving foreign-buyer acquisitions of U.S. assets by adding several tech-related screens to the approval process under which the government can allow – or prevent – those acquisitions to be completed. […]

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has pinpointed three top challenges the agency plans to address as it gets ready to make more use of mobile technologies, an agency senior technology lead said today. […]

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) appears to be nothing solid progress against a list of ten recommendations from the agency’s inspector general (IG) to make improvements to internal cybersecurity policies and employee training practices, according to an August 22 IGr eport that covers audit results reaching as far back as fiscal year 2019. […]

The National Security Telecommunications Advisory Committee (NSTAC) voted on August 23 to approve a report recommending that the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) issue an order requiring all Federal civilian agencies to catalog all of their operational technology (OT) devices and systems as one of many steps to improve OT cybersecurity in government and the private sector. […]

Because adversaries like China and Russia increasingly have their hands in the information communication technology arena – whether directly or through subsidiaries – one of the keys to improving cybersecurity in an expanding threat landscape involves strong risk management, in addition to prevention, Federal experts said this week. […]

MeriTalk spoke with Frank Dimina, senior vice president of Americas and public sector at Splunk, about the value of log data and how agencies can facilitate collection and analysis. […]

Today, the government and private sector face similar problems with the daunting amount of cyber data, according to materials presented at GTC Spring 2022. “The volume and velocity of cyber data is extreme,” Rachel Allen, an NVIDIA senior data scientist, said at a GTC session, Transform Cybersecurity with Accelerated Data Science. “It’s estimated that over 90 percent of cyber data today is left on the floor, so to speak, and is never collected or analyzed at all.” […]

The Department of Energy (DoE) said on July 6 that it will prioritize awards under a $2.3 billion power grid modernization grant funding program to include systems at risk of disruptive events including cyber attacks. […]

The U.S. Air Force AFNet Sustainment and Operations Branch – in collaboration with the Air Combat Command (ACC) Directorate of Cyberspace and Information Dominance and the Platform One team– is driving toward developing a modern software-based perimeter that will deliver zero trust capabilities to applications across the service branch, an Air Force official said. […]

The U.S. Department of Justice – in collaboration with law enforcement partners in Germany, the Netherlands, and United Kingdom – has dismantled the infrastructure of a Russian botnet  known as RSOCKS and responsible for hacking millions of computers and other electronic devices around the world. […]

Preparing for a potential cyberattack enables agencies to regain the use of critical systems and infrastructures as soon as possible after a crisis. However, according to Federal leaders, the human element of any cyber preparedness plan remains a top challenge. […]

The House Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense voted to approve today by voice vote a full-committee draft released earlier this week for proposed fiscal year 2023 defense funding, including includes $11.2 billion for cybersecurity, cyberspace operations, and cyber research and development. […]

As Federal and state government agencies face growing cyber threats, the Department of Justice (DoJ) must improve its coordination with other Federal agencies on cybersecurity requirements and assessments of state agencies to better manage fragmentation of that process, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) said in its latest annual open priority recommendations report to the agency. […]

The United States Army plans to increase the size of its cyber branch across all components and double the size of its active-duty cyber corps, according to Army Spokesperson Bruce Anderson. […]

The House on June 8 voted to approve a bill that would require the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), among other tasks, to ensure cybersecurity throughout the lifecycle of medical devices and make sure that device makers meet minimum cybersecurity requirements set by the agency. […]

The U.S. Space Force has rolled out new cybersecurity standards for commercial satellite operators to give satellite companies an incentive to bolster their security. […]

Join MeriTalk and Merlin Cyber on June 1 at 10 a.m. for our complimentary Zeroing in on Application and Data webinar, where government and industry IT experts will put the spotlight on the data and application pillars of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency’s (CISA) Zero Trust Maturity Model. […]

The in-person forum – at the Marriott Marquis in Washington, D.C., from 8:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. – will host bipartisan leaders from Congress, the Biden administration, and America’s tech industry to examine the most pressing problems facing citizens in our democracy, and map out creative solutions from the nexus of policy and technology. Request your invitation today by emailing meritocracy@meritalk.com. […]

MeriTalk research – executed in partnership with RSA Conference, underwritten by Cofense, Keeper Security, Recorded Future, Secureworks, and SentinelOne, and capturing the viewpoints of 100 Federal and 100 private-sector security experts – shows that a whopping 93 percent of respondents believe that public-private partnerships are “vital” to national cyber defense. […]

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) flagged 13 open recommendations for improvement for the State Department as of May 2022 in an annual report on the agency, including recommendations for improving data quality and cybersecurity. […]

Achieving effective cybersecurity relies on experts from all corners of an enterprise – network systems administrators, cloud experts, data stewards, cybersecurity officers, and more. Making all of those parts work right together makes cybersecurity the ultimate team sport, and it requires all levels of an organization to understand and avoid risks to a network, said Steven Hernandez the chief information security officer (CISO) for the Department of Education (DoE). […]

As ransomware attacks become more sophisticated and damaging, resources from the Federal government are providing guidance  on how to combat attacks, reduce attack surfaces, and speed recovery – government and private sector experts said during a May 3 webinar organized by MeriTalk and Cohesity. […]

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) on Thursday updated a joint cybersecurity advisory regarding malware deployed by Russian state actors as the country continues its war against Ukraine. […]

Join MeriTalk and Cohesity on May 3 from 1:30 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. Eastern time for a fresh assessment of high value asset protection at Achieving Cyber Resiliency: A Roadmap to Protect Agency High Value Assets webinar. […]

The Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) Lt. Gen. Robert Skinner pointed private sector IT firms to numerous areas on his technology wish list during his opening keynote address on April 26 at AFCEA International’s TechNet Cyber event in Baltimore and asked the industry to help DISA work through those problems. […]

Historically, Federal agencies have been instructed to be secretive on cyber matters, but a key step in fortifying the software supply chain is clear and constant information sharing, according to Jeanette McMillian, the assistant director for Supply Chain and Cyber at the National Counterintelligence and Security Center. […]