Sen. Gary Peters, D-Mich., chairman of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, and Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, the committee’s ranking member, have introduced legislation to require critical infrastructure entities to report cyberattacks to the Federal government, and to require most other entities to report to the government if they make a ransomware payment. […]

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) has released a new Insider Risk Mitigation Self-Assessment Tool which the agency says will help public and private sector organizations assess their vulnerability to insider threats.  […]

With President Biden’s legislative agenda currently up in the air, Reps. Doris Matsui, D-Ca., and Jim Langevin, D-R.I., are looking to get $20 million in K-12 cybersecurity funding added into the $3.5 trillion reconciliation bill to help combat the rise of cyberattacks on schools. […]

The coronavirus pandemic – for all the tragedy and disruption it continues to cause – has advanced the cause of digital modernization by three to five years, leaving government and private sector organizations better prepared to provide improved digital services going forward. […]

The American Rescue Plan (ARP), passed in March, included an additional $1 billion for the Technology Modernization Fund (TMF). Last week, Federal Chief Information Security Officer Chris DeRusha said the first round of awards was coming soon. Today, Federal CIO Clare Martorana said the TMF board sent the first seven project awards to Congress for final approval. […]

The impact of Artificial Intelligence (AI) on the world will extend far beyond narrow national security applications. Federal officials spoke about moving beyond those narrow AI applications to gain strategic advantage and the importance of justified trust when deploying AI systems on September 27, during a webinar hosted by the Software Engineering Institute at Carnegie Mellon University. […]

The National Institute for Standards and Technology (NIST) is in the process of doing research and working on an update to its special publication (SP) 800-82, a guide to Industrial Control Systems (ICS), by early 2022, NIST officials said today. […]

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) is in the process of building out its Joint Cyber Defense Collaborative (JCDC) office, and CISA Director Jen Easterly today said that while the office is being established based on the Cyberspace Solarium Commission recommendation of creating a joint collaborative planning office, the JCDC will be about more than just planning. […]

The Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA) found through an audit that the IRS needs to do a better job of wiping sensitive taxpayer data on laptop and desktop hard disks. […]

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) announced it will open the application filing window for the Secure and Trusted Communications Networks Reimbursement Program on Oct. 29 and close it on Jan. 14, 2022. […]

The Department of Commerce is seeking comment on questions related to the development of regulations to govern process and procedures the Commerce Secretary will use to deter foreign malicious cyber actors’ use of U.S. Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) products and investigate foreign malicious cyber actors. […]

Federal agencies are on the clock to transition networks and systems to using Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6), and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency’s (CISA) Trusted Internet Connection (TIC) program office released draft guidance to help agencies transition securely. […]

The fiscal year (FY) 2022 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) passed the House of Representatives late Sept. 23 with a bipartisan 316-113 vote. Among the amendments are a number of tech provisions focusing heavily on cybersecurity, along with some focusing on the digital workforce, cloud, and AI. […]

Closer integration between cybersecurity teams and enterprise risk management staff could help Federal agencies avert catastrophic cyber breaches more effectively, according to a new study published on September 23 by the Partnership for Public Service and Deloitte. […]

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) announced that it committed more than $1.2 billion in funding to ensure that more than 3.6 million students have access to broadband and devices needed to engage in off-campus learning. […]

Federal agencies should begin fully describing public comment data and their limitations, despite agencies not being required to collect information on or to verify commenters’ identities. […]

With a growing number of advanced threats across the Federal landscape, Small Business Administration (SBA) Chief Technology Officer Sanjay Gupta, encouraged agencies to view cybersecurity as a “team sport” and a proactive sport to gain a better cyber posture. […]

The Technology Modernization Fund (TMF) got a $1 billion boost in March’s American Rescue Plan, and the TMF board saw a massive influx of TMF requests that it has been working on adjudicating. At a Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs hearing today, Federal chief information security officer (CISO) Chris DeRusha updated senators on the status of that extra TMF funding. […]

The Department of Defense (DoD) has announced that Verizon Public Sector will be delivering 5G Ultra-Wideband mobility service to seven Air Force Reserve Command (AFRC) installations based in California, Florida, Massachusetts, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Texas. […]

As part of a government-wide effort to counter ransomware, the U.S. Department of the Treasury is taking robust actions to disrupt criminal networks and virtual currency exchanges responsible for laundering ransoms, encourage best cyber practices, and increase efficient and timely incident reporting to agencies. […]

After a two-day meeting that included deciding which amendments to the fiscal year (FY) 2022 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) will receive votes, the House Rules Committee ruled several cybersecurity provisions to see floor votes when the measure comes up. […]

It’s important to hold adversaries accountable for recent cyber incidents, but Carole House, the director of cybersecurity and secure digital innovation on the White House National Security Council (NSC) stressed that “we need to hold ourselves accountable to the shortcomings” at home as well. […]

A new agreement led by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts will allow eight neighboring states and Washington, D.C., to offer Internet access, devices, and other technology to constituents through local agencies at a discounted rate via Verizon’s Digital Inclusion Program. […]

The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, along with other natural disasters, forced the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to shift to remote work. In a new report, the agency’s Office of Inspector General (OIG) said that the EPA was able to effectively plan a long-term solution to address remote access concerns while also transitioning to the General Services Administration’s (GSA) Enterprise Infrastructure Solutions (EIS) contract. […]

The Department of Defense (DoD) has made progress in implementing a new electronic health records (EHR) system, but some challenges remain, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) says. […]

Savannah River National Laboratory (SRNL) has opened a Critical Infrastructure, Industrial Control System Cybersecurity Laboratory at the Georgia Cyber Center. […]

At the highest levels of the Federal government and the private sector, officials have recognized that cybersecurity is a national security issue. A series of policy and technical documents and high-level meetings this year have reinforced this notion. Chief among them is President Biden’s cybersecurity executive order (EO), which outlines a wide-ranging and ambitious series of actions Federal agencies must take to better secure government operations. MeriTalk recently talked with Jim Richberg, field chief information security officer at cybersecurity firm Fortinet, who is uniquely qualified to assess the potential impact of the cybersecurity EO and the actions that agencies must take to realize its promise. Prior to joining Fortinet, Richberg was the senior federal executive focused on cyber intelligence within the U.S. intelligence community. He helped build the discipline of cyber threat intelligence analysis and is an innovator in measuring cyber performance, risk, and return on investment.  […]

A Senate Homeland Security Committee hearing brought together several experts from the intelligence community today to discuss the homeland security landscape 20 years after the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001. […]

The American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) now supports Rep. Jimmy Panetta’s, D-Ca., National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) amendment that would create a Civilian Cyber Reserve at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), AFGE announced in a follow-up letter on Sept. 18. […]

The American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) wrote the leaders of the House Rules Committee Sept. 15 to express their opposition to amendments to the fiscal year (FY) 2022 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) that would create a civilian cyber reserve program. […]