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.” […]

Air Force

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. […]

Army

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. […]

Zeroing in on Application and Data: 2022 Federal Zero Trust Maturity

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. […]

MerITocracy

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. […]

CISA

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. […]

IT modernization data center

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. […]

supply chain

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. […]

As the one-year anniversary of the Biden administration’s cybersecurity executive order (EO) nears, join Federal government and industry experts on May 19 for MeriTalk’s in-person Cyber Central conference to explore how agencies are building a more resilient government cybersecurity posture. […]

The President’s Management Agenda (PMA) sets out broad, ambitious goals for improving the customer experience and empowering the Federal workforce. While technology underpins these goals, in-depth understanding of the agency mission and challenges is required to truly realize the promise of the PMA. MeriTalk sat down with Joe Kehoe, vice president of the Department of Defense (DoD) practice at Maximus, to learn how his company approaches agency engagements and leverages emerging technologies to modernize agency systems – with the goal of providing the best experience for his customers’ customers: American citizens. […]

Your agency has acquired the latest and greatest cloud business communications platform. It allows employees to collaborate on projects, store documents in the cloud, instant message, and hold video calls – increasing employee productivity. Your agency isn’t alone. Gartner reports that almost 80 percent of workers used collaboration tools in 2021, an increase of 44 percent since the start of the pandemic. […]

capitol washington dc senate house congress-min
cybersecurity

Gene Dodaro, U.S. Comptroller General and head of the Government Accountability Office (GAO), told the House Appropriations Committee’s subcommittee on the Legislative Branch today that the double-digit annual budget increase for GAO proposed in the Biden administration’s FY 2023 budget request will help the agency expand its oversight of a host of cybersecurity and technology-related areas. […]

The U.S. Army has appointed Michael Sulmeyer as the service branch’s new principal cyber adviser, taking the helm from Terry Mitchell who was appointed to the position in September 2020. […]

Russia U.S. Hacking

Federal cybersecurity agencies along with the Department of Energy (DOE) have published a new cyber advisory that talks about several Russian hacks on the energy sector between 2011 and 2018 that are the subject of a Department of Justice (DOJ) indictment unsealed this week against Russian actors for those past attacks. […]

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