Policy

Pentagon, DHS Spell Out How They’ll Cooperate on Cyber Defense

The memorandum of understanding comes after the Defense Department prepared to help the Homeland Security Department repel Election Day cyberattacks.

Science & Tech

Pentagon Researchers Test 'Worst-Case Scenario' Attack on US Power Grid

Over 100 people gathered off the tip of Long Island this month to roleplay a cyberattack that takes out the U.S. electric grid for weeks on end.

Threats

US Voting Systems Have ‘Staggering’ Vulnerabilities: Cyber Researchers

The report from DEF CON’s Voting Village found one bug that alone could flip the Electoral College. Another has gone unfixed for 11 years.

Threats

DHS Secretary Urges Hit-Back-Harder Response to Cyber Strikes

That muscular response strategy may sow confusion and risk escalation, a cyber law scholar says.

Threats

Government’s Getting Faster at Sharing Unclassified Cyber Threat Indicators

It’s also becoming rarer that an intelligence agency refuses to release a threat indicator entirely, a DHS official said.

Science & Tech

Mike Pence’s Cybersecurity Speech, Annotated

The vice president delivered a fiery campaign-style cybersecurity speech at a Homeland Security cyber conference Tuesday. Here’s an explainer.

Policy

DHS Creates Cyber Risk Center to Protect High-Value Targets

The center will free up NCCIC to work on cyber threat sharing and incident response, officials say.

Science & Tech

Pentagon Wants to Move Some Cyber Defense Operations to the Cloud

The Defense Department’s considering a cloud extension of its Acropolis system, which it describes as “where we fight” in cyberspace.

Science & Tech

China Likely Knew about Spectre and Meltdown Bugs Before the US

Fixing hardware and software vulnerabilities requires global information sharing—and that includes U.S. cyber adversaries.

Science & Tech

The Pentagon Wants to Automate Some Classification Decisions

The proposed software would help defense officials make classification decisions and automatically enforce them.

Ideas

Banning Software Won't Keep the Government Safe, Says Nuclear Security Agency Official

Rather than banning software from China or Russia, the U.S. government should focus on reducing the danger any particular app can pose.

Ideas

Only 6 Non-Federal Groups Are Sharing Cyber Threat Data with DHS

A 2016 law intended to bolster collective cyber defense isn’t attracting private-sector participants.

Threats

Cyber Researchers Don’t Think Feds or Congress Can Protect Against Cyberattacks

Only 15 percent of cyber researchers think the U.S. can defend against a critical infrastructure cyberattack, according to a survey.

Ideas

Most Major US Agencies Are Now Feeding the Federal Cyber Threat Dashboard

So far, 20 of 23 major agencies are plugged into the dashboard. The last three should be on by the end of July.

Policy

Here’s How That $380 Million in Election Security Funding Is Being Spent

State election officials are mostly using new election security money to shore up the basics.