Government Watchdogs Launch Cyber-Threat Sharing Assessment

PabloLagarto/Shutterstock.com

In the wake of the recent hack, Microsoft President Brad Smith said contractual obligations hurt cross-government sharing following breaches.

Just as reports of hackers accessing government systems were emerging, the Commerce Department’s inspector general office announced it would immediately begin assessing agencies’ information-sharing practices.

The office is required to create an interagency report on the most recent two-year period in collaboration with the inspectors general of the intelligence community and other appropriate federal agencies under the Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act of 2015, according to a Dec. 14 memo alerting Commerce’ chief information officer. 

Previous IG reports on information sharing under the 2015 law have focused on weak private-sector information sharing with the government or vice versa. But the statute also governs how well information is being disseminated within the federal government, and on that front, a key government contractor has already weighed in with a scathing review.

Amidst the ongoing hacking campaign that leveraged an intrusion into ubiquitous IT management company SolarWinds, Microsoft President Brad Smith said government departments are actively undermining information sharing across government agencies.

“One indicator of the current situation is reflected in the federal government’s insistence on restricting through its contracts our ability to let even one part of the federal government know what other part has been attacked,” Smith wrote in a Dec.17 blog post. "Instead of encouraging a 'need to share,' this turns information sharing into a breach of contract." Microsoft declined to elaborate on the blog post.

Smith said Microsoft, which acknowledged “malicious binaries” from SolarWinds in its environment, notified 40 of its customers, including government agencies, that they were more specifically targeted than the 18,000 entities SolarWinds estimates downloaded a trojanized update. 

“We still lack a formal and cohesive national strategy for the sharing of cybersecurity threat intelligence between the public and private sectors,” Smith added. “While there need to be important safeguards to protect government secrets and private citizens’ privacy, the time has come for a more systemic and innovative approach to the sharing and analysis of threat intelligence with those best positioned to act.”

One idea, proposed by the Congressionally mandated Cyberspace Solarium Commission, is to establish a threat intelligence sharing  environment where public and private-sector entities in the Defense industrial base would be able to conduct “joint co-located analytics.” But the Information Technology Industry Council—which includes Microsoft—and other industry groups opposed inclusion of the measure in the just-passed National Defense Authorization Act. 

The industry groups said they support greater collaboration between the government and private sector, but that the provision, and others highlighting a need for companies to report incidents to the Department of Homeland Security were too broad. 

“Industry urges defense authorizers to ensure that any expanded or new authorities for network information, reporting, or access included as part of this or other legislation are narrowly focused on securing government systems and information,” the industry groups wrote in a letter to lawmakers. “Such authorities should not cover private sector commercial networks that are unrelated to the performance of defense or government contracts, must not harm or unnecessarily impede the global business operations of the wide range of companies that do business with the Department, and should safeguard proprietary information, equipment, and functionality of networks, while addressing liability and just cause concerns.”

The interagency report on information sharing is due in December. Participating IGs include those from the departments of Defense, Energy, Homeland Security, Justice and Treasury, in addition to Commerce and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. 

They will be specifically looking for: 

  • The sufficiency of policies and procedures related to sharing cyber threat indicators within the federal government.
  • Whether cyber threat indicators have been properly classified, as well as an accounting of security clearance authorized for the purpose of sharing cyber threat indicators or defensive measures with the private sector.
  • Actions taken to use and disseminate cyber threat indicators and defensive measures shared with the federal government.
  • Specific aspects of cyber threat indicators and defensive measures shared with the federal government, including those related to DHS’ automated indicator sharing capability, unrelated sharing and privacy violations as well as the adequacy of steps to remediate those, and resulting prosecutions for harm caused by cyber threats. 
  • Barriers affecting the sharing of cyber threat indicators or defensive measures.

Among other things, the industry says it wants greater liability protections in the case of lawsuits surrounding anti-competitive behavior, fraud and confidentiality agreements, in order to report more information about risky products and services to the government. A Democratic aide familiar with the NDAA negotiations told Nextgov privacy concerns are already addressed by liability protections in the 2015 information-sharing law.  

Editor’s Note: The article has been updated to clarify the position of the industry associations collectively called the Acquisition Reform Working Group. 

X
This website uses cookies to enhance user experience and to analyze performance and traffic on our website. We also share information about your use of our site with our social media, advertising and analytics partners. Learn More / Do Not Sell My Personal Information
Accept Cookies
X
Cookie Preferences Cookie List

Do Not Sell My Personal Information

When you visit our website, we store cookies on your browser to collect information. The information collected might relate to you, your preferences or your device, and is mostly used to make the site work as you expect it to and to provide a more personalized web experience. However, you can choose not to allow certain types of cookies, which may impact your experience of the site and the services we are able to offer. Click on the different category headings to find out more and change our default settings according to your preference. You cannot opt-out of our First Party Strictly Necessary Cookies as they are deployed in order to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting the cookie banner and remembering your settings, to log into your account, to redirect you when you log out, etc.). For more information about the First and Third Party Cookies used please follow this link.

Allow All Cookies

Manage Consent Preferences

Strictly Necessary Cookies - Always Active

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Sale of Personal Data, Targeting & Social Media Cookies

Under the California Consumer Privacy Act, you have the right to opt-out of the sale of your personal information to third parties. These cookies collect information for analytics and to personalize your experience with targeted ads. You may exercise your right to opt out of the sale of personal information by using this toggle switch. If you opt out we will not be able to offer you personalised ads and will not hand over your personal information to any third parties. Additionally, you may contact our legal department for further clarification about your rights as a California consumer by using this Exercise My Rights link

If you have enabled privacy controls on your browser (such as a plugin), we have to take that as a valid request to opt-out. Therefore we would not be able to track your activity through the web. This may affect our ability to personalize ads according to your preferences.

Targeting cookies may be set through our site by our advertising partners. They may be used by those companies to build a profile of your interests and show you relevant adverts on other sites. They do not store directly personal information, but are based on uniquely identifying your browser and internet device. If you do not allow these cookies, you will experience less targeted advertising.

Social media cookies are set by a range of social media services that we have added to the site to enable you to share our content with your friends and networks. They are capable of tracking your browser across other sites and building up a profile of your interests. This may impact the content and messages you see on other websites you visit. If you do not allow these cookies you may not be able to use or see these sharing tools.

If you want to opt out of all of our lead reports and lists, please submit a privacy request at our Do Not Sell page.

Save Settings
Cookie Preferences Cookie List

Cookie List

A cookie is a small piece of data (text file) that a website – when visited by a user – asks your browser to store on your device in order to remember information about you, such as your language preference or login information. Those cookies are set by us and called first-party cookies. We also use third-party cookies – which are cookies from a domain different than the domain of the website you are visiting – for our advertising and marketing efforts. More specifically, we use cookies and other tracking technologies for the following purposes:

Strictly Necessary Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Functional Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Performance Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Sale of Personal Data

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.

Social Media Cookies

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.

Targeting Cookies

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.