Cybersecurity
Iran is accelerating US election influence operations, Microsoft research says
One Iran-linked disinformation collective staged covert news websites that focused on politically divisive topics. Another group breached a low-level account in a county-level swing state.
Cybersecurity
Nearly 200 firms have signed pledge to build more secure software, top cyber official says
The initial tally began at around 70 companies when CISA first headlined the initiative at RSA Conference in San Francisco.
Cybersecurity
Top US cyber agency hasn’t seen infamous Chinese hackers breach election infrastructure
A pervasive hacking collective being tracked by U.S. intelligence agencies hasn’t been seen breaking into any election infrastructure, but visibility into the group’s activities still isn’t clear, according to CISA Director Jen Easterly.
Cybersecurity
Cyberattacks still ravage schools, defying White House efforts launched last year
Thousands of school districts have tapped into resources committed by the private sector to shore up their cyberdefenses.
Cybersecurity
Senate confirms first-ever Pentagon cyber policy chief
The new position would help the DOD increase its public-facing cyber outreach efforts.
Cybersecurity
Critical infrastructure group launches effort to aid federal agencies’ cyber defenses
The federal government’s cybersecurity posture has been spotlighted several times since last decade’s OPM breach.
People
East-West prisoner exchange brings home American journalist, returns convicted Russian hackers
The swap that brings home reporter Evan Gershkovich and others will in turn send back imprisoned Russian hackers convicted for pilfering millions of dollars in schemes against U.S. targets.
Cybersecurity
Senate panel advances cyber regulatory harmonization bill
The bill aims to address overlapping cyber laws that CISOs say have caused compliance headaches.
Cybersecurity
New NSA-powered AI tool would help industry optimize cyberdefense testing
Autonomous Penetration Testing would overhaul manual work needed to check the cyber armor of firms that service the DOD community, said Cyber Command and NSA head Gen. Timothy Haugh.
Cybersecurity
NIST may not resolve vulnerability database backlog until early 2025, analysis shows
A new dashboard underscores the severity of the logjam that’s plagued the agency since February.
Cybersecurity
Summer-only sessions helped blunt CrowdStrike outage impact on US schools
K-12 school districts across the country were impacted in last week’s CrowdStrike-based IT outage, a person familiar says. The effects would have been much worse if school was in session.
Cybersecurity
FBI, Mandiant designate advanced North Korean hackers stealing US defense secrets
The group — now known as APT45 — has targeted information stored in U.S. government nuclear facilities and research institutions, as well as missile systems, uranium processing and other R&D intel.
Cybersecurity
Crowdstrike IT outage linked to update using new threat detection system
A routine update intended to enhance clients’ security capabilities clashed with a new cyberthreat classification framework rolled out in February, causing affected systems to crash.
Exclusive
Cybersecurity
House lawmaker demands answers from AT&T on recent data breach
Rep. Abigail Spanberger wants AT&T’s CEO to open up about the company’s incident response plans and a reported payment to hackers in exchange for deleting the stolen data.
People
CISA executive director set to depart the agency
Brandon Wales, who temporarily led the agency after a Trump-era management shakeup, has overseen many of the recent CISA-led cyber reporting regulations, as well as coordination during major cyber incidents.
Policy
Biden looks to preserve tech, cyber legacy with veto threat
Experts see continuity in tech policy from the Biden administration to a possible Kamala Harris presidency, with possible divergence on some national security and antitrust issues.
Cybersecurity
How the CrowdStrike outage carved out new opportunities for hackers
Former U.S. officials and security practitioners are wondering how a defective CrowdStrike patch for Windows systems fell through the cracks and created more cascading security risks.
Cybersecurity
In reversal, AT&T says most FirstNet customers impacted in data breach disclosed last week
“We now believe the proportion of FirstNet numbers included in the data is similar to that of our broader customer base,” the company said in a statement.
Updated
Cybersecurity
Biden briefed on CrowdStrike IT outage as multiple federal systems impacted
Social Security offices are closed for the day due to the incident. It will be “time-consuming” for all affected systems to undo the damage because the process is manual, one expert says.
Cybersecurity
New US cyber official wants ‘brutal honesty’ on industry collaboration efforts
CISA’s new cybersecurity official Jeff Greene wants to know where the agency can improve on collaboration efforts that have been previously criticized for their misdirection.
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