Author Archives: Shannon Vavra

Air Force unveils information warfare outfit amid U.S. effort to go on offense in cyberspace

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After months of planning, the U.S. Air Force announced it is creating a new information warfare body, an official step that aims to bolster the military’s digital warfare capabilities. The Air Force announced this week it will create an information warfare command, which will combine the capabilities from the division now responsible for defending crucial networks, Air Forces Cyber, and the 25th Air Force, which oversees intelligence collection, surveillance, and reconnaissance. The new outfit will be known as the 16th Air Force, and led by Maj. Gen. Timothy Haugh, who formerly led the Cyber National Mission Force at Cyber Command, pending his confirmation. The update is one aspect in a series of efforts the Pentagon is undertaking to accelerate offensive operations after years of focusing primarily on defense. It also comes at a time when every other U.S. military service — the Army, Navy, Marine Corps, Coast Guard – also is considering upgrades to […]

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U.S. Secretary of Defense urges NATO allies to block Chinese-built 5G tech

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U.S. Secretary of Defense Mark Esper is calling on allies in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization to bar Chinese companies from developing 5G networks there, reiterating an American argument that largely has failed to convince European countries to blacklist telecommunication firms with ties to Beijing. Esper, in a speech Thursday at the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency summit in Maryland, said “every Chinese company has the potential to be an accomplice in Beijing’s state-sponsored campaign to steal technology.” His remarks came amid a standoff between Washington and Beijing in which the Chinese telecom Huawei has become the subject of geopolitical scrutiny while it also lobbies nations around the world to help build 5G wireless networks. Esper in his speech warned NATO allies that using 5G networks developed by Chinese companies “jeopardizes military interoperability and intelligence sharing opportunities.” “The U.S. military does not fight alone,” he said. “Just like the other […]

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Government cyber reskilling programs are just getting started, federal CIO says

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Federal Chief Information Officer Suzette Kent says she expects the government’s Cybersecurity Reskilling Academies to keep expanding over the next few years. As part of the Federal Chief Information Officer Council’s work to bolster the federal cyber workforce, the government has gone through two rounds of academies since last year. The first cohort had over 1,500 applications for just 25 slots. Counting the second round of applications, the academies have had more than 2,300 federal employees apply in all, Kent said at a Department of Homeland Security cybersecurity conference Wednesday. “That says something about the level of interest across the federal government,” Kent said. She added that agency feedback has been key to improving the federal cybersecurity workforce, with the administration focused on improving the skill level inside those agencies, particularly in those who primarily work outside of the tech sector. It’s “not to improve just our technology workforce, but our […]

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Sen. Warner says hacking, disinformation are the future of war, and urges the U.S. to keep up

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Cyberwarfare and information operations now are the primary ways in which countries assert themselves on the world stage, Sen. Mark Warner said in a speech Tuesday, pointing to a new geopolitical reality in which traditional military strength may be less urgent. The Virginia Democrat portrayed hacking, social media manipulation, and other digital techniques as affordable options for smaller countries that don’t have the financial resources to invest in modern military hardware like tanks and fighter jets. U.S. leaders need to more urgently recognize this transition, he said, and prioritize processes and technology that stifle future attempts from adversaries to interfere in U.S. elections and markets. Warner, vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, for years has urged Congress to authorize more funding for cybersecurity. “I worry at times we may be spending too much time [and] resources on 20th century stuff when increasingly conflict in the 21st century will be cyber, will be misinformation, disinformation,” Warner […]

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U.S. files civil suit against Edward Snowden over new memoir

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The U.S. Department of Justice has filed a lawsuit in civil court against former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden, alleging he violated his non-disclosure agreements with both the NSA and CIA by publishing his memoir. In a suit filed Tuesday, the U.S. alleges that Snowden did not seek pre-publication review in accordance with obligations he signed while employed with and contracting for both agencies. Snowden’s book, “Permanent Record,” was released Tuesday. “The United States’ ability to protect sensitive national security information depends on employees’ and contractors’ compliance with their non-disclosure agreements, including their pre-publication review obligations,” Assistant Attorney General Jody Hunt of the Department of Justice’s Civil Division said in a statement. “This lawsuit demonstrates that the Department of Justice does not tolerate these breaches of the public’s trust. We will not permit individuals to enrich themselves, at the expense of the United States, without complying with their pre-publication review obligations.” […]

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U.S. cyber-offensive against ISIS continues, and eyes are now on Afghanistan, general says

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As loyalties among Afghanistan’s Islamic extremists continue to shift, the U.S. military may be poised to rely more heavily on offensive cyber capabilities to target one group in particular — the dispersed but still active membership of ISIS, according to one military cyber commander. Joint Task Force ARES, the outfit charged with running joint and coalition cyber-operations against ISIS, is working to uncover information about how the terrorist group continues to operate in Afghanistan, the deputy commander said Monday. “JTF-ARES is in or around where ISIS is operating,” Brig. Gen. Len Anderson said during a question and answer at an Atlantic Council event Monday. “We are trying to illuminate the network, trying to figure out how they’re communicating, what they’re using, where the money might be flowing, is there money.” Although the Islamic State’s physical caliphate has been crushed in Iraq and Syria, reporting from the Defense Intelligence Agency this year says the group still has a […]

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North Korean government hackers sanctioned by U.S. Treasury

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Add the U.S. Treasury to the list of government agencies going after North Korean hackers. The Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control announced Friday it is sanctioning three North Korean hacking groups it says are backed by Kim Jong-un’s regime, including the well-known Lazarus Group. The office also identifies two sub-groups of Lazarus Group, Bluenoroff and Andariel. Bluerunoff has targeted foreign financial institutions in Bangladesh, India, Mexico, Pakistan, Philippines, South Korea, Taiwan, Turkey, Chile, and Vietnam, as well as the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT) monetary transfer system to conduct cyber-enabled financial heists in response to prior sanctions, according to OFAC. Andariel has been more focused on stealing cash and customer information from ATMs as well as targets in government agencies and in the defense industry, including those in South Korea to gather intelligence, according to OFAC. The U.S. government has previously linked Lazarus Group with the North […]

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Security clearance background checks should take three days, Rep. Will Hurd says

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Rep. Will Hurd, who recently announced he is leaving Congress after his current term is up, has something to get off his chest. The Texas Republican has previously said he thinks the federal government should be able to issue security clearances in one week — but now he says it can be done in three days. “I never thought I would have to work on such a basic issue as this: [Getting a security clearance] shouldn’t take 9 months,” Hurd said Thursday at the Dell Technologies Forum. “I think we can do it in three days.” Currently, the federal government is currently working on overhauling the security clearance process as part of an overhaul known as Trusted Workforce 2.0 — and already in the last several months the government has made some progress on the backlog of applications. Hurd — a former CIA officer — has had a front-row seat for the process […]

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North Korean hackers target U.S. entities amid stalled denuclearization talks

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A hacking group with ties to North Korea has been targeting U.S. entities with malicious documents as it works to hide its tracks better, according to research from Maryland-based cybersecurity firm Prevailion. The group has started placing its malware in obscure file formats, namely Kodak FlashPix (FPX) files, to evade antivirus detection products, according to Danny Adamitis, Prevailion’s director of intelligence analysis. The FPX files are embedded in Microsoft Word documents that are sent to victims, which are then launched via macro commands. Since FPX file formats are less likely to be detected than standard Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) files, Adamitis believes the North Korean hackers are exploiting that gap to push their attacks past anti-virus detection. Prevailion links — with moderate confidence — the action to a group known as Kimsuky or Smoke Screen. The attackers have been sending trojanized documents to victims that discuss nuclear deterrence, North […]

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Microsoft, Hewlett Foundation preparing to launch nonprofit that calls out cyberattacks

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Microsoft and the Hewlett Foundation are preparing to launch a nonprofit organization dedicated to exposing the details of harmful cyberattacks and providing assistance to victims in an effort to highlight their costs, CyberScoop has learned. Known to its organizers as the “Cyber Peace Institute,” the nonprofit is expected to debut in the coming weeks, according to multiple sources who have discussed it with the organizers. The institute aims to investigate and provide analytical information on large-scale attacks against civilian targets, assess the costs of these attacks and give security tools to both individuals and organizations that will help them become more resilient, according to a description of the nonprofit provided during a session at the 2019 B-Sides Las Vegas cybersecurity conference. “We have a shared global responsibility to prevent the Internet from becoming ‘weaponized’ by increasing attacks by criminal groups and state actors alike,” the description reads. “We already have global organizations to tackle […]

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