Federal CISO forecasts one of toughest tasks in sweeping Biden cyber executive order

At 34 pages, President Joe Biden’s May executive order on cybersecurity is lengthier than many such White House directives. It’s going to keep federal agencies busy for a long time implementing a host of protective measures, but one might prove a heavier burden, according to Federal Chief Information Security Officer Chris DeRusha. The executive order establishes cybersecurity event log requirements for agencies, meant to improve the government’s ability to investigate and clean-up attacks. “To do monitoring and understand what activity is occurring or has occurred on your network, that’s a huge multi-year exercise that each agency’s going to have to undertake,” DeRusha said during an interview that aired Tuesday as part of CyberTalks, a summit presented by CyberScoop. But it’s a very important part of the order, he said. “When you think about it it’s really a key pillar of … cyber hygiene,” said DeRusha. Under the order, the Homeland […]

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Biden budget seeks $750 million to respond to SolarWinds compromises, plus billions more for cyber

President Joe Biden’s fiscal 2022 budget blueprint released Friday proposes $750 million for the federal government to respond to “lessons learned” from the SolarWinds supply chain hack that compromised nine agencies. In all, the budget proposes $9.8 billion in federal civilian cybersecurity funding, a 14% increase from the spending levels allocated for the current fiscal year, according to a summary. That number doesn’t take into account Defense Department funding requests, which would represent another large chunk of money, though that amount isn’t precisely spelled out in four documents shared Friday with reporters in advance of public release. “Cybersecurity is a top priority for this Administration, and recent events, such as the SolarWinds cyber incident, have shown that adversaries continue to target Federal systems,” one budget document reads. The blueprint also requests $15 million for the recently-created national cyber director office in the White House, and $20 million for a new […]

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Threats Are Increasing, but Security Budgets, Staff Aren’t

The age-old problem of misaligned security budgets and staffing continues, but they may not be the answer to solving the most pressing security issues. I didn’t go to Black Hat USA this year, but I’ve heard some chatter about the show. One person told… Continue reading Threats Are Increasing, but Security Budgets, Staff Aren’t

New Zealand budget details leaked due to website sloppiness, not hackers

Earlier this week, the New Zealand government was claiming that it had suffered a “deliberate and systematic” hacking attack that resulted in budget details ending up in the hands of its political opponents.
But that’s not what had re… Continue reading New Zealand budget details leaked due to website sloppiness, not hackers