White House joins industry leaders to double down on commitment to zero trust

U.S. National Cyber Director and top leaders from Google and Citibank promote public-private partnerships to increase critical cyber defenses at the recent Google Cloud Security Summit.

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Top cyber feds working toward fresh models of an old mantra: cyber collaboration

They cited progress with structures like the Joint Cyber Defense Collaborative.

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‘Shields Up’: the new normal in cyberspace

The director of CISA and the national cyber director co-wrote this op-ed on what comes next for “Shields Up.”

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National Cyber Director Chris Inglis calls for ‘new social contract’ to redistribute risk

Cyberspace needs a “new social contract” where “isolated individuals, small businesses and local governments” no longer shoulder “absurd levels of risk,” says a top U.S. cyber official. National Cyber Director Chris Inglis, writing in Foreign Affairs over the weekend with a senior adviser, said that the tech sector should make deeper investments in hardware and software security and the U.S. government should take a greater role in fostering digital defenses. “Those more capable of carrying the load — such as governments and large firms — must take on some of the burden, and collective, collaborative defense needs to replace atomized and divided efforts,” write Inglis and Harry Krejsa, the acting assistant national cyber director for strategy and research. “Until then, the problem will always look like someone else’s to solve.” Their overarching message about the need to improve private-public cooperation has been a refrain of cyber experts for decades. The […]

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White House preps order to clarify top cyber roles in federal government

The Biden administration is working on an executive order that spells out the responsibilities of myriad top cybersecurity officials in the federal government, National Cyber Director Chris Inglis said Wednesday. Specifically, the idea would be to solidify the position of his office, only established by law in January, Inglis told the House Homeland Security Committee. “The statute has gone a long way, and the policies that we have described, have gone a a further distance in describing the what the roles and responsibilities are of the various layers in this space,” Inglis told the panel. “We are in discussion within the White House about when and how to effect an executive order that would bring additional clarity to these roles and responsibilities.” It would be the second major cybersecurity executive order of the administration, following on May’s sweeping directive for federal agencies and contractors to improve their digital defenses. The […]

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National Cyber Director Chris Inglis, new cyber kid on the federal block, begins to stake a claim

National Cyber Director Chris Inglis is fleshing out what, exactly, his new office plans to do with itself. With a “strategic intent statement,” a personnel move, a pair of interviews and a newspaper op-ed, Inglis and his office on Thursday provided their most concrete objectives to date for a White House post that sprung into existence in January, and that Inglis won confirmation for in June. He joined a crowded field of feds focused on cyber, from other offices within the White House to departments and agencies like the FBI, the Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Agency and the National Security Agency. Inglis said Thursday that it’s a natural, when looking at the disparate organizations in the federal government with cybersecurity responsibilities, to wonder who’s in charge. But he said there were “more appropriate” questions. “How do we bring coherence, how do drive public-private collaboration, how do we have […]

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Biden administration officials push Congress to shape breach reporting mandates

U.S. cybersecurity officials are seeking to put their stamp on cyber incident reporting legislation, wading into debates on Capitol Hill about questions like how swiftly companies must report attacks to federal agencies — and what happens if they don’t. The head of the Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency testified at a Senate hearing Thursday in favor of requiring critical infrastructure owners and operators, federal contractors and agencies to report attacks to CISA within 24 hours of detection. There are three leading proposals in Congress, each with a different timeframe for reporting attacks. The leaders of the Senate Intelligence Committee favor a 24-hour deadline. A draft bill from leaders of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee would set the range at between 72 hours and seven days, as determined by CISA. And a draft from leading members of the House Homeland Security Committee proposes leaving […]

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Key lawmakers to CISA: Let us send you more money, power

The Department of Homeland Security’s cyber division, a key government agency charged with helping stop and respond to cyberattacks, might be getting ready for a bigger role in the spotlight.  One key House committee advanced legislation in July to give the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency an extra $400 million. Then, another committee on Sept. 14 separately advanced its take on legislation that would provide an additional nearly $800 million to the agency, which has a $2 billion total budget in the current fiscal year. Those proposed funds come on top of another extra $650 million that Congress and President Joe Biden already provided to CISA in March through the American Rescue Plan focused on COVID-19 relief. And the recent moves on Capitol Hill to bolster CISA, an agency formally established only three years ago, aren’t limited to cash. Both chambers of Congress are contemplating legislation that would make CISA the […]

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Key lawmakers to CISA: Let us send you more money, power

The Department of Homeland Security’s cyber division, a key government agency charged with helping stop and respond to cyberattacks, might be getting ready for a bigger role in the spotlight.  One key House committee advanced legislation in July to give the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency an extra $400 million. Then, another committee on Sept. 14 separately advanced its take on legislation that would provide an additional nearly $800 million to the agency, which has a $2 billion total budget in the current fiscal year. Those proposed funds come on top of another extra $650 million that Congress and President Joe Biden already provided to CISA in March through the American Rescue Plan focused on COVID-19 relief. And the recent moves on Capitol Hill to bolster CISA, an agency formally established only three years ago, aren’t limited to cash. Both chambers of Congress are contemplating legislation that would make CISA the […]

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National cyber director declares ‘too soon to say we’re out of the woods,’ as US enjoys dip in ransomware

After a summer marked by big ransomware attacks from suspected Russian gangs, some of those same groups went quiet. National Cyber Director Chris Inglis said Thursday that it’s too early to tell if the trend will hold. “Those attacks have fallen off. Those syndicates have to some degree deconstructed,” Inglis said at an event hosted by the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation and Institute. “I think it’s a fair bet they have self-deconstructed and essentially gone cold and quiet to see whether the storm will blow over and whether they can then come back.” Whether they do so will depend largely on whether Russian President Vladimir Putin takes steps to undo the “permissive” atmosphere after U.S. President Joe Biden warned him repeatedly about ransomware attacks originating from his country. “It’s too soon to say we’re out of the woods on this,” Inglis said. The FBI blamed Russian ransomware gang REvil for […]

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