Brandon Wales reflects on 20 years of cyber as he leaves CISA

SolarWinds, election security and protecting federal networks were among the highlights, he said in an interview with CyberScoop.

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Online disinformation fuels violent threats against poll workers

Election deniers are being radicalized online creaitng a risk for violence against election workers.

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Ex-CISA chief Krebs advocates for standalone cyber agency. Experts say that’s impractical.

Former cybersecurity officials said CISA would be less effective if it lost the clout that it gets from being housed inside DHS.

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Krebs on Ransomware

The Krebses—Chris and Brian—are not related, but they have both come out with positions on ransomware. Chris was the former head of DHS’s CISA (Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency), and Brian is a journalist and much-admired author (by m… Continue reading Krebs on Ransomware

DevOps Connect at RSAC 2021: Insightful Talks, Live Q&A, Workshops, Pilates and More

We are excited to announce the return of DevOps Connect: DevSecOps Virtual Summit on May 19, as part of the RSA Conference 2021. This year, internationally recognized speakers will take a deep dive into “Securing the Cloud Native World.” D… Continue reading DevOps Connect at RSAC 2021: Insightful Talks, Live Q&A, Workshops, Pilates and More

Ex-government officials urge US to take action to avoid another SolarWinds-style hack

The U.S. government requires dramatic updates to its current approach toward cybersecurity if Americans want to avoid the kind of cyber-espionage campaigns that have recently rocked the national security establishment, a panel of security practitioners told Congress Wednesday.   During testimony in front of the House Homeland Security Committee, Gordon likened the state of data protection in the U.S. to the stock market crash of 1929, which triggered the Great Depression. The government responded to reckless behavior on Wall Street by creating oversight in the form of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and requiring regular financial filings from publicly-listed companies. Recent events in cyberspace — such as an alleged Russian espionage campaign involving the federal contractor SolarWinds and a Feb. 5 hack at a Florida water treatment facility — are proof that the U.S. faces a similar moment of reckoning in 2021, Gordon said.  “We need to stop pretending like […]

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SolarWinds hires Chris Krebs, Alex Stamos to boost security in wake of suspected Russian hack

Software provider SolarWinds, which was breached in a suspected Russian hacking campaign against U.S. companies and federal agencies, has hired former senior U.S. cybersecurity official Chris Krebs and former Facebook security chief Alex Stamos to help respond to the hack and improve its security practices. Krebs and Stamos will work as consultants for Texas-based SolarWinds as it continues to deal with the fallout of a hacking operation that has roiled Washington and is considered one of the more significant cyber-espionage campaigns against U.S. agencies in years. “Armed with what we have learned of this attack, we are also reflecting on our own security practices and seeking opportunities to enhance our posture and policies,” SolarWinds said in a statement. “We have brought in the expertise of Chris Krebs and Alex Stamos to assist in this review and provide best-in-class guidance on our journey to evolve into an industry leading secure software […]

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Former CISA director Chris Krebs sues Trump campaign, lawyer after death threats

Chris Krebs, a former U.S. cybersecurity official whom President Donald Trump fired for saying the 2020 election was secure, has sued the Trump campaign, one of its lawyers and the conservative media outlet Newsmax for defamation after the lawyer made violent threats against Krebs. The lawyer, Joe diGenova, said last week in a video on Newsmax that Krebs should be “taken out at dawn and shot” and “drawn and quartered” for contradicting Trump’s baseless claims of widespread fraud and saying the election was secure. Krebs filed suit in a Maryland court on Tuesday, asking for monetary damages and for Newsmax to remove any recording of the threatening video from its website. The lawsuit cites numerous death threats Krebs has received via text and email since. The filing also accuses Trump and his legal team of carrying out a “pernicious conspiracy” to defame other Republicans who have refuted the president’s claims […]

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Former CISA deputy details ouster, condemns violent threat from Trump campaign

The former deputy of the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency on Tuesday faulted the Trump campaign for politicizing election security and condemned a violent threat from a campaign lawyer toward his former boss, Chris Krebs, in his first public comments since leaving the agency. “I have yet to see a partisan issue within securing America’s infrastructure that warrants politicizing what we do,” Matt Travis, former deputy CISA director, said during a virtual event hosted by the Aspen Institute. “And what we were hearing from the Trump campaign was in effect politicizing the security of a sub-sector of infrastructure, namely the election system.” President Donald Trump on Nov. 17 fired Krebs as CISA director after Krebs and his agency repeatedly debunked the president’s baseless claims of electoral fraud. Travis resigned later that evening after, he said, the White House made clear that he would not succeed Krebs as head of the […]

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