Category Archives: chris krebs

Tech companies offered free products to help secure the election. Now what?

Posted on by

The unprecedented foreign hacking and misinformation campaigns that were reported around the 2016 U.S. election cast a cloak of doubt over the integrity of the country’s democratic process. The threat sent government officials on the federal, state and local level scrambling to ensure that the country’s voting machines, voter registration systems, pollbooks, results-reporting websites and other election technology is ready for the midterm elections. Over the past few months, about a dozen technology companies have announced programs offering state and local election offices or political organizations free services to help them fend off looming threats, including email protection, extra security for cloud applications, basic antivirus coverage, multi-factor authentication tools and several other types of products. As elections in the U.S. are run by the states, securing a federal election requires a massive coordinated effort. The federal government has been playing a greater role to this end since 2016, but can only do so much without […]

The post Tech companies offered free products to help secure the election. Now what? appeared first on Cyberscoop.

Continue reading Tech companies offered free products to help secure the election. Now what?→

Senator asks DHS what it’s learning from key email-security measure

Posted on by

Sen. Ron Wyden has asked the Department of Homeland Security how it is turning the implementation of an important email security protocol at federal civilian agencies into “actionable cyber intelligence” to guard against hackers. In a Aug. 2 letter, Wyden, D-Ore., asks the department how it is analyzing reports that civilian agencies are required to send DHS about attempts by hackers and spammers to spoof federal email accounts. The senator also wants to know if there are agencies that aren’t sending those reports. “[R]equiring agencies to transmit email impersonation threat data to DHS is only the first step,” states Wyden’s letter to Chris Krebs, DHS’s undersecretary of the National Protection and Programs Directorate. “DHS must then collate and analyze those reports in order to understand the scope of the threat and to determine how best to protect federal agencies from impersonation.” The anti-phishing email protocol, known as Domain-based Message, Authentication, Reporting […]

The post Senator asks DHS what it’s learning from key email-security measure appeared first on Cyberscoop.

Continue reading Senator asks DHS what it’s learning from key email-security measure→

DHS vulnerability scanning program offline after Virginia office loses power

Posted on by

Two cybersecurity programs the Department of Homeland Security offers both states and the private sector have been temporarily knocked offline due to a power outage, while other services have been shifted to backup locations, multiple sources tell CyberScoop. The National Cybersecurity and Communications Integration Center (NCCIC), the 24/7 hub for monitoring cyberthreats across the government and critical infrastructure, has shifted operations to a backup location in Florida. The move was made after the Arlington, Virginia, building that houses NCCIC lost power last week due to heavy rains. Additionally, two other programs under NCCIC’s National Cybersecurity Assessments and Technical Services (NCATS) — Cyber Hygiene vulnerability scans and Phishing Campaign Assessment — have been offline since July 26. The Cyber Hygiene program remotely detects known vulnerabilities on internet-facing services. The Phishing Campaign Assessment program is part of a remote penetration testing service. Both programs are used by hundreds of customers across the country. Thirty-four states have received vulnerability scans through the Cyber Hygiene program, according to a DHS presentation given at […]

The post DHS vulnerability scanning program offline after Virginia office loses power appeared first on Cyberscoop.

Continue reading DHS vulnerability scanning program offline after Virginia office loses power→

DHS official: States will probably know first if malicious cyber-activity hits primaries

Posted on by

The Department of Homeland Security is on standby to alert state officials about any malicious cyber-activity during Tuesday’s primary elections, but the states themselves will likely know first if something is amiss, Matthew Masterson, a senior cybersecurity adviser at DHS, told CyberScoop. With voters going to the polls in eight states, Tuesday’s primaries are a chance for DHS to test the communication protocols it has sought to ingrain in election personnel across the country. State officials, who generally have the best views of their networks, will flag potentially malicious activity for DHS, which can in turn alert other states, according to Masterson. “If we see or have information to suggest something is going on, we have the ability to immediately share it with the states,” he said in an interview. Ahead of the midterm elections, DHS has looked to “ramp up” its cyberthreat reports to state officials to get them information that […]

The post DHS official: States will probably know first if malicious cyber-activity hits primaries appeared first on Cyberscoop.

Continue reading DHS official: States will probably know first if malicious cyber-activity hits primaries→

Senate panel advances Krebs nomination to lead NPPD

Posted on by

A Senate committee has approved Christopher Krebs to be undersecretary for the Department of Homeland Security’s National Protection and Programs Directorate, a key role for the department as it tackles digital threats to infrastructure and readies a new cybersecurity strategy. Krebs’s nomination, which President Donald Trump made in February, now goes to the Senate floor for a vote. During an April 25 confirmation hearing, Krebs described the undersecretary position as the “pinnacle of national risk management in cyber and physical infrastructure.” He also vowed to prioritize the department’s work on election security ahead of crucial midterm elections this fall. A group of former senior national security officials wrote to the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee leadership last month in support of Krebs’s nomination, lauding his leadership during DHS’s response to the WannaCry ransomware attacks and the Meltdown and Spectre computer-chip vulnerabilities. Members of the committee, who have praised […]

The post Senate panel advances Krebs nomination to lead NPPD appeared first on Cyberscoop.

Continue reading Senate panel advances Krebs nomination to lead NPPD→

Chris Krebs nominated as next NPPD head

Posted on by

President Donald Trump has nominated Christopher Krebs as Under Secretary for the Department of Homeland Security’s National Protection and Programs Directorate (NPPD), a position that oversees a key department office in charge of various national cybersecurity efforts. Krebs’ nomination coincides with the recent passage of an important bill in the House of Representatives — currently under consideration in the Senate —that would reorganize NPPD the “Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency” (CISA). This change, according to senior U.S. officials, could help in recruitment efforts and to clarify the organization’s duties across the federal government; making it clear that CISA is a leading agency when it comes to responding to major cyberattacks affecting the private sector. Currently, NPPD is tasked with coordinating and assisting in the digital defense of critical infrastructure properties, including those tied to the U.S. electrical grid, financial markets and federal election systems. If the new-look office becomes a reality, U.S. officials […]

The post Chris Krebs nominated as next NPPD head appeared first on Cyberscoop.

Continue reading Chris Krebs nominated as next NPPD head→

DHS steadily moving state-by-state on election security outreach

Posted on by

Department of Homeland Security officials detailed ongoing efforts to secure state election systems Wednesday, telling the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs they are on track to assess states’ risk of a cyberattack over the next few months. Speaking at the committee’s roundtable discussion on the agency’s reauthorization, Chris Krebs, acting Under Secretary for the National Protection and Programs Directorate, said that DHS officials have completed five security risk assessments of state election systems and would be working to complete another 11 by mid-April, running up against primary season for state and midterm elections. The assessments, offered to state election officials by request, include services like “scenario-based network penetration testing, web application testing, social engineering testing, wireless testing, configuration reviews of servers and databases and evaluation of an organization’s detection and response capabilities,” to determine the likelihood of a system breach. “The dependency here is whether we get […]

The post DHS steadily moving state-by-state on election security outreach appeared first on Cyberscoop.

Continue reading DHS steadily moving state-by-state on election security outreach→

DHS steadily moving state-by-state on election security outreach

Posted on by

Department of Homeland Security officials detailed ongoing efforts to secure state election systems Wednesday, telling the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs they are on track to assess states’ risk of a cyberattack over the next few months. Speaking at the committee’s roundtable discussion on the agency’s reauthorization, Chris Krebs, acting Under Secretary for the National Protection and Programs Directorate, said that DHS officials have completed five security risk assessments of state election systems and would be working to complete another 11 by mid-April, running up against primary season for state and midterm elections. The assessments, offered to state election officials by request, include services like “scenario-based network penetration testing, web application testing, social engineering testing, wireless testing, configuration reviews of servers and databases and evaluation of an organization’s detection and response capabilities,” to determine the likelihood of a system breach. “The dependency here is whether we get […]

The post DHS steadily moving state-by-state on election security outreach appeared first on Cyberscoop.

Continue reading DHS steadily moving state-by-state on election security outreach→