Category Archives: NPPD

DHS leaders push cybersecurity risk assessment program for critical infrastructure companies

Posted on by

Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen is pitching a new supply chain cybersecurity program in an effort to engage with some of the country’s largest critical infrastructure providers, including the oil, electric and water treatment industries. “Our nation’s supply chain is being targeted by our most sophisticated adversaries with increasing regularity,” Nielsen said Thursday to a room full of people representing private sector companies.  “We ask for you to work with us on this initiative … the goal of this initiative is to help stakeholders make better informed procurement decisions by providing them with supply chain risk assessment and mitigation recommendations.” The program is focused on DHS authoring and providing digital risk assessments to companies and government agencies about products that they may acquire or install on their systems. The move comes after the federal government banned the use of Moscow-based Kaspersky Labs’ anti-virus software across government systems. In addition, legislation […]

The post DHS leaders push cybersecurity risk assessment program for critical infrastructure companies appeared first on Cyberscoop.

Continue reading DHS leaders push cybersecurity risk assessment program for critical infrastructure companies→

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→

Rep. Mike McCaul: It’s taken too long to reauthorize NPPD

Posted on by

Representatives on the House Committee on Homeland Security stressed the need for attention to cybersecurity issues at an event addressing the state of national security on Monday at George Washington University. Committee Chairman Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas, painted a bleak picture when it comes to the cybersecurity threats the U.S. faces from foreign adversaries. He also promoted ongoing Congressional efforts to reorganize the office inside the Department of Homeland Security that oversees national cybersecurity infrastructure. “Our adversaries, both nation-state and non-state actors, threaten us around the clock in cyberspace,” McCaul said. “Whether it’s North Korea launching a global cyberattack crippling infrastructure, to China stealing our nation’s valuable intellectual property, to Russia conducting disinformation warfare campaigns to sow discord among our people, to Iran attacking our financial institutions, to terrorists spreading evil propaganda over the internet, to criminals taking our financial and personal information, we are all exposed to harm.” McCaul touted […]

The post Rep. Mike McCaul: It’s taken too long to reauthorize NPPD appeared first on Cyberscoop.

Continue reading Rep. Mike McCaul: It’s taken too long to reauthorize NPPD→

How Congress could handle cybersecurity-focused bills in 2018

Posted on by

As the year begins anew for Congress, lawmakers face a daunting legislative list that includes decisions on a number of cybersecurity-focused laws. CyberScoop polled a half dozen people who work on cybersecurity policy issues to come up with a verdict on each piece of possible legislation — and get their broader take on the possibilities for cyber law-making in 2018. The experts looked at the following bills: A new DHS cyber agency: H.R. 3359, passed by voice vote in the House in December, is awaiting action by the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. Election cybersecurity: S. 2261, introduced in December with bipartisan support, and referred to the Rules and Administration Committee. A companion bill in the House, H.R. 3751, was referred both to the Administration and Intelligence Committees. Internet of Things security standards: S.1691 was introduced in August and referred to the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. Companion […]

The post How Congress could handle cybersecurity-focused bills in 2018 appeared first on Cyberscoop.

Continue reading How Congress could handle cybersecurity-focused bills in 2018→

​Bill to create DHS cyber agency faces a tough road in the Senate​

Posted on by

The bill passed by the U.S. House of Representatives to create​ a new ​cybersecurity ​agency inside the Department of Homeland Security ​faces a tough climb in the Senate​ despite bipartisan support, observers and staffers say​. H.R.3359, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency Act of 2017, passed by voice vote​ ​Monday​ — moving the bill to the upper chamber. In brief floor remarks, Rep. John Ratcliffe, R-Texas, called the bill a “compromise” that fellow Texan, House Homeland Security Committee​ ​Chairman ​Michael McCaul, had worked on with “dogged determination.” In a statement, newly sworn-in DHS Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen also praised McCaul’s “tireless work” on the proposal. And well she might: It’s his second attempt — with bipartisan support from Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss. — to create an operational cybersecurity agency within DHS. The first bill never made it to the House floor last Congress because of turf fights: Nine other House committees […]

The post ​Bill to create DHS cyber agency faces a tough road in the Senate​ appeared first on Cyberscoop.

Continue reading ​Bill to create DHS cyber agency faces a tough road in the Senate​→

House committee dings DHS’s cyber intelligence for fusion centers

Posted on by

Fewer than one-in-four Homeland Security fusion centers across the country receive cyberthreat reporting or other intelligence products from DHS’ National Protection and Programs Directorate, hampering their nascent efforts to help defend the country against online attacks, a congressional report said Tuesday. Those efforts are further hampered because fusion center representatives do not sit on the floor of NPPD’s 24 hour watch center, the National Cybersecurity and Communications Integration Center (NCCIC), the majority staff of the House Homeland Security Committee found. The report includes material from dozens of interviews and a long survey completed by 68 major fusion centers across the country. The centers were set up to integrate state and local law enforcement agencies into DHS’ homeland protection mission by providing them with threat warnings they could use to inform their local priorities and by vacuuming up local intelligence reporting in the hope that it could cast light on national trends or geographically dispersed terrorist […]

The post House committee dings DHS’s cyber intelligence for fusion centers appeared first on Cyberscoop.

Continue reading House committee dings DHS’s cyber intelligence for fusion centers→

Before being picked to lead DHS, Nielsen waffled on the department’s top cyber job

Posted on by

Long before she was unexpectedly tapped to run the Department of Homeland Security, Kirstjen Nielsen was picked to be DHS’ top cyber official. But Nielsen was apparently unable to decide whether to take that job — effectively blocking any appointment to the nation’s top cyberdefense post for months. “It was her,” said one senior official, “She was what blocked it.” According to numerous officials who spoke with CyberScoop, Nielsen’s nomination as DHS undersecretary for the National Protection and Programs Directorate should have been part of a flurry of swift decisions early in the year about who was to lead key DHS agencies — including the Federal Emergency Management Agency, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services and Customs and Border Protection. Critics say her waffling left the NPPD, the DHS agency in charge of the federal government’s cyberdefenses, rudderless — casting a pall over the department’s leading role in defending the nation against online aggression from criminals and […]

The post Before being picked to lead DHS, Nielsen waffled on the department’s top cyber job appeared first on Cyberscoop.

Continue reading Before being picked to lead DHS, Nielsen waffled on the department’s top cyber job→

Eugene Kaspersky speaks out, defends company over espionage allegations

Posted on by

Just twenty four hours before the Department of Homeland Security banned the use of Kaspersky Lab products in the federal government, company founder Eugene Kaspersky gave his first public remarks to claims made by U.S. officials that Kaspersky acts as an intelligence gathering tool for the Kremlin. Kaspersky was speaking at security conference in Sao Paulo, Brazil Tuesday when a U.S. security researcher asked him about recent press reports that alleged the company represented a looming privacy and security concern for private sector companies and government agencies. Watch Eugene’s response here, which was provided to CyberScoop and posted publicly by an attendee of the Brazil-based conference:   Here’s a full transcript of the exchange: Q: I’m from the United States, and the question that is, of course, being asked there is whether your product is being used by Russian politic services. Can you address that? Eugene Kaspersky: Yes, there are […]

The post Eugene Kaspersky speaks out, defends company over espionage allegations appeared first on Cyberscoop.

Continue reading Eugene Kaspersky speaks out, defends company over espionage allegations→