Category Archives: Rob Joyce

NSA, CISA share guidelines for securing VPNs as hacking groups keep busy

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Cautioning that foreign government-backed hackers are actively exploiting vulnerabilities in virtual private network devices, the National Security Agency and the Department of Homeland Security’s cyber wing on Tuesday published guidelines for securing VPNs. While the advice is broad, the NSA and DHS’ Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency specifically said it would help protect the Defense Department, national security systems and defense contractors against such advanced persistent threat groups, a term that typically refers to state-sponsored hacking groups. The NSA has specifically warned in the past about Chinese hackers exploiting VPN vulnerabilities, as has CISA, but the history of advanced groups seizing on VPN vulnerabilities is far broader and lengthier. “VPN servers are entry points into protected networks, making them attractive targets,” Rob Joyce, director of cybersecurity at the NSA, said on Twitter. “APT actors have and will exploit VPNs.” In one case, the FBI warned in May about hackers leveraging […]

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NSA cyber director explains why US missed suspected Russian espionage operation

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When Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service staged a sweeping espionage campaign targeting hundreds of U.S. companies and federal government agencies last year, it was a private sector cybersecurity firm that first uncovered the operation, not the U.S. government. Lawmakers have asked in recent weeks why the U.S. intelligence community appears to have gaps in its visibility into foreign hacking, and whether the National Security Agency needs new surveillance authorities. But the NSA’s cybersecurity director, Rob Joyce, suggested that that may not be the best solution. “Inside the U.S. you would expect us to have the best tools and capabilities, but instead what we’re finding — in General Nakasone’s words — is we don’t even see the dots, let alone connect the dots,” Joyce said at CyberTalks, a summit presented by CyberScoop. The NSA Cybersecurity Directorate, which Joyce leads, is responsible for preventing and eradicating threats from foreign hackers targeting U.S. entities. […]

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Michael Sulmeyer, who held cyber posts under Trump and Obama, gets Biden White House gig

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Michael Sulmeyer, a senior adviser to National Security Agency and U.S. Cyber Command leader Gen. Paul Nakasone, will take the position of senior director for cyber in the Biden White House. Sulmeyer’s selection came with no formal announcement. Instead, the transition website posted his position Monday evening. Sulmeyer is a cybersecurity veteran with broad experience, one of many to join the Biden administration. He’s also one of several whose tenures have included roles in the Trump administration. Beyond serving under Nakasone, he also served in the Obama administration at the Defense Department, where he was director for plans and operations for cyber policy. Between roles in the Trump and Obama administrations, he was director of the Belfer Center’s Cyber Security Project at the Harvard Kennedy School. He also wrote extensively for Lawfare on subjects like election security, federal cybersecurity strategy and DOD-related cybersecurity issues. In the past, the National Security […]

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Rob Joyce named new NSA cybersecurity director

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Rob Joyce, the National Security Agency’s special U.S. liaison officer at the U.S. Embassy in London, will replace Anne Neuberger as director in the agency’s Cybersecurity Directorate, the NSA announced Friday. The Biden transition team announced Wednesday that Neuberger will soon be joining the Biden administration as deputy national security adviser for cyber and emerging technology on the National Security Council (NSC). It was not immediately clear who would take on Joyce’s role as the NSA’s senior cryptologic representative in the U.K. Joyce has a long track record of working in cybersecurity leadership roles in the U.S. government. He previously served as senior advisor for cybersecurity strategy to the NSA director, and before that served as special assistant to the president and cybersecurity coordinator on the NSC at the White House. At the NSC Joyce was responsible for national and international cybersecurity strategy and policy for the government. His expertise in cyber-operations […]

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After researchers test Microsoft Netlogon exploit, feds tell users to patch now or suffer later

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Nothing brings urgency to a software vulnerability like an exploit demonstrating its potency. That’s what happened Monday when researchers at Dutch cybersecurity company Secura released a “proof of concept” exploit for a vulnerability in the Netlogon protocol that Microsoft employs to authenticate users and updated passwords within a domain. The vulnerability could allow “an attacker with a foothold on your internal network to essentially become [domain administrator] with one click,” as Secura analysts put it. That means an attacker could “impersonate any computer, including the domain controller itself, and execute remote procedure calls on their behalf.” Within hours of Secura publishing its analysis, U.S. government officials were telling corporations and agencies to pay attention and apply the patch that Microsoft issued last month. The episode highlights how, with thousands of software vulnerabilities released each year, some matter much more than others and prompt influential voices in the industry to sound […]

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Lawmakers call for cyber leadership as they introduce bill that would create White House post

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After then-national security adviser John Bolton eliminated the position of White House cybersecurity coordinator in the spring of 2018, Democratic lawmakers quickly introduced a bill to restore the position, arguing that it was crucial for the White House to show leadership on the issue. The bill never went anywhere. But two years later, the push for creating a top White House cybersecurity post is gaining fresh traction, with support from Republicans. A bipartisan group of House members on Thursday introduced new legislation that would create a “national cyber director” at the White House. The director would serve a similar role to the coordinator, but have more authority to examine cybersecurity budgets and oversee national incident response. Instituting a national cyber director was a key recommendation put forth by the congressionally mandated Cyberspace Solarium Commission, which released a report in March arguing for big changes to U.S. cybersecurity policy. Two leading members […]

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Experts urge organizations to address festering critical Citrix flaw

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It’s been more than two weeks since researchers went public with a critical vulnerability in products made by corporate VPN service provider Citrix that could give a hacker free rein over the many enterprise networks that use the software. Now, with no sign of a complete patch for the vulnerability, cybersecurity experts are exhorting organizations to address the issue. “It’s extremely important to apply the mitigation steps and recognize that there is no patch for this,” said Dave Kennedy, founder of cybersecurity company TrustedSec, adding that he has already seen attackers scanning for vulnerable systems. “We have a working exploit, and it took us under a day to develop it,” Kennedy told CyberScoop. “Attackers have the same capabilities.” The flaw, discovered by cybersecurity company Positive Technologies, is in a Citrix cloud-based application delivery tool, as well as a product that allows remote access to the company’s applications. Based on the […]

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NSA points to two-year patching window in remarks about Baltimore incident

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In the wake of the Baltimore ransomware attack, a senior adviser at the National Security Agency said Thursday there is no “indefensible” nation-state-built tool that is responsible for the spread of ransomware and network administrators have a responsibility to patch their systems, especially when patches have been released for critical flaws. The comments come after The New York Times reported this past week that RobbinHood, the ransomware strain behind the Baltimore ransomware attack, was able to spread on the city IT infrastructure partly due to its use of a leaked NSA tool known as EternalBlue. The Times report, which cites security experts briefed on the matter, states EternalBlue was discovered as incident response teams fixed the issues that had crippled a number of the city’s online services. “The characterization that there is an indefensible nation-state tool propagating ransomware is simply untrue,” Rob Joyce, a senior adviser at the NSA, said Thursday […]

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No ‘smoking gun’ evidence coming on Huawei, NSA official says

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Don’t expect U.S. officials to produce a “smoking gun” of public evidence that the Chinese government might be using telecommunications giant Huawei to further its interests in cyberspace, a senior National Security Agency official told CyberScoop. “Everybody is anxious for that smoking gun,” Rob Joyce, senior cybersecurity adviser at NSA, said in an interview. “It is not the case that you’re going to see people bring out and drop that smoking gun on the table … for all sorts of reasons about the way we understand the threat, the way we deal with the Chinese, the way we have to protect the ability to see and maybe defeat or deny that capability going forward.” U.S. officials have long accused Chinese tech companies Huawei and ZTE of being potential vessels for spying. One reason is that under Chinese law, companies are required to cooperate with national intelligence activities. Huawei and ZTE strenuously […]

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