Tag Archives: workforce

DHS hails cybersecurity hiring blitz that puts dent in thousands of vacancies

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The Department of Homeland Security is touting its “most successful cybersecurity hiring initiative” ever after bringing on nearly 300 pros, with job offers extended to 500 more. It’s a figure significantly higher than the goal of 200 hires established under a two-month “Cybersecurity Workforce Sprint.” But it’s also still just a dent, going 12% of the way toward filling the more than 2,000 vacancies, by DHS’s own accounting. “DHS is dedicating significant energy toward exceeding our cybersecurity hiring goal by recruiting talented experts, investing in diverse talent pipelines, and ensuring equitable access to professional development opportunities at every level,” DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said in a news release late Thursday. “While I am proud of the progress we have made to date, we still have more work to do.” It’s been a long, slow climb for DHS to bring on cyber personnel, but the “sprint” is the latest sign of […]

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Senate confirms cybersecurity-focused Alejandro Mayorkas as DHS secretary

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The Senate on Tuesday voted to confirm Alejandro Mayorkas as Homeland Security secretary, a post crucial to the U.S. response to a suspected Russian hacking campaign that has roiled Washington. A former No. 2 Department of Homeland Security official in the Obama administration, Mayorkas flatly told lawmakers last month that U.S. government defenses against hacking were out of step with the urgency of the threats. “The cybersecurity of our nation [will be] one of my highest priorities,” he said during a Senate confirmation hearing. Mayorkas has pledged to strengthen DHS’s cybersecurity work, including by reviewing two big-budget department programs that did not thwart the alleged Russian hack. The spying campaign has exploited software made by SolarWinds and other IT providers, and infiltrated multiple U.S. agencies. Mayorkas, who fled Cuba’s Castro regime as a child, now leads a vast DHS bureaucracy whose charges include defending civilian federal agencies from state-backed hackers and […]

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

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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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Biden’s DHS pick was a ‘quick study’ of cybersecurity issues as the department’s deputy

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Alejandro Mayorkas, President-elect Joe Biden’s choice to run the Department of Homeland Security, gained an appreciation for how cyberthreats factor into national security challenges when he was deputy of the department from 2013 to 2016, former U.S. officials who know Mayorkas told CyberScoop. As DHS’s No. 2, the Cuban-American lawyer took a close interest in the department’s work on cyberthreat-sharing with the private sector, and was involved in negotiations with China over a 2015 agreement forbidding intellectual property theft. Mayorkas also witnessed the U.S. response to major state-sponsored hacking operations, from China’s alleged breach of the Office of Personnel Management to Russia’s probing of election infrastructure in 2016. Mayorkas is now poised to be a central figure in how the incoming Biden administration responds to such threats. “He clearly understood [cybersecurity] issues and why they were important and was a good advocate for DHS’s part in that,” said Christopher Painter, […]

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Pentagon’s initiative for Black cyber students met with cautious optimism

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Not everyone in the cybersecurity community is entirely optimistic about a new U.S. military program meant to extend educational resources to historically Black colleges and universities. For years, the Department of Defense has worked to extend cybersecurity resources to historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs). A new initiative meant to improve access to cybersecurity resources at HBCUs and Minority Serving Institutions, though, is being met with some skepticism among prominent cyber practitioners and educational advocates. Backed by the National Security Agency and the Pentagon’s Office of Small Business Programs, the goal is to connect Black and minority universities with other colleges that already meet NSA cybersecurity curriculum standards. The aim is to share resources, such as labs and range time, and advice on curriculum development. The effort, known as the Cybersecurity Education Diversity Initiative (CEDI), also allocates $300,000 available for internships, the Pentagon said. “A lot of these programs almost end up being lip service,” said Camille Stewart, who […]

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NSA aims to boost Black students’ access to security education, paid internships

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The National Security Agency and the Department of Defense announced an initiative on Thursday meant to increase access to cybersecurity education, mentoring and paid internships for students at historically Black colleges and universities. The workforce development program will connect students at eligible educational institutions with internships and mentorship through the Pentagon’s Office of Small Business Programs, officials said Thursday during a call with reporters. Students may also participate in exercises at the Maryland Innovation & Security Institute’s virtual cyber range, to gain hands-on technical training that will help them to later provide technical assistance to small businesses. Students may receive paid stipends during their internships, according to a Defense Department and NSA release. Exactly how much money the NSA and the Defense Department will reward to students was not immediately clear. Shannon Jackson, associate director of the Department of Defense’s Office of Small Business Program, said the Cybersecurity Education Diversity Initiative (CEDI), is meant to […]

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Why the FBI’s cyber attachés are so valuable

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On an average day, cybercriminals visiting the Darkode darkweb forum would expect to enter an underground, invitation-only digital marketplace to buy, sell, and trade malware, access to botnets, and stolen personal information. However, in July 2015, users were instead confronted with the emblems of the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), and EUROPOL’s European Cyber Crime Center (EC3) instead of the Darkode homepage. A large, bold warning surrounded by the official seals of 17 additional international police departments prominently proclaimed, “This domain and website have been seized.” This was the culmination of a multi-year joint undercover operation by U.S. and international law enforcement from 20 countries who searched, charged, or arrested 70 of the forum’s members worldwide and indicted 12 individuals with computer fraud conspiracy. This joint effort, known as Operation Shrouded Horizon, exemplifies the collaboration needed to counter the increasingly complex and diffuse […]

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This matters more: How cyber pros are confronting racism in their own ranks, and beyond

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The police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis last week prompted Leroy Terrelonge to do something he had never done: vividly recall all of his experiences with racism since youth. “I was surprised by how incidents that I had buried deep suddenly surged back to my memory and hurt all over again,” said Terrelonge, 34, a black cyber-risk analyst at Moody’s. “I imagined how they could have taken a wrong turn under certain circumstances and I, too, could be dead.” Terrelonge is one of millions of black Americans experiencing Floyd’s death in visceral ways. He’s also one of many cybersecurity professionals searching for the right balance between work and advancing social justice. The daily grind of reverse-engineering malware feels trivial when police are teargassing peaceful protesters, neighborhoods are in flames and opportunists unaffiliated with black social-justice causes are violently exploiting the unrest. “Information security is not often a matter of life or death, even for those […]

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Adjusting to the new security realities of a remote workforce

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CIOs and CISOs have been under intense pressure to meet the needs of homebound workers, while simultaneously needing to take added steps to safeguard their enterprise networks. Steve Grobman, senior vice president and chief technology officer at McAfee, has a global view of that challenge. Grobman leads the company’s worldwide development of next-generation cyberdefense and data science technologies as well as threat and vulnerability research. In an interview for CyberScoop, Grobman shares his observations on what enterprise IT leaders are encountering — and measures that they might take to mitigate risks associated with home networks essentially becoming part of the enterprise IT infrastructure. This interview, underwritten by McAfee, was edited for brevity. CyberScoop: Organizations are sprinting to equip their employees to work remotely. How is that impacting the cyber risks enterprises face across their networks? Steve Grobman: Organizations must recognize that there are risks associated with new types of employees […]

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Security Considerations for a Blended Workforce

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A blended workforce consisting of external organizations, traditional workers and non-traditional workers such as freelancers, remote workers, temporary workers and independent contractors (ICs) can provide an organization with the added potential for… Continue reading Security Considerations for a Blended Workforce→