The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency’s (CISA) Cybersecurity Advisory Committee (CSAC) voted on Dec. 5 to approve two recommendations for the agency to consider on advancing memory safe system languages (MSSL), and on further strengthening operational collaboration.
At the CSAC’s final quarter meeting of this year held in Carlsbad, Calif., the two recommendations were debated and approved by the committee’s Technical Advisory Council and Building Resilience and Reducing Systemic Risk to Critical Infrastructure subcommittees. The recommendations are being forwarded for further consideration to CISA Director Jen Easterly.
The committee is an independent advisory group that was established in 2021 to provide the CISA director with “strategic and actionable recommendations” on cybersecurity issues and challenges. The two recommendations approved on Dec. 5 boost committee’s total number of recommendations to 135 in 2023, CISA said.
“I am so pleased with the Committee’s work this year and look forward to an even more productive 2024 to help strengthen our nation’s cybersecurity,” Easterly said. “I’m especially excited to review the recommendations voted on today that will help advance CISA’s cybersecurity mission.”
“I’m really proud to say that a lot of the work and advice and counsel that you all have done has helped us significantly build the capability and capacity of CISA over the past three years,” Easterly told CSAC members at the Dec. 5 meeting.
She said the cyber threat landscape “continues to evolve and is highly complex [and] highly dynamic, and as we approach the two-year anniversary of unprovoked attacks in Ukraine, we’re mindful of all of the threats that we see out there particularly in the context of conflict.”
Easterly also pointed to the recent emergence of Iran-sponsored hacks of water supply systems in the U.S. and Israel, and said those exploits are “just a reminder about why it is so important for us to work hand-in-hand with the private sector and public utilities” to improve security and resilience.
The CISA director also recognized the CSAC’s new chair – Ron Green from Mastercard – and thanked the outgoing chairman, Tom Fanning from Southern Co., for his committee leadership.
