The Senate yesterday approved by voice vote the nomination of retired U.S. Navy Adm. Joseph Maguire to be director of the National Counterterrorism Center.
Incoming House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., said Thursday that the soon to be Democratic-controlled House could finalize legislation to strengthen election security by the end of January.
Federal agencies need to get into second gear in their efforts to defend against insider threats, as outlined in the “Insider Threat Program Maturity Framework” released this month by the National Insider Threat Task Force (NITTF). Agencies must move past the minimum standards many have established and become more proactive in countering what the task force said is a dynamic threat that has moved beyond basic defenses, according to the framework.
The Department of Homeland Security, the Department of Justice, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence released a joint statement Monday night stating that none of the organizations had seen any compromises that would threaten midterm election voting.
William Evanina, director of the National Counterintelligence and Security Center in the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, made a spirited plea today for Federal government and private sector organizations to take additional steps to address cybersecurity and include operations at all levels in an “enterprise-wide security apparatus.”
The Office of the Director of National Intelligence, alongside the Justice Department, Federal Bureau of Investigation, and Department of Homeland Security, released a joint statement today that expresses their concern over election interference and calls identification and prevention of interference a “top priority for the Federal government.”
Stacey Dixon, director of the Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity (IARPA), said today at an event organized by Defense One that some of the intelligence community’s more audacious research centers on using machines to predict the future–through more accurate forecasts of geopolitical events. Dixon also said IARPA research aims to translate neuroscience to neural networks, hoping that efforts to map the human brain can lead to massive strides in machine learning.
The intelligence community has adjusted its strategy for the “second epoch” of the Intelligence Community Information Technology Enterprise program (IC ITE) to adjust to agency needs, reduce duplication, and use artificial intelligence to free up resources for analysts, said La’Naia Jones, deputy CIO for the intelligence community at the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI).
La’Naia Jones, Deputy CIO of the Intelligence Community, said today that the commoditization of hacking capabilities, expansion of IT supply chain exploits, and nation-state use of ransomware have come to the attention of the IC as primary areas of interest in the fight for better cybersecurity.
Wayne Belk, director of the National Insider Threat Task Force (NITTF), said today at an event hosted by Nextgov and Equifax that his unit in the Office of the Director of National Intelligence is now working with the Defense Department to clarify and strengthen the roles of the Federal government’s insider threat staff, beginning with its security analysts.
Bill Evanina, director of the National Counterintelligence and Security Center (NCSC) in the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, said today that the billions of dollars the U.S. government and private sector spend each year on cybersecurity are not being properly and efficiently utilized unless government and industry wrap human resources departments tightly into security discussions.