Babel Street, a data analytics company headquartered in Reston, Va., says major Chinese technology and manufacturing concerns not only have links with their government but also help to expand China’s influence into other countries’ manufacturing sectors. Moreover, it says, China and Russia coordinate their investments to avoid conflict. [node:read-more:link]
The U.S. Department of Defense Department requested a 30-day court extension to resolve ongoing issues with its Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure cloud contract. The multi-billion dollar contract had been expected to be awarded 17 August after numerous delays, notably the need to address a legal protest by Amazon Web Services after the contract was initially awarded to Microsoft last fall. Already two years behind schedule, there evidently are still “areas of concern with respect to the revised proposals,” the DoD said 10 August. [node:read-more:link]
As it has in other countries, the COVID-19 outbreak has resulted in more government employees working from home on unclassified information but U.S. agencies are considering a move onto classified telework. “We’ve put a tremendous more amount of capability out there with respect to how to deal with classified missions, both on premise and off,” says Stephen Wallace, a systems innovation scientist at the Defense Information Systems Agency’s Emerging Technology Directorate. [node:read-more:link]
The U.S. Defense Information Systems Agency plans to call for bids within the new few weeks on an $11.7-billion sole-source information technology contract to be awarded in 2021. The goal is “common-use IT systems” which would cover infrastructure, networking and cybersecurity as the Pentagon consolidates its agencies. [node:read-more:link]
As the U.S. Navy shifted increasingly to remote work for many personnel early in the COVID-19 pandemic, its chief information says there was a jump in malicious cyber activity. Aaron Weis says it began with basic phishing activity but ramped up to spoofing and outright attacks from ostensibly “trustworthy” sources even after the U.S. deployed countermeasures. [node:read-more:link]
As the U.S. Navy shifted increasingly to remote work for many personnel early in the COVID-19 pandemic, its chief information says there was a jump in malicious cyber activity. Aaron Weis says it began with basic phishing activity but ramped up to spoofing and outright attacks from ostensibly “trustworthy” sources even after the U.S. deployed countermeasures. [node:read-more:link]
Hoping to compete more effectively with China and Russia in artificial intelligence development, U.S. Secretary of Defense Mark Esper said his department will launch a new partnership with more than 10 countries, possibly this week. The goal is to “create new frameworks and tools for data sharing, cooperative development, and strengthened interoperability” among allies. [node:read-more:link]
The U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency has given all federal departments and agencies until the end of today to deal with a vulnerability in Microsoft Windows which was disclosed more than a month ago. The agency warns that failure to apply an update released by Microsoft could have dire consequences. [node:read-more:link]
The director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Christopher Wray, has told a Senate committee that his plan to “impose risks and consequences on cyber adversaries” will involve closer cooperation with the broader intelligence community. He also cited a recent escalation of indictments against alleged cyber criminals, including some linked to the Chinese, Iranian and Russian governments. [node:read-more:link]
The Finnish telecom giant Nokia has contracted with British Telecom to provide 5G technology for BT’s “radio access network” as well as replacing its Chinese competitor, Huawei, in BT’s other networks. The government announced in July that all service providers would be prohibited from installing new Huawei technology next Jan. 1 and remove all existing installations by 2027 due to U.S.-driven national security concerns. [node:read-more:link]
The controversial advent of 5G technologies will dramatically increase the number of internet-connected devices but it also increases opportunities for hackers. The U.S. Government Accountability Office has found the government’s national 5G strategy lacking in that it only partly addresses five of six key concerns and ignores the sixth. [node:read-more:link]
The National Security Agency has issued an advisory that Chinese-connected adversaries are targeting vulnerable U.S. systems. “It can be hard to prioritize patching and mitigation efforts,” says NSA Cybersecurity Director Anne Neuberger. “While these vulnerabilities are already public, they’re still being successfully leveraged by malicious cyber actors,” highlighting the need for action. [node:read-more:link]
State-sponsored cyber activity by China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea pose the “greatest strategic threats” to Canada’s critical infrastructure, intellectual property and politics, according to the Canadian Centre for Cyber Security. In its latest threat assessment report, the agency within the Communications Security Establishment says the foreign cyber attacks are “almost certainly” continuing. [node:read-more:link]
A supposedly secure video conference of European Union defence ministers recently had an unwelcome participant: a journalist in the Netherlands. Having managed to log in after Dutch Defence Minister Ank Bijleveld inadvertently posted some access details on Twitter, Daniel Verlaan apologized and logged out when challenged by Josep Borrell, the EU’s High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy. Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte has directed his cabinet to improve their security practices. [node:read-more:link]
Days after it was confirmed that Russian hackers had exploited a software flaw to attack several U.S. agencies, the Government Accountability Office has released the results of an audit which showed that 23 agencies are failing to manage risks in their IT supply chains. However, the GAO’s team leader acknowledges that even with “robust” management, “most likely this particular attack would have happened because of the level of sophistication that was involved.” [node:read-more:link]
