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NSA & Partners Issue Warning About Pro-Russian Hacktivist Ops Against Operational Technologies
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NSA & Partners Issue Warning About Pro-Russian Hacktivist Ops Against Operational Technologies

U.S. agencies and those from allied countries have released a fact sheet titled “Defending OT Operations Against Ongoing Pro-Russia Hacktivist Activity” to warn critical infrastructure organizations regarding recent cyber operations carried out by pro-Russian hacktivists against operational technologies.

Although malicious activity has been monitored since 2022, according to National Security Agency Director of Cybersecurity Dave Luber, 2024 has seen an expansion to encompass vulnerable industrial control systems in North America and Europe, the NSA reports in a press release issued Wednesday.

Luber called on OT administrators to enhance the cybersecurity posture of their organizations by implementing the mitigations put forward by the fact sheet. These recommendations include the implementation of multifactor authentication for OT networks, the hardening of human-machine interfaces and the limiting of OT system exposure to the internet.

The fact sheet was co-authored by the NSA, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Department of Energy, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the Multi-State Information Sharing and Analysis Center, the U.K. National Cyber Security Centre and the Canadian Centre for Cyber Security.

NSA & Partners Issue Warning About Pro-Russian Hacktivist Ops Against Operational Technologies

Cyber experts, government leaders and industry visionaries will speak about the dynamic and evolving role of cyber in the public sector at the Potomac Officers Club’s 2024 Cyber Summit, which will take place in June. Register now to attend this important event!

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V2X to Support CBRN Threat Detection Tech Development Under $75M in Contract Awards; Corinne Minton-Package Quoted
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V2X to Support CBRN Threat Detection Tech Development Under $75M in Contract Awards; Corinne Minton-Package Quoted

V2X has secured $75 million in contract awards to further develop chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear threat detection and response systems.

Under a potential five-year, $50 million project, V2X said Wednesday it will serve as the lead systems integrator for the CBRN Support to Command and Control program.

CSC2 is a program of record that seeks to facilitate the integration of CBRN and force protection sensors to provide early warning of attacks to improve operational readiness and security at international locations.

The company will modernize predictive hazard propagation tools and a CBRN threat warning and notification application under a $25 million contract.

“These awards not only exemplify our commitment to innovation in national defense but also positions V2X at the forefront of a crucial global security initiative that requires distinct operational expertise and an ability to integrate the right technologies for the right mission,” said Corinne Minton-Package, senior vice president of operational technology and engineering at V2X.

“Our technology-driven and converged security solutions are set to significantly boost the efficacy and responsiveness of CBRN threat detection and mitigation on an international scale,” added Minton-Package.

V2X said the awards further advance the Department of Defense’s Combined Joint All-Domain Command and Control initiative.

POC - 2024 5G Forum

Minton-Package will join a panel discussion at the Potomac Officers Club’s 2024 5G Forum on May 22. Register here to attend this important event.

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DOE Outlines 10 Categories of AI Applications for Critical Energy Infrastructure in New Report; Puesh Kumar Quoted
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DOE Outlines 10 Categories of AI Applications for Critical Energy Infrastructure in New Report; Puesh Kumar Quoted

The Department of Energy has released a report that identifies 10 categories of artificial intelligence applications for critical energy infrastructure and a set of four risk categories.

The 10 categories outlined in the report released by DOE’s Office of Cybersecurity, Energy Security and Emergency Response — or CESER — are infrastructure operational awareness, high-complexity modeling and simulation, active controls, predictive maintenance, anomalous event detection and diagnosis, malicious event detection and diagnosis, forecasting, system planning, resource exploration and extraction and scenario generation.

“The assessment we are releasing today is an integral piece of our ongoing engagement with the sector to harness the power of AI to improve our overall security and resilience, while also working to identify and mitigate risk,” said Puesh Kumar, director of CESER.

The four risk categories discussed in the CESER report are unintentional failure modes of AI, adversarial attacks against AI, hostile applications of AI and compromise of the AI software supply chain.

CESER said it will expand its engagement with energy sector partners on AI through virtual listening sessions in the summer of 2024, assess potential AI risks to critical energy infrastructure, evaluate the public availability of energy sector data and support the research and development of innovative technologies that leverage AI to strengthen the U.S. energy system’s security and resilience.

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Chris Bates to Take on Newly Created CISO Role at SandboxAQ
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Chris Bates to Take on Newly Created CISO Role at SandboxAQ

Chris Bates has been selected as the first chief information security officer of SandboxAQ.

In his new role, Bates will work to ensure that SandboxAQ’s data, communications and intellectual property are secure while supporting the development of the company’s AQtive Guard cryptography management platform, SandboxAQ announced from its Palo Alto, California headquarters on Wednesday.

“Chris brings a unique mix of experience in cybersecurity, governance, operations, engineering, DevSecOps, product development and more to SandboxAQ,” said CEO Jack Hidary.

Marc Manzano, general manager of SandboxAQ’s cybersecurity group, said Bates’ “expert knowledge of the security challenges faced by global corporations and government agencies” will be an asset to improving AQtive Guard.

Bates previously served as chief trust and security officer at SentinelOne, where he drove strong company growth over a period of seven years. He oversaw a number of business and technical functions associated with cybersecurity, go-to-market, product, software-as-a-service operations and more.

Before joining SentinelOne, Bates served in leadership positions at a wide range of commercial organizations, including Nike, Fidelis Cybersecurity and Nuscale Power, among others.

Bates said he is “incredibly excited” to join SandboxAQ, which has created tools that “are already having such an impact in cybersecurity and other fields.”

“SandboxAQ’s AQtive Guard software platform is redefining how leading banks and other large enterprises defend themselves in the face of increasingly sophisticated AI-driven attacks. I look forward to helping SandboxAQ and our customers succeed,” he said.

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DISA to Address Cyber Challenges With New Long-Term Strategy; Lt. Gen. Robert Skinner Quoted
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DISA to Address Cyber Challenges With New Long-Term Strategy; Lt. Gen. Robert Skinner Quoted

The Defense Information Systems Agency has revealed a new strategic plan identifying the agency’s priorities for fiscal years 2025-2029.

The strategy, titled DISA Next, includes a wide range of objectives for maintaining cyber superiority that fall under four strategic imperatives, six operational imperatives and eight goals, DISA announced on Wednesday.

In the strategy’s forward, Lt. Gen. Robert Skinner, director of DISA and a 2024 Wash100 Award winner, said while the agency will continue to provide its information technology services, it is also focused on change.

“We are re-organizing, optimizing and transforming to deliver resilient, survivable and secure capabilities to enable department success and warfighter lethality,” he elaborated.

He highlighted great power competition as a major factor influencing DISA’s transformation goals.

DISA to Address Cyber Challenges With New Long-Term Strategy; Lt. Gen. Robert Skinner Quoted

Skinner discussed DISA Next at the Potomac Officers Club’s 5th Annual CIO Summit last month, where he shared the strategy’s four strategic imperatives: secure, operational and available capabilities; strategic command, control and communications; modernizing for effectiveness; and data.

On June 6, the Potomac Officers Club will host its 2024 Cyber Summit, which will feature speakers like Skinner who will share their insights on the cyber domain. To learn more and register to attend the 2024 Cyber Summit, head over to the Potomac Officers Club website.

DISA Next’s six operational imperatives are providing relevant, modern, enterprise and business tools; providing a resilient and redundant Defense Information System Network backbone; managing the agency; operationalizing the cloud; unifying the network; and divesting technical debt.

The eight goals of the strategy target the Defense Information Systems Network, the hybrid cloud environment, national leadership command capabilities and joint and coalition warfighting tools as well as a consolidated network, zero trust tools, data management and workforce.

“The purpose of this strategy is to drive this combat support agency’s priorities and initiatives to deliver capacity and capability to our warfighters,” Skinner explained.

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Marines Corps Establishes Fusion Center to Focus on Rapid Technology Development
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Marines Corps Establishes Fusion Center to Focus on Rapid Technology Development

The U.S. Marine Corps has established a new center at its headquarters in Quantico, Virginia, that will first prioritize the rapid development of counter-unmanned aerial system technologies, Breaking Defense reported Tuesday.

The Fusion Center aims to restart the maturation of new capabilities developed by the Rapid Capabilities Office to bridge the “valley of death,” or the transition of technologies from development to full-scale production.

With the new center, the Marine Corps’ acquisition and requirements directorate can more effectively match the service branch’s mission requirements with the technologies it develops.

“Instead of really focusing on building new things and adding to the pile, we recognized. … We need to build an organization in the middle that allowed us to transition capabilities out of this incredible [research and development community] that’s out there with billions of dollars every year and we weren’t leveraging it to the maximum extent we possibly could,” said Kevin Murray, chief technology officer under the Marines Corps’ capabilities development directorate.

Brig. Gen. Stephen Lightfoot, director of the capabilities development directorate, said the goal is to get all Marines to be “able to go into the Fusion Center and to be able to talk through what are those issues that exist.”

Biden Administration Spearheads Initiatives to Accelerate Clean Energy, Critical Infrastructure Permitting Processes
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Biden Administration Spearheads Initiatives to Accelerate Clean Energy, Critical Infrastructure Permitting Processes

The Biden administration has initiated a series of actions aimed at accelerating the environmental review and permitting process for clean energy and critical infrastructure projects.

Among the initiatives are the implementation of the Permitting Action Plan released in 2022 to ensure the effectiveness and efficiency of the federal permitting and environmental review processes and the $1 billion investment from the Inflation Reduction Act to improve permitting.

The White House Council on Environmental Quality has finalized a rule to reform and modernize the federal environmental review process under the National Environmental Policy Act.

Reforms include setting deadlines for agencies to complete environmental reviews and establishing a unified and coordinated federal review process.

The Department of Energy has also released a final transmission permitting reform rule to cut transmission review timeframes in half for complex environmental projects.

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USPTO Seeks Public Insights on Impact of AI on Patentability Evaluations
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USPTO Seeks Public Insights on Impact of AI on Patentability Evaluations

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office seeks input from the public about how artificial intelligence might impact evaluations when determining whether an invention could be patented under U.S. law.

The USPTO said Tuesday that the feedback it receives via a request for comments, due July 29, will be used to help with legal and Congressional advisory work as well as with policy formulation.

Among the issues covered by the RFC is the use of AI and how it affects what qualifies as prior art. Another issue is how AI use affects the assessment of the level of skill of a person having ordinary skill in the art.

The issuance of the RFC forms part of a broader effort by the USPTO to respond to President Joe Biden’s directives regarding the promotion of safe, secure and trustworthy AI. Related USPTO initiatives include the issuance of guidance concerning inventorship for AI-assisted inventions as well as guidance on using AI when preparing filings to be submitted to the agency.

ODNI Releases Latest Transparency Report on IC Use of National Security Surveillance Authorities
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ODNI Releases Latest Transparency Report on IC Use of National Security Surveillance Authorities

In line with requirements under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978, as amended, and the commitment of the intelligence community to principles of intelligence transparency, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence has released the Annual Statistical Transparency Report Regarding the Intelligence Community’s Use of National Security Surveillance Authorities for Calendar Year 2023.

The report offers the public insight into the oversight framework governing the IC and provides statistics and other information about the use of various national security authorities, including those under FISA, ODNI said Tuesday.

Highlights in the CY2023 transparency report include increases in FISA Title I, III and VII Sections 703 and 704 orders and targets compared to the preceding year. FISA Title I and III involve electronic surveillance and physical searchers based on probable cause, while FISA Title VII Sections 703 and 704 involve the targeting of U.S. persons located abroad based on probable cause.

The report also notes an increase in FISA Section 702 targets but points out that the increase follows previous trends.

On April 20, authorities under FISA Section 702 were renewed after President Joe Biden signed a reauthorization bill that also sought to introduce reforms to mitigate risks to American privacy and civil liberties. The transparency report generally covers the period between Jan. 1, 2023, through Dec. 31, 2023, so changes to 702 that went into effect this year would not be covered.

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Commerce Department Announces New Actions to Develop Secure AI Systems
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Commerce Department Announces New Actions to Develop Secure AI Systems

The Department of Commerce has announced department-wide initiatives related to the implementation of the October 2023 executive order on the safe, secure and trustworthy development of artificial intelligence.

The efforts include four draft publications from the National Institute of Standards and Technology to improve the security and trustworthiness of AI systems across the federal government and a request for public comment from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office on how the proliferation of AI could affect certain evaluations.

NIST has released guidance documents to help manage the risks of generative AI, reduce risks posed by “synthetic” content and secure software development practices for generative AI and dual-use foundation models.

Under the EO, the agency also opened to public comments a draft plan to facilitate global engagement on AI standards.

Meanwhile, the USPTO is requesting industry comments on how AI could affect evaluations the office makes to determine whether an invention is patentable under U.S. law. The office aims to evaluate the need for AI-related guidance and help inform its work in providing technical advice to Congress.

“With these resources and the previous work on AI from the Department, we are continuing to support responsible innovation in AI and America’s technological leadership,” said Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo.

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