The vulnerability disclosure program, which was started from the Defense Digital Service s 2016 Hack the Pentagon initiative, was initially restricted to public-facing websites and applications.
By Justin Katz
May 05, 2021
The Department of Homeland Security and the White House are putting the spotlight on combatting ransomware, actively developing plans to confront the issue.
DHS has assembled a task force with representatives from the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, Secret Service, Coast Guard and Immigration and Customs Enforcement s Homeland Security Investigations unit, according to Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. The new task force is part of the secretary s planned 60-day sprint on ransomware that was announced in March as the first in a series of new efforts. Beyond CISA…the entire federal government is stepping up to face this challenge, Mayorkas said at an April 29 event hosted by the Institute for Security and Technology. The White House is developing a plan dedicated to tackling this problem, and the Justice Department recently established its own task force focused on ransomware, he confirmed.
Sen. Jack Reed (D-R.I.), chairman for the Senate Armed Services Committee, announced that the committee would delay marking up the 2022 National Defense Authorization Act due to "uncertainty" in White House budget delivery.
By Lauren C. Williams
May 05, 2021
Almost all Defense Department personnel who have sought student loan debt forgiveness through a federal program managed by the Department of Education have been denied a trend that, if unchanged, could make it even harder to recruit and retain tech talent.
According to a recent Government Accountability Office report, 94% of DOD employees, civilian and military, were denied student loan debt forgiveness through the federal Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) program, with missing form information or being short on the number of qualifying payments being the most cited reasons.
The watchdog agency noted a lack of personnel awareness of the program and coordination between DOD and the Education Department, which administers the program, to be key issues.
By Lauren C. Williams
Apr 28, 2021
President Joe Biden has nominated Heidi Shyu, former assistant secretary of the Army for acquisition, logistics and technology, to lead the Defense Department s tech investments as undersecretary for research and engineering.
Shyu chairs the board for manufacturing company Plasan North America, leads her own consulting firm and has held several executive positions at Raytheon.
As the Army s acquisition executive, Shyu worked to streamline the Army s program executive offices, especially around cybersecurity. Cyber cuts across every single one of my programs, Shyu previously said. It s not stove-piped. You don t want … Cyber Command to talk to every single PEO individually – that s just stupid.