The 2017 DefCon conference featured former World Chess Champion Garry Kasparov, who spoke about artificial intelligence, computers, and of course, chess.  After losing a match to a purpose-built computer in 1997, Kasparov realized that the machine, although it had beaten him, was not truly intelligent:  it had simply out-calculated him, by examining over 200 million chess positions per second.  Kasparov soon devised “advanced chess”, in which a strong human player teams up with a computer.   Advanced chess combines the best human qualities of imagination, judgment,

Federal IT pros are facing “Herculean tasks” when it comes to security challenges, a new survey conducted by DLT partner, SolarWinds, reveals.

As government officials begin investigation of the Equifax breach that exposed the sensitive information of 143 million people, what does the breach mean for agencies themselves? After all, the U.S. government stores far more sensitive data than the private sector, and often stores it on older, more vulnerable systems.

When it comes to enhancing their cybersecurity postures, federal agencies have to wade through an entire alphabet soup of regulatory compliance guidelines. From the RMF (Risk Management Framework) to FISMA (Federal Information Security Management Act) and DISA STIGs (Defense Information Systems Agency Security Technical Implantation Guides), there are a number of requirements that agencies must implement to satisfy the government’s definition of a secure environment.

Hackers are ruthless in their persistence and fortitude. It can take weeks or months for them to gather intelligence on your IT vulnerabilities, penetrate your network, and exfiltrate your precious data. But they know, and statistics prove this, that, for the most part, their victims have no idea that their network infrastructure is under attack – until it’s too late.

Could the technology that powers shadowy online cryptocurrencies used by terrorists, cyber criminals, and money launderers soon be deployed by the Department of Defense?

Another month, another regulation deadline to comply with. But this time, it’s defense contractors who are in the hot seat.

To safeguard defense information in non-federal systems and organizations, U.S. defense contractors and soon all federal agencies, must meet the DFARS 7012 mandate and implement all of the requirements of NIST Special Publication 800-171 Protecting Controlled Unclassified Information (CUI).

If you’re wondering where to spend your federal fiscal year-end dollars, no doubt cybersecurity is top of mind. With threats increasing and constantly evolving, protecting federal systems, networks, and data has never been more important.

But this year, there’s a new imperative for federal CIOs – the Presidential Executive Order on Strengthening the Cybersecurity of Federal Networks and Critical Infrastructure.

Securing government networks and systems takes a village. Keeping pace with attacks and shortage of security talent has driven security operations to pool data resources and orchestrate actions across vendors, open source projects, and internal development efforts. It’s a community effort. Sharing threat information and codifying procedures to better fend off the enemy with no face. This kind of intel also improves detection efforts and response through collaboration across systems.

The Cyber Shield Act, commissioned by Senator Ed Markey, recommends the establishment of a voluntary program to institute uniform cybersecurity and data benchmarks for consumer devices. The goal of the bill is to improve consumer decision making from the point of purchase, standardized by industry and maintained by manufacturers – similar to an EPA energy rating on appliances, or NHTSA safety rating on automobiles.