Jim Wiggins is the Executive Director of the Federal IT Security Institute and the Wounded Warrior Cyber Combat Academy. He's one of the keynote speakers for this year's GovDefenders free online cybersecurity conference. We've sat down with Jim beforehand to discuss different aspects about cybersecurity training including why budgets for training are decreasing even when spending is increasing, what qualities to look for in a IT security professional, and how training has evolved over the last decade.

John Nicholson is the President of the Washington D.C. Metro Chapter of the Cloud Security Alliance (CSA) and one of the keynote speakers during this year's GovDefenders Cybersecurity Virtual Event. In preparation for the big event, we briefly interviewed John about cloud computing. Watch the below video to learn: "What resources can the Federal cloud community tap into regarding contracting and best practices?" and "How can cloud providers leverage the CSA's Cloud Controls Matrix and are there any currently leveraging it?"

The GovDefenders Cybersecurity Virtual Event, presented by DLT Solutions, is a free cyber event focused on the public sector. Join us from your desk on Wednesday, April 24 as professionals from leading IT companies, including NetApp, Symantec, ForeScout, Red Hat, Quest Software, now a part of Dell, SolarWinds, and DLT Solutions, as we discuss trends, best practices, and the future of public sector cybersecurity.

Last month the National Institute of Standards (NIST) database of software vulnerabilities, the National Vulnerability Database (NVD), was taken offline for several days because it was discovered that the web servers hosting the NVD, as well as other government databases, had been compromised by a software vulnerability. In this blog, I’ll review the problem; next week I’ll identify tools and processes that can help solve the problem.

The Cloud Security Alliance (CSA) Top Threats Working Group today released, The Notorious Nine: Cloud Computing Top Threats in 2013 - a revised report aimed to provide organizations with up-to-date, expert-informed understanding of cloud security threats in order to make educated risk-management decisions regarding cloud adoption strategies. Today's review: Data Breaches.

Andrew "weev" Auernheimer will spend the next 41 months in federal prison. His crime? In 2010, he exposed a security flaw in AT&T's iPad user database, gaining access to the information of over 100,000 people. I want to ponder this question I asked myself after reading about Andrew: what role can public hackers play in government cybersecurity?

The White House recently released the 2012 Federal Information Security Management Act report. The report tracks agencies’ progress toward reaching the compliance targets set in 2002’s Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA). While the report documents some improvements and an increase in spending (up a $1 billion from 2011), it also highlights areas of weaknesses that help illuminate the current government cybersecurity ecosystem.

The Armed Forces Communications and Electronics Association's (AFCEA) DC chapter hosted the 4th Annual Cybersecurity Symposium on Friday February 22nd. Industry experts joined federal officials from cybersecurity agencies in interactive panels and keynote speeches. This was a joint update on the status of our nation’s cybersecurity efforts.

We’re writing to you from the cybersecurity focused RSA Conference in San Francisco. Although we have two days left, we’ve already attended a lot of sessions and seen a lot of presentations you’ll want to know about. Next week we’ll do a full break down, including our key takeaways, for you. For now, here are a few links to articles summarizing interesting points made during the first couple days.

SolarWinds, a leading provider of powerful and affordable IT management software, recently released the results of their 2013 SolarWinds Security and Compliance Survey. Over 160 IT professionals were polled and their answers revealed fears about the present and future, on both cybersecurity and the influx of new technology.