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Background for this topic.
Government encompasses public institutions and the systems used to administer services, enforce laws, manage public funds, and protect classified or otherwise sensitive information. Its distinctive assets include identity and benefits records, tax and health data, diplomatic material, election infrastructure, and operational technology supporting utilities or emergency services. Availability and integrity can be as important as confidentiality: outages or altered records may disrupt essential services, public safety, or legal processes.
Security therefore spans citizen-facing portals, internal networks, remote access, contractors, and shared infrastructure, including systems that depend on legacy technology or tightly connected suppliers. Espionage, credential compromise, exploitation of unpatched vulnerabilities, and disruptive attacks are material risks, though exposure varies by agency and system. Useful controls include strong identity management, network segmentation, encryption, privacy safeguards, prioritized vulnerability management, tested backups, and rehearsed incident response. Procurement rules, records obligations, and sector-specific compliance also shape how agencies collect, retain, share, and investigate data.
Fancy Bear can't keep its claws out of Outlook inboxes The UK government is warning that Russia's APT28 (also known as Fancy Bear or Forest Blizzard) has been deploying previously unknown malware to harvest Microsoft email credentials and steal access to compromised accounts.…
Keep It Simple, Stupid Interview Scattered Spider and Iranian government-backed cyber units have more in common than a recent uptick in hacking activity, according to Ariel Parnes, a former colonel in the Israeli Defense Forces' cyber unit 8200.…
New Working Group Launched After 2 Failed Attempts to Resolve AI Training ImpasseThe U.K. government on Wednesday began its latest round of talks between creative owners and the artificial intelligence sector to work out a potential deal on the use of copyrighted content to train AI models. The discussions follow two previous failed attempts.
Multiple US Government Agencies Have Used the Now-Patched Message Archiving AppAttackers are actively attempting to exploit a vulnerability that exists in older versions of the Signal message app clone TeleMessage TM SGNL, built by Smarsh to keep copies of all communications, including the ability to comply with federal record-keeping requirements.
The Chinese state-sponsored hacking group known as Salt Typhoon breached and remained undetected in a U.S. Army National Guard network for nine months in 2024, stealing network configuration files and administrator credentials that could be used to compromise other government networks. [...]
Agency to Collaborate with External Experts on Vulnerability ResearchThe U.K. NCSC will collaborate with industry experts for vulnerability detection and mitigation as part of its latest Vulnerability Research Initiative. The announcement comes on the heels of funding concerns for the U.S. government-based Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures program.
Escalating Geopolitical Tensions Could Increase Hacks by 2030, Government WarnsFrance has identified Russia as the primary threat to national security in the coming years. The French government recommends adopting measures to strengthen its cybersecurity defenses in anticipation of increased hacks from Moscow-aligned attackers driven by geopolitical tensions.
Marko Elez, a 25-year-old employee at Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), has been granted access to sensitive databases at the U.S. Social Security Administration, the Treasury and Justice departments, and the Department of Homeland Security. So it should fill all Americans with a deep sense of confidence to learn that Mr. Elez over the weekend inadvertently published a private key that allowed anyone to interact directly with more than four dozen large language models (LLMs) developed by Musk's artificial intelligence company xAI.
Experts Warn Federal Cyber Cuts Are Hindering Public-Private Threat Sharing EffortsThe White House has continued to sharply reduce the size of cybersecurity teams across the federal government while cutting information technology budgets and funding for key programs. Experts warn public-private information sharing around critical cyberthreats has slowed.
Neil Smith has been trying to get the railroad industry to listen since 2012, but it took a CISA warning to get there When independent security researcher Neil Smith reported a vulnerability in a comms standard used by trains to the US government in 2012, he most likely didn't expect it would take until 2025 to sort the matter out, but here we are. …
Despite loathing the USA, Iran wants providers who match NIST’s definition of cloud computing The Information Technology Organization of Iran (ITOI), the government body that develops and implements IT services for the country, is looking for suppliers of cloud computing.…