The United States Computer Emergency Readiness Team (US-CERT) is an organization within the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA). Specifically, US-CERT is a branch of the Office of Cybersecurity and Communications' (CS&C) National Cybersecurity and Communications Integration Center (NCCIC).
The National Cyber Security Division (NCSD) is a division of the Office of Cyber Security & Communications, within the United States Department of Homeland Security's Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency. Formed from the Critical Infrastructure Assurance Office, the National Infrastructure Protection Center, the Federal Computer Incident Response Center, and the National Communications System, NCSD opened on June 6, 2003. The NCSD mission is to collaborate with the private sector, government, military, and intelligence stakeholders to conduct risk assessments and mitigate vulnerabilities and threats to information technology assets and activities affecting the operation of the civilian government and private sector critical cyber infrastructures. NCSD also provides cyber threat and vulnerability analysis, early warning, and incident response assistance for public and private sector constituents. NCSD carries out the majority of DHS’ responsibilities under the Comprehensive National Cybersecurity Initiative. The FY 2011 budget request for NCSD is $378.744 million and includes 342 federal positions. The current director of the NCSD is John Streufert, former chief information security officer (CISO) for the United States Department of State, who assumed the position in January 2012.
Phil Reitinger was the Deputy Under Secretary of the National Protection and Programs Directorate (NPPD) and Director of the National Cybersecurity Center (NCSC) at the United States Department of Homeland Security from 2009 to 2011. During that time, Reitinger led the department's integrated efforts to reduce risks across physical and cyber infrastructures and helping secure federal networks and systems by collecting, analyzing, integrating and sharing information among interagency partners.
The Director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency is a high level civilian official in the United States Department of Homeland Security. The Director, as head of Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency at DHS, is the principal staff assistant and adviser to both the Secretary of Homeland Security and the Deputy Secretary of Homeland Security for all DHS programs designed to reduce the nation's risk to terrorism and natural disasters. The Director is appointed from civilian life by the President with the consent of the Senate to serve at the pleasure of the President.
The National Cyber Security Alliance (NCA), is a 501(c)(3) USA non-profit organization founded in 2001, promoting cyber security, privacy, education, and awareness. The NCA works with various stakeholders in the government, industry and civil society. The NCA promotes partnerships between the federal government and corporations operating in technology. NCA's primary federal partner is the Cyber security and Infrastructure Security Agency within the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
The Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act is a United States federal law designed to "improve cybersecurity in the United States through enhanced sharing of information about cybersecurity threats, and for other purposes". The law allows the sharing of Internet traffic information between the U.S. government and technology and manufacturing companies. The bill was introduced in the U.S. Senate on July 10, 2014, and passed in the Senate October 27, 2015. Opponents question CISA's value, believing it will move responsibility from private businesses to the government, thereby increasing vulnerability of personal private information, as well as dispersing personal private information across seven government agencies, including the NSA and local police.
Kevin Kealoha McAleenan is an American attorney and government official who unlawfully served as the acting United States secretary of homeland security from April to November 2019.
The Center for Internet Security (CIS) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, formed in October, 2000. Its mission is to make the connected world a safer place by developing, validating, and promoting timely best practice solutions that help people, businesses, and governments protect themselves against pervasive cyber threats. The organization is headquartered in East Greenbush, New York, with members including large corporations, government agencies, and academic institutions.
The National Cybersecurity and Communications Integration Center (NCCIC) is part of the Cybersecurity Division of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, an agency of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. It acts to coordinate various aspects of the U.S. federal government's cybersecurity and cyberattack mitigation efforts through cooperation with civilian agencies, infrastructure operators, state and local governments, and international partners.
Kiersten Todt is the Chief of Staff of the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA). She previously served as the managing director of the Cyber Readiness Institute as well as a resident scholar at the University of Pittsburgh in Washington, DC with the Institute for Cyber Law, Policy, and Security and was appointed for this position on June 1, 2017. Before taking this position, she worked under Barack Obama in the national cybersecurity commission. She was the president and partner with Liberty Group Ventures, LLC. She has been a partner with Good Harbor Consulting. She was cognizant of the organization's North America crisis management practice.
Alex Stamos is a Greek American computer scientist and adjunct professor at Stanford University's Center for International Security and Cooperation. He is the former chief security officer (CSO) at Facebook. His planned departure from the company, following disagreement with other executives about how to address the Russian government's use of its platform to spread disinformation during the 2016 U.S. presidential election, was reported in March 2018.
The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) is an agency of the United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) that is responsible for strengthening cybersecurity and infrastructure protection across all levels of government, coordinating cybersecurity programs with U.S. states, and improving the government's cybersecurity protections against private and nation-state hackers. Its activities are a continuation of the National Protection and Programs Directorate (NPPD), and was established on November 16, 2018, when President Donald Trump signed into law the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency Act of 2018.
The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency Act of 2018 was signed by president Donald Trump on November 16, 2018 to create the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency under the Department of Homeland Security.
Jacob H. Braun is an American politician, cyber and national security expert. He was appointed by President Joseph Biden as the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary's Senior Advisor to the Management Directorate. Braun is also a lecturer at the University of Chicago’s Harris School of Public Policy Studies where he teaches courses on cyber policy and election security. He previously served as the Executive Director for the University of Chicago Harris Cyber Policy Initiative (CPI).
Matthew Travis is a businessman and former American government official. He served as the Deputy Director for the Department of Homeland Security's Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA). Mr. Travis served as Deputy Under Secretary for the National Protection and Programs Directorate (NPPD) before the agency became CISA on November 16, 2018.
Christopher Cox Krebs is an American attorney who served as Director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency in the United States Department of Homeland Security from November 2018 until November 17, 2020 when President Donald Trump fired Krebs for contradicting Trump's claims of election fraud in the 2020 presidential election.
Beginning in 2019, multiple appointments of acting officials in the United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) were questioned, on the basis of whether the appointments were legal under the Federal Vacancies Reform Act of 1998 and the Homeland Security Act of 2002. After the departure of Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen in April 2019, the Trump Administration did not formally nominate a new secretary to be confirmed by the Senate, relying on acting postings.
Jen Easterly is an American intelligence and former military official who is serving as the director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency in the Biden administration. She was confirmed by a voice vote in the Senate on July 12, 2021.
National Initiative for Cybersecurity Careers and Studies (NICCS) is an online training initiative and portal built as per the National Initiative for Cybersecurity Education framework. This is a federal cybersecurity training subcomponent, operated and maintained by Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency.
Operational collaboration is a cyber resilience framework that leverages public-private partnerships to reduce the risk of cyber threats and the impact of cyberattacks on United States cyberspace. This operational collaboration framework for cyber is similar to the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA)'s National Preparedness System which is used to coordinate responses to natural disasters, terrorism, chemical and biological events in the physical world.
