The United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is the U.S. federal executive department responsible for public security,roughly comparable to the interior or home ministries of other countries. Its stated missions involve anti-terrorism,border security,immigration and customs,cyber security,and disaster prevention and management.
Jeff Moss,also known as Dark Tangent,is an American hacker,computer and internet security expert who founded the Black Hat and DEF CON computer security conferences.
The EINSTEIN System is a network intrusion detection and prevention system that monitors the networks of US federal government departments and agencies. The system is developed and managed by the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency in the United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS).
SolarWinds Corporation is an American company that develops software for businesses to help manage their networks,systems,and information technology infrastructure. It is headquartered in Austin,Texas,with sales and product development offices in a number of locations in the United States and several other countries. The company was publicly traded from May 2009 until the end of 2015,and again from October 2018. It has also acquired a number of other companies,some of which it still operates under their original names,including Pingdom,Papertrail,and Loggly. It had about 300,000 customers as of December 2020,including nearly all Fortune 500 companies and numerous agencies of the US federal government.
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 Cybersecurity Alliance (NCA),is an American nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization which promotes cyber security awareness and education. The NCA works with various stakeholders across government,industry,and civil society,promoting partnerships between the federal government and technology corporations. NCA's primary federal partner is the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency within the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
Cozy Bear,classified by the United States federal government as advanced persistent threat APT29,is a Russian hacker group believed to be associated with one or more intelligence agencies of Russia. The Dutch General Intelligence and Security Service (AIVD) deduced from security camera footage that it is led by the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR),a view shared by the United States. Cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike also previously suggested that it may be associated with either the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) or SVR. The group has been given various nicknames by other cybersecurity firms,including CozyCar,CozyDuke,Dark Halo,The Dukes,Midnight Blizzard,NOBELIUM,Office Monkeys,StellarParticle,UNC2452,and YTTRIUM.
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.
Alex Stamos is an 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 a component of the United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) responsible for 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.
The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency Act of 2018 was signed by president Donald Trump on November 16,2018,to establish the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency under the Department of Homeland Security. The act was introduced into the United States House of Representatives by Michael McCaul (R-TX-10) on July 24,2017. It received committee consideration from the House Homeland Security,House Energy and Commerce,House Oversight and Government Return,and House Transportation and Infrastructure,though it was discharged by the Committee on Energy and Commerce,the Committee on Government Oversight and Return,and the Committee on Transportation. It passed the House of Representatives on December 11,2017,via vocal vote,passed the Senate on October 3,2018,by unanimous consent,and agreed upon by the House again on November 13,2018.
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). Travis served as Deputy Under Secretary for the National Protection and Programs Directorate (NPPD) before the agency became CISA on November 16,2018.
Russian interference in the 2020 United States elections was a matter of concern at the highest level of national security within the United States government,in addition to the computer and social media industries. In 2020,the RAND Corporation was one of the first to release research describing Russia's playbook for interfering in U.S. elections,developed machine-learning tools to detect the interference,and tested strategies to counter Russian interference. In February and August 2020,United States Intelligence Community (USIC) experts warned members of Congress that Russia was interfering in the 2020 presidential election in then-President Donald Trump's favor. USIC analysis released by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (DNI) in March 2021 found that proxies of Russian intelligence promoted and laundered misleading or unsubstantiated narratives about Joe Biden "to US media organizations,US officials,and prominent US individuals,including some close to former President Trump and his administration." The New York Times reported in May 2021 that federal investigators in Brooklyn began a criminal investigation late in the Trump administration into possible efforts by several current and former Ukrainian officials to spread unsubstantiated allegations about corruption by Joe Biden,including whether they had used Trump personal attorney Rudy Giuliani as a channel.
Jack Cable is an American computer security researcher and software developer. He is best known for his participation in bug bounty programs,including placing first in the U.S. Department of Defense's Hack the Air Force challenge. Cable began working for the Pentagon's Defense Digital Service in the summer of 2018.
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.
Brandon D. Wales is an American national security official who served as the acting director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency. Wales assumed office after President Donald Trump fired Chris Krebs,and previously served as first executive director of the agency.
In 2020,a major cyberattack suspected to have been committed by a group backed by the Russian government penetrated thousands of organizations globally including multiple parts of the United States federal government,leading to a series of data breaches. The cyberattack and data breach were reported to be among the worst cyber-espionage incidents ever suffered by the U.S.,due to the sensitivity and high profile of the targets and the long duration in which the hackers had access. Within days of its discovery,at least 200 organizations around the world had been reported to be affected by the attack,and some of these may also have suffered data breaches. Affected organizations worldwide included NATO,the U.K. government,the European Parliament,Microsoft and others.
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.
The Disinformation Governance Board (DGB) was an advisory board of the United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS),announced on April 27,2022. The board's stated function was to protect national security by disseminating guidance to DHS agencies on combating misinformation,malinformation,and disinformation that threatens the security of the homeland. Specific problem areas mentioned by the DHS included false information propagated by human smugglers encouraging migrants to surge to the Mexico–United States border,as well as Russian-state disinformation on election interference and the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine.
