At a glance.
- OMB's guidance on logging.
- Public-private partnership, post-White-House-Summit.
- President Putin's foreign intelligence service.
Post-Holiday Bear, OMB herds Federal agencies towards logging maturity.
In line with the Biden Administrations’ May cybersecurity Executive Order, the US Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Friday directed Federal agencies to audit their logging practices within sixty days and meet basic logging standards within one year, Nextgov reports. The deadline given for “intermediate maturity” was eighteen months, and “advanced maturity,” two years. More advanced logging practices include data encryption inspection and behavioral analytics. Agencies were also told to share logs with third parties like the FBI and Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency. “Recent events, including the SolarWinds incident, underscore the importance of increased government visibility before, during, and after a cybersecurity incident,” OMB’s memo reads.
Comment on public-private partnership, after last week’s White House summit.
Last week’s cybersecurity meeting at the White House served to engage stakeholders, build goodwill, promote accountability, muster resources, and raise the profile of cyber issues, according to The Hill. Future get-togethers should bring crypto and telecom leaders to the table, participants said, with IBM VP Chris Padilla remarking, “A lot of the CEOs said they didn’t want this to be a one-time deal.”
Bloomberg wonders if the new warmth between Government and industry, following a years-long chill brought on by Snowden’s exposé, should alarm onlookers. Noting the ongoing Justice Department and Federal Trade Commission investigations into Google, Apple, Microsoft, and Amazon, the piece concludes that President Biden may find a willing partner in Big Tech for security and visibility efforts.
Code.org CEO Hadi Partovi’s comments to GeekWire that “going from the White House to the Rose Garden to the East Room with the President, it’s a very special, unique thing” give a sense of industry’s impression of the gathering. Partovi left with renewed hope about the country’s ability to work together to face down the continuous onslaught of cyber threats. He proposed a one-day national event where everyone from students and families to employees and Government officials takes time to refresh their cyber hygiene.
President Putin’s foreign intelligence service.
The Daily Beast’s account of the FSB’s Department of Operative Information (DOI), previously the Operational Information Coordination Directorate (UKOI), details the body’s internal corruption and international influence operations. UKOI was established, the author says, out of President Putin’s ‘paranoia’ over Western influence and desire to extinguish unrest in neighboring regions.