The SEC and infosec. GAO and its look at emerging technology. How CISA will spend its COVID-19 recovery appropriations windfall.

At a glance.

• SEC's focus on information security.
• GAO's growing tech team.
• How CISA will spend its American Rescue Plan windfall.

What the Securities and Exchange Commission will be looking for this year. 

The US Security and Exchange Commission’s 2021 Examination Priorities include a focus on information security and operational resiliency. JD Supra recommends organizations review their Incident Response Plan, with an eye to phishing and ransomware campaign mitigations, Information Security Policy, paying special attention to authentication procedures, Vendor Management Policy, and training programs. 

The US Government Accountability Office’s growing emerging tech team. 

Federal News Network reports that Government Accountability Office (GAO) Comptroller Gene Dodaro is prioritizing emerging technology cases and hoping to double the Office’s Science, Technology Assessment, and Analytics (STAA) ranks from 2019 numbers. Dodaro explained that the STAA team works to describe new technologies’ function, developmental stage, advantages, pitfalls, and policy significance.  

The group has studied the interplay between AI and 5G technologies and policing and medical professions, for example, and is building a framework to assess AI algorithms for bias. GAO is requesting an $83 million budget increase this year, but a Congressional appropriations representative told the office to temper expectations.   

How CISA plans to spend $650 million.

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) intends to spend its American Rescue Plan windfall on four projects, according to Federal News Network: 

1. Federal agency “detection sensors”
2. Threat and risk intel processing improvements
3. Threat hunting and incident response program enhancements
4. Zero trust upgrades to “defensive network architecture”

CISA Executive Assistant Director for Cybersecurity Eric Goldstein said the Agency hopes to implement a “proactive” threat hunting model that uses “advanced analytical techniques.” CISA is still hammering out the details of how it will audit partners’ networks—whether by implanting detectors, combing through self-compiled data, or some combination of techniques.  

EINSTEIN’s “17-year-old approach” is also in for an overhaul. Goldstein said “CISA is urgently moving our detection capabilities from that perimeter layer into agency networks to focus on those end points, servers and workstations where we are seeing adversary activity today.”