Articles about Government

Following uncertainty around who was responsible for the compromise of the Democratic National Committee’s (DNC) servers in the US -- which was first blamed on the Russian Government and then claimed by an individual named Guccifer 2.0 -- Fidelis Cybersecurity was approached by personnel handling the investigation for the DNC to undertake an independent investigation in order to provide its perspective on the intrusion.

As part of this investigation, Fidelis analyzed the same malware and data (including file names, file sizes and IP addresses) that were used in the DNC incident. Here are the main findings.

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When Amazon initially announced that it wanted to make deliveries by drone, the world became very curious. The media jumped on the story, of course, driving people to get both excited and anxious about the possibilities.

Like many things, however, the USA government bureaucracy stifled our drone delivery dreams, somewhat. While I am all for safety and testing, I hate to see progress move at a snail's pace. The UK Government seems a bit more open to the unmanned delivery idea, as it is now working with Amazon to begin testing these drones in the nation as a delivery method.

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The US government could save $5.8 billion in technology cost, and at the same time modernize and improve the efficiency of its systems. This is according to the Information Services Group, a technology insights, market intelligence and advisory services company.

Today, at the headquarters of the General Services Administration, it released a report, together with the Commission on IT Cost, Opportunity, Strategy and Transparency (IT COST).

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The hacktivist collective Anonymous has launched a new operation which is designed to fight back against police brutality in the United States.

Inspired by recent events, which have seen innocent civilians murdered by police officers, and police officers murdered in retaliation, #OpBlackFlare is Anonymous’s intriguing -- and peaceful -- response to the situation.

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Autonomous driving is an exciting prospect, but it’s not without its problems and ethical dilemmas. Recently, two Teslas were involved in accidents (two separate incidents), and in one of them the driver was killed.

Such exciting technology also begs the question: who’s to blame when two autonomous vehicles collide, and what happens if someone gets killed in the process? The UK, which has stated on multiple occasions that it wants to be the global leader in autonomous vehicles, is tackling the issue from the insurance perspective.

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Federal government IT professionals are overconfident in their ability to detect insider threats, endpoint security firm Tripwire has found. Analyzing the confidence of IT experts regarding their efficiency in seven key security controls, it polled 763 professionals from various industries.

Almost a third say they would not be able to detect every time a non-privileged user attempted to access files. Almost three quarters (73 percent) assume their system would generate an alert or email within hours if a user inappropriately accessed file shares.

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Starting October 1, all government digital services (GDS) websites will be required to use HTTPS encryption, according to new security guidelines.

All services will additionally have to publish a domain-based message authentication, reporting & conformance (DMARC) policy that will be applicable to their email systems.

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As the UK awoke this morning -- at least those parts of it that hadn't been glued to the poll results through the early hours -- to find that it had voted to leave the European Union, there was plenty of reaction.

While the pound fell and the stockmarket shuddered, technology companies have been quick to add their take on the news.

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In an effort to find more security flaws in its defense systems, the US Department of Defense (DoD) has decided to expand its Hack the Pentagon program to include more of its systems and networks.

The program pays hackers to find and report the vulnerabilities in exchange for payment from the US government. So far the program has proven to be quite effective with the the first bug in the DoD’s systems and networks being discovered a mere 13 minutes after its launch.

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Even though the TalkTalk hack happened last October, it’s still sending ripples through the cyber-security world. The Department for Culture, Media and Sport has given a number of recommendations, following the breach.

Among the recommendations is the idea of fining companies that fail on cyber-security, as well as the idea of linking the CEO’s pay to effective cyber-security.

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The EU's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) intended to strengthen data protection is due to come into force in May 2018, yet new research from content management company Metalogix shows IT professionals in many countries aren't prepared for it.

Among the top IT considerations for a cloud archiving solution, GDPR readiness ranked only fourth, named by 26 percent, behind security (79 percent), administrative control (50 percent), and service level agreements (44 percent).

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GovInsider recently did an interview with Ben Terrett, the former head of design at the UK Government Digital Service (GDS), about the GDS’s success in the digital realm. The two discussed mobile apps, why websites are better, and what needed to be done in order to have a successful digital project.

Terrett said the problem with mobile apps is that they are a huge undertaking -- not only is it expensive to make an app (or multiple apps, or an app ecosystem) but also to support it and update it following various software changes.

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The UK government is exploring the potential use of blockchain technology to aid it in dealing with the managing and distribution of grants.

This technology first gained notoriety through its use in the bitcoin currency. Now many governments and financial institutions are interested in using blockchain as a decentralized ledger which can be verified and shared by a network of computers. It can also be used to store data and can keep track of how assets are exchanged.

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Tensions could be set to mount between the US and China after the Communist government's Global Times newspaper praised Su Bin, the Chinese "government soldier" who pled guilty to trying to steal military secrets from US defense contractors.

Despite the Chinese government having previously said that it does not support cybercrime or online espionage, the state newspaper used an editorial to say "Su Bin deserves respect whether guilty or innocent". The hack was designed to gather data about, amongst other things, the F-22 and F-35 fighter jets and C-17 military transport aircraft.

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According to new research 90 percent of IT security leaders in US federal agencies say they feel vulnerable to data threats.

In addition 61 percent have experienced a past data breach, with nearly one in five indicating a breach in the last year. This is among the findings of the US Federal Government Edition of the 2016 Vormetric Data Threat Report from enterprise data protection company Vormetric and 451 Research.

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