Tag Archive for: Administration

Biden-Harris Administration Launches New Efforts to Strengthen America’s K-12 Schools’ Cybersecurity


Biden-Harris Administration is announcing new actions and private commitments to bolster the nation’s cyber defense at schools and protect hard-working American families

Administration leaders, school administrators, educators, and education technology providers will convene at the White House to discuss how to strengthen the nation’s schools’ cybersecurity amidst growing ransomware attacks

The United States has experienced an increase in cyberattacks that have targeted the nation’s schools in recent years.  In the 2022-23 academic year alone, at least eight K-12 school districts throughout the country were impacted by significant cyberattacks – four of which left schools having to cancel classes or close completely.  Not only have these attacks disrupted school operations, but they also have impacted students, their families, teachers, and administrators.  Sensitive personal information – including, student grades, medical records, documented home issues, behavioral information, and financial information – of students and employees were stolen and publicly disclosed. Additionally, sensitive information about school security systems was leaked online as a result of these attacks. Today, Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona and Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas, joined First Lady Jill Biden, to convene school administrators, educators and private sector companies to discuss best practices and new resources available to strengthen our schools’ cybersecurity, protect American families and schools, and prevent cyberattacks from disrupting our classrooms.

According to a 2022 U.S. Government Accountability Office report, the loss of learning following a cyberattack ranged from three days to three weeks, and recovery time can take anywhere from two to nine months.  Further, the monetary losses to school districts following a cyber incident ranged from $50,000 to $1 million. That is why the Biden-Harris Administration has had a relentless focus on securing our nation’s critical infrastructure since day one, and continues to work tirelessly to provide resources that enable the U.S.’s more than 13,000 school districts to better protect…

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Biden administration takes credit for warning hundreds of targets before ransomware attacks


The federal government’s leading domestic cyber agency said Wednesday it has warned hundreds of entities about looming ransomware attacks before they occurred, which enabled people to prevent getting victimized.

Ransomware gangs have ripped through American computer networks during President Biden’s tenure, particularly affecting critical infrastructure targets including healthcare, gas pipelines and government systems.

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency is in the early stages of implementing new programs to warn people about cyberattacks inside networks and vulnerabilities in devices that are likely to be exploited.



CISA executive director Brandon Wales said Wednesday that his agency has leveraged relationships with cybersecurity companies to gather the information it uses to alert people that they are in hackers’ crosshairs before a cyberattack starts.

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Hackers Reportedly Gain Access to Drug Enforcement Administration Data Portal


It’s thought hackers have managed to compromise a data portal run by the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), unlocking access to a wealth of information.

As cybersecurity journalist Brian Krebs reports, the breach would have allowed the attackers to prowl through 16 federal law enforcement databases covering a wide variety of investigative data. How did this happen? A failure to implement multi-factor authentication seems to be a key cause.

Krebs wrote that he’s learned “the alleged compromise is tied to a cybercrime and online harassment community that routinely impersonates police and government officials to harvest personal information on their targets.”

He said a tip for this story came from an unnamed administrator at Doxbin—“a highly toxic online community that provides a forum for digging up personal information on people and posting it publicly.” Krebs further noted that this unauthorized access could be abused to upload fake data about suspects, citing commentary from Nicholas Weaver, a researcher at the University of California at Berkeley’s International Computer Science Institute.

False tips have often been used to initiate “swatting” attacks, in which hoax reports about crimes in progress lead to police swarming a residence with heavily armed SWAT teams. The target–or a random bystander–can wind up dead in the process. 

Unfortunately, Krebs has personal experience with that scenario. In 2013, Fairfax County, Va., police showed up at his door, guns drawn after getting a phony tip that Russians had broken in and shot his wife. The perpetrator was caught after participating in an online forum clandestinely run by the FBI, and subsequently got sentenced in 2016.

The login page for the DEA’s El Paso Intelligence Center (yes, EPIC) invites users to log in with a government-issued Personal Identity Verification card, but also allows traditional username and password access. The source Krebs spoke to told him that “the hacker who obtained this illicit access was able to log in using the stolen credentials alone, and that at no time did the portal prompt for a second authentication factor.”

That would be a serious security risk for a webmail…

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Biden administration warns quantum computing is poised to break cryptographic security


The Biden administration is warning that advances in quantum computing will soon shatter cryptographic security, making more digital communications vulnerable to hackers worldwide.

Supercomputers’ improving ability to solve complex mathematical problems will undo the effectiveness of the tools and processes used to stymie hackers, according to the administration.  

The government’s solution to the looming vulnerability is to develop new rules, make plans for lengthy and costly updates, and to lean on the private sector and academia for help.

“Current research shows that at some point in the not-too-distant future, when quantum information science matures and quantum computers are able to reach a sufficient size and level of sophistication, they will be capable of breaking much of the cryptography that currently secures our digital communications,” a senior Biden administration official told reporters. “The good news is that this is not an insurmountable problem.”

President Biden is issuing a…

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