Tag Archive for: order

Accenture Federal Services Lands $112M CISA Task Order For FCEB Cybersecurity Support; Aaron Faulkner Quoted

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Accenture Federal Services Lands $112M CISA Task Order For FCEB Cybersecurity Support; Aaron Faulkner Quoted

Aaron Faulkner Accenture Federal Services

Accenture Federal Services (AFS) announced on Friday that the company secured a potential, five-year $112 million prime task order by the Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) to protect the Federal Civilian Executive Branch (FCEB) systems against cyberattacks.

The contract requires AFS to provide advanced cyber services for CISA to help FCEB agencies mitigate the effects of cyberattacks that include ransomware, botnets and malware campaigns while increasing real-time visibility into cyber threats.

“Now, more than ever, it is crucial for our nation to move from a ‘detect and respond’ to a ‘predict and prevent’ model for dealing with cyberattacks. Our solution delivers a whole-of-government view of the threats we face as a nation. Accenture Federal Services is excited to build upon our track record of delivering highly complex cyber solutions at scale,” commented Aaron Faulkner, AFS managing director and cybersecurity Practice Lead

Cloudflare, as a team member on the CISA Task Order, will partner with AFS to strengthen federal government systems by blocking phishing and malware attacks before they occur and containing breaches that occur on devices, such as laptops and cell phones.

“Cyberattacks are becoming much more sophisticated. As a result of several recent newsworthy breaches, we are all now much more aware of the impact cyber threats can have on our daily lives. We’re proud to partner with AFS in helping to build a more secure and resilient infrastructure for our nation,” stated Matthew Prince, Cloudflare co-founder & CEO. 

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Biden Revokes and Replaces Trump Order That Banned TikTok

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TikTok’s woes subsided with Mr. Trump’s election defeat. Though the company is still under scrutiny with the Biden administration’s new executive order, analysts say the dramatic ups and downs for the company will significantly dwindle.

James Lewis, a senior vice president of the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said the Biden administration had shown no easing of the government’s strong stance against China. But the new order lays out much more precise criteria for weighing risks posed by TikTok and other companies owned by foreign adversaries like China.

“They are taking the same direction as the Trump administration but in some ways tougher, in a more orderly fashion and implemented in a good way,” Mr. Lewis said. He added that Mr. Biden’s order was stronger than the Trump-era directive because “it’s coherent, not random.”

Under the new system outlined in Mr. Biden’s order, Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo would be empowered to “use a criteria-based decision framework and rigorous, evidence-based analysis” to examine software applications designed, manufactured or developed by a “foreign adversary,” including China, according to a memo circulated by Commerce Department officials and obtained by The New York Times.

“The Biden administration is committed to promoting an open, interoperable, reliable and secure internet,” the memo said. “Certain countries,” including China, “do not share these democratic values.”

On Wednesday, administration officials would not go into specifics about the future of TikTok’s availability to American users or say whether the U.S. government would seek to compel ByteDance, which owns the app, to transfer American user data to a company based in the United States. Amid a number of successful legal challenges waged by ByteDance, a deal to transfer the data to Oracle fell through this year shortly after Mr. Biden took office.

Administration officials said a review of TikTok by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, the body that considers the national security implications of foreign investments in U.S. companies, was still continuing and separate…

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Joe Biden signs executive order to beef up federal cyber defenses following pipeline hack

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RICHMOND, Va. — President Joe Biden signed an executive order Wednesday meant to strengthen U.S. cybersecurity defenses in response to a series of headline-grabbing hacking incidents that highlight how vulnerable the country’s public and private sectors are to high-tech spies and criminals operating from half a world away.

The order will require all federal agencies to use basic cybersecurity measures, like multi-factor authentication, and require new security standards for software makers that contract with the federal government.

Officials are hoping to leverage the federal government’s massive spending power to make widely used software safer for the private sector as well.

“The federal government needs to make bold changes and significant investments in order to defend the vital institutions that underpin the American way of life,” Biden said in his executive order.

His actions come as the administration has been grappling with its response to a massive breach by Russia of federal agencies and ransomware attacks on private corporations.

Biden’s executive order was announced shortly after the nation’s largest fuel pipeline restarted operations Wednesday, days after it was forced to shut down by a gang of hackers. The disruption of Colonial Pipeline caused long lines at gas stations in the Southeast.

And the U.S. sanctioned the Kremlin last month for a hack of several federal government agencies, known as the SolarWinds breach, that officials have linked to a Russian intelligence unit and characterized as an intelligence-gathering operation. The AP previously reported that Russian hackers gained access to an email account belonging to the Trump administration’s acting homeland security secretary, Chad Wolf.

“The United States is simply not prepared to fend off state-sponsored or even criminal hackers intent on compromising our systems for profit or espionage,” Sen. Mark Warner, the Virginia Democrat who leads the Senate Intelligence Committee, said in a statement.

Warner praised the executive order but said Congress needs to do more to address the country’s vulnerabilities in cyberspace.

The order also creates a pilot program to develop a rating system, similar to how New York City…

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Manipur govt committed to control law and order along NHs : CM

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Manipur Chief Minister N BirenSingh on Friday told the House that the government iscommitted to control the law and order situation, includingincidents of tax collection by unidentified persons along thenational highways.

In a clarification to the calling attentionmotion by opposition MLA Khumukcham Joykishan Singh on thereported collection of taxes by anti-social elements on NH 37in the state, the chief minister said the government hasalready discussed the deployment of mobile security teamswhich can cover five to ten km along the national highways.

Commando and security teams will be stationed atvulnerable areas as well, he said.

Biren Singh said on the intervening night of January31 and February 1 a cement-laden truck was pushed down a gorgenear Nungba area along the Imphal-Jiribam highway byunidentified persons out to collect taxes illegally from truckowners and drivers.

An FIR was lodged in connection with the incidentand search is on to apprehend the culprits.

”The government condemns such anti-social elements inthe strongest term since drivers, particularly those plying onhighways are rendering their services for each one of us bybringing in essential commodities into the state,” the chiefminister added.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

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