NIST Cyber Framework for Federal Agencies Coming Soon

From: NextGov

By Joseph Marks

The government’s cyber standards agency is nearing completion on a document that will help federal agencies integrate a cybersecurity framework developed for industry with government’s own particular cybersecurity requirements, an official said Wednesday.

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The document, known as NIST Interagency Report 8170, has gone through seven internal versions over roughly the last year, Barrett said.

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Litigation is not the way to improve cyber security, corporate defense attorney says

From: Northern California Record

by Ann Maher

MENLO PARK – Embedded technology that collects and shares information from all kinds of everyday items may be improving quality of life, but the accompanying liability risks have legal experts predicting that the Internet of Things (IoT) will be the next litigation target for the plaintiffs’ bar.

With policy making and the courts lagging behind a rapidly evolving industry, should the direction of cyber-related regulation be driven by financially incentivized lawyers?

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What’s Wrong With America’s Current Approach to Cybersecurity?

From: Pacific Standard

Cybersecurity has transformed what is actually a people problem with a technology component into its exact opposite.

By Gregory Michaelidis

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Until we embrace a vision of public cybersecurity that sees people, at all ranges of skill, as essential to our collective security, there will be no widespread cybersecurity. We assume consumers aren’t willing to pay for or care about security, and so instead of thinking systemically about how to change that, we double down on technological solutions. This, however, invites a lot more self-inflicted pain, with real consequences for both our social and economic health, and our homeland and national security as well.

Bipartisan Letter Calls for OMB Update on Federal Contractor Cybersecurity Guidance

From: MeriTalk

By:

Reps. Robin Kelly, D-Ill., Will Hurd, R-Texas, and Gerry Connolly, D-Va., sent a letter to Office of Management and Budget Director Mick Mulvaney on Tuesday requesting that OMB provide the Oversight and Government Reform Committee with an update on any cybersecurity guidance for Federal contractors.

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“Given the critical need for implementing strengthened cybersecurity protections in the Federal acquisition process and the current lack of clear guidance for agencies on this topic, we request that you provide the committee with an update to any such guidance under development,” the Congress members wrote. “Further, if there is no specific guidance under development at this time, we ask that you provide a strategy or plan for developing guidance for agencies to improve and update cybersecurity requirements for Federal acquisition.”

Contractors need clarity on handling federal data, says IT Alliance

From: Federal Times

Discrepancies and deficiencies in the way various rules designate and govern covered defense information and controlled unclassified information can impact how contractors protect confidential government information.

In a white paper prepared by associate member Rogers Joseph O’Donnell, the IT Alliance for Public Sector looked at the scope, implementation, compliance tools and inconsistencies of regulatory constructs and requirements to safeguard federal data and information.

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