CIA CIO: Amazon Web Services is key to developing secure apps

The CIA’s capability to quickly develop, test and share secure code has been driven forward in recent years by the adoption of scalable cloud infrastructure, CIA Chief Information Officer John Edwards said Tuesday during a panel discussion at FedTalks 2016.

Two of the U.S. government’s top chief information officers are finding broad security value from an expansion of their cloud services sold by the private sector.

The CIA’s capability to quickly develop, test and share secure code has been driven forward in recent years by the adoption of scalable cloud infrastructure, CIA Chief Information Officer John Edwards said Tuesday during a panel discussion at FedTalks 2016.

Looming budget constraints and the need to deploy scalable software resources in the face of quickly evolving cyberattacks has now become “mission essential,” said Homeland Security Department chief information officer Luke McCormack.

“We are building in a fraction of the time and a fraction of the cost with cloud computing,” he added. 

@GerryConnolly w @awscloud Stephen Schmidt, @cia John Edwards @dhsgov CIO Luke McCormack @fedscoop #FedTalks pic.twitter.com/o2eFDhlDA7

 — Wyatt Kash (@WyattKash) October 18, 2016

DHS, McCormack explained, will look to “aggressively” continue its development and adoption of a hybrid cloud environment in the coming year —fusing native systems with commercial, FedRAMP certified cloud solutions.

In time, the migration to cloud storage is expected to decrease DHS’s reliance on in-house data centers. This shift is also augmented by a growth in effective security technology layered over those same vendor-built cloud systems, said Edwards, who specifically referenced Amazon Web Services’ increased ability to meet the agency’s high bar for defenses.

Within the 17 agencies we are sharing best practices. John Edwards, CIO @CIA #FEDTalks pic.twitter.com/7SDTHg718l

— AWS Gov (@AWS_Gov) October 18, 2016

Given the inevitable, upcoming presidential transition, however, Congressman Gerry Connolly, D-Va., said he worries that progress made on larger government IT modernization efforts will stall out.  The IT Modernization Fund — which passed the House last month and is now headed to the Senate for a vote during Congress’ lame duck session — is among a laundry list of bills floating between the lower and upper chambers but whose passage remains unknown.

“Moving forward, much of what we’re facing is a management challenge,” Connolly said.

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Government

• FBI officials say AI is bolstering adversaries, emphasizing need to focus on cyber basics, patching

• Feds accuse China of ‘systematic’ distillation of U.S. AI models

• CIA’s Michael Ellis says cyber intelligence is changing how the agency operates

• The G7 tells industry to hurry up and prep for post-quantum encryption

Technology

• European parliament members call for slowdown of Serbia’s EU entry over spyware use

• FCC proposes public scorecard to rate telecoms on anti-robocall efforts

• Pegasus, NoviSpy variant spyware found on devices of Serbian activists

• Wyden seeks upgraded NSA security guidance on commercial VPN use

Threats

• Chinese espionage groups swarm to exploit triple-link chain of zero-days

• Microsoft discloses two actively exploited zero-days among 974 vulnerabilities

• Russian national extradited to US for alleged involvement in bank-account takeover scheme

• Attackers exploit zero-days in consistently besieged SonicWall product

Policy

• Whistleblower says USPS deploying new, ‘untested’ IT systems governing mail-in ballots

• Former sexual abuse victims say Grok used their images, videos to train deepfake capabilities

• Cyber threats nudge Trump to sign executive order on foreign equipment in U.S. energy infrastructure

• Election official says Tina Peters would be consultant, won’t have access to election systems