Trump's new plan: A 'cyber review team' to improve federal IT

The republican presidential nominee put forth a plan that has many similarities to policies already in place for guarding against cyberattacks inside federal agencies.

Cybersecurity technologies, processes and those responsible for protecting federal agencies from hackers will be under constant review during a Donald Trump administration, the republican presidential candidate proposed Monday during a Retired American Warriors PAC event.

“There are ways of doing this through modern technology, but we are not using that, and, frankly, our technology is not up to date,” Trump said at the event in Herndon, Va.

Trump’s proposed “cyber review team” would be comprised by both civilian and military cybersecurity experts. The primary responsibilities of this polymorphic, independent group would include conducting security audits on agencies, providing training toemployees and investigating attacks aimed at federal properties, he explained.

Spurred by the massive data breaches at the Office of Personnel Management, federal agencies’ digital security has gained new attention over the last several years.

An investigative report released last month by members of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform noted that the OPM breach came as a result of failed agency leadership and consistent cybersecurity ignorance.

“The government of the United States of America has never before been more vulnerable to cyberattacks,” the 241-page oversight report noted, citing the use of aging information technology systems employed by federal agencies and a nondescript lack of comprehensive security measures across government.

To begin, the proposed cyber review group would first focus on assessing “the most sensitive systems,” the nominee said. It remains unclear, however, how and who would qualify any given federal database as the “most sensitive.”

There are at least three other existing federal organizations, today, that provide either similar or related oversight services to those promised by Trump’s cyber review team — this includes the Government Accountability Office, Office of Management and Budget and CIO Council. Last week, for example, following a more than year long review, GAO published a comprehensive audit report along with detailed recommendations for the Food and Drug Administration to follow so that the agency can improve its cyber defenses.

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

• ‘Watershed 250’ test program in Texas looks to private sector for water cybersecurity help

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

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