Cyber scorecard leverages rivalry at DOJ agencies

The competition between the dozen-plus components was "good natured and healthy."

The Department of Justice uses a cybersecurity scorecard issued at every one of its monthly CIO council meetings to stoke a friendly rivalry between component agencies, a senior official said Tuesday.

“We all look very closely at the scores, because it’s reported to the council with everyone right there,” Karl Mathias, the CIO and assistant director of the U.S. Marshals Service, told a breakout session at VMWare’s Public Sector Innovation Summit, presented by FedScoop.

“I have standing instructions to my CISO,” he added, “I want to see [the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms] in my rearview mirror  on that card. We beat them every time.”

Mathias credited Justice Department CIO Joe Klimavicz with the idea.

Asked about the basis for the scores, Mathias declined to go into detail, but said basic hygiene measures and patching were included.

He told CyberScoop the competition between the dozen-plus components was “good natured and healthy.”

He noted that it was sometimes hard to make the case for “shiny new IT toys” in a constrained budget environment.

“It’s a tough argument to make for that spending, when you have someone asking for guns and tactical vests,” he told a packed session.

Data, like that from the scorecard, and a solid risk-based foundation could help, he said. “You have to do    that risk assessment … and shift resources accordingly.”

“These are tough decisions to take in any organization,” he said.

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

• 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

• Jail time for Maine child in 764 marks turning point in federal law enforcement

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

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