DHS dominates government infosec awards

Workforce issues were highlighted as the Department of Homeland Security the winners' list Wednesday night at the U.S. Government Information Security Leadership Awards ceremony.

Workforce issues were prominent as the Department of Homeland Security dominated the winners’ list Wednesday night at the 14th annual U.S. Government Information Security Leadership Awards ceremony.

The awards, dished out by the International Information System Security Certification Consortium, or (ISC)², went to a slew of up-and-comers and veterans alike from the cybersecurity field in three U.S. agencies — but DHS dominated, with its staff or former staff winning four of six government slots.

The awards ceremony and similar events “strengthen the foundation of our profession and reinforce the significance of our role in the big picture of national security. In a profession fraught with challenges, it is important for cyber professionals to take time to renew their confidence in the fact that they are driving positive change for the cyber workforce,” Dan Waddell, head of U.S. government affairs for (ISC)², told CyberScoop. The awards come as federal agencies continue to entertain ideas about how to recruit and retain cybersecurity talent.

The sole nongovernmental award — “Most Valuable Industry Partner” — went to Parham Eftekhari and James Scott for their work in founding the first-ever cybersecurity think tank, the Institute for Critical Infrastructure Technology.

DHS staff won in the community awareness category, where Hemant Baidwan won for his team’s role on the department’s internal collaboration forum, the Information Security Training Working Group; in the “Up-and-Coming Information Security Professional” category, which honored Michael Rocha for his work on DHS’ free penetration-testing service for industry, the National Cybersecurity Assessments and Technical Services or NCATS program; and in the process or policy improvement category, taken by Matt Shabat, DHS director of performance management, for his work on a  cybersecurity incident database for the insurance industry.

Former DHS official Greg Touhill, who most recently held the job of federal CISO in the Obama White House, was also honored with the F. Lynn McNulty Tribute Award for his lifetime service.

The other two awardees were from the Army — Daniel Holmes, a senior IT ops engineer, who won in the technology improvement category for his work on U.S. Army microwave line-of-sight cyber operations — and the Department for Veterans’ Affairs — Barbara Smith, information security director for the Pacific District, won in the workforce improvement category for her development of a two-year training program for the VA’s Information Security Officers.

The awards were bestowed by a panel of judges from (ISC)²’s government advisory council.

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

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