J. Michael Daniel, Obama's cybersecurity czar, to head industry nonprofit

J. Michael Daniel, the career federal official who served as White House cybersecurity coordinator under President Barack Obama, will helm a nonprofit alliance founded by cybersecurity giants to better share information about cybercrime and other threats.

J. Michael Daniel, the career federal official who served as White House cybersecurity coordinator under President Barack Obama, will helm a nonprofit alliance founded by cybersecurity giants to better share information about cybercrime and other threats.

The Cyber Threat Alliance announced the appointment in a press release Tuesday. The group also announced that it was incorporating as a nonprofit corporation with Daniel as president and a board of directors comprised of its six founding companies, Check Point, Cisco, Fortinet, Intel Security, Palo Alto Networks and Symantec.

“I am very excited to have this opportunity,” Daniel told CyberScoop via email. “I think CTA has the potential to really move the needle on improving our defenses.”

He said the group’s top priority was “to facilitate a higher degree of automated information sharing between cybersecurity firms that will enable better defense against all malicious actors.”

Daniel, a 17-year career veteran of the Office of Management and Budget, stepped into the politically appointed White House post in 2012, succeeding Howard Schmidt. In the job, he coordinated the development of national and international cybersecurity strategy and policy for the U.S. government. He left Jan. 20, along with a slew of other senior cybersecurity officials across the government.

In its announcement, the alliance outlined its aims and objectives:  “to share threat information in order to improve defenses against cyber adversaries across member organizations and protect customers; to advance the cybersecurity of critical IT infrastructures; and to increase the security, availability, integrity and efficiency of information systems.”

The alliance, first founded in 2014, said it’s first project in its new format was the development of an automated threat intelligence-sharing platform.

In addition to adding Check Point and Cisco as founding members, the alliance announced three new affiliate members: IntSights, Rapid7 and RSA. They join existing affiliates Eleven Paths and ReversingLabs.

Government

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• 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

• 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