CISA

Senator puts hold on Trump’s nominee for CISA director, citing telco security ‘cover up’

Security /

Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden has put a hold on the Trump administration’s nomination of Sean Plankey to head the federal government’s top cybersecurity agency, citing a “multi-year cover up” of security flaws at U.S. telecommunication companies. Wyden said in remarks, seen by TechCrunch and confirmed by the senator’s spokesperson, that he will block the nomination […]

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CISA scrambles to contact fired employees after court rules layoffs ‘unlawful’

Security /

The U.S. government’s cybersecurity agency is scrambling to contact more than 130 former employees after a federal court ruled that the Trump administration must reinstate workers it “unlawfully” fired. U.S. District Judge James Bredar last week ordered the Trump administration to reinstate employees laid off across a number of U.S. government agencies, including the Department

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DOGE axes CISA ‘red team’ staffers amid ongoing federal cuts

Security /

Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has fired more than a hundred employees working for the U.S. government’s cybersecurity agency CISA, including “red team” staffers, two people affected by the layoffs told TechCrunch.  The people, who asked not to be named, said affected employees were axed immediately when their network access was revoked with

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Trump nominates Sean Plankey as new CISA director 

Security /

President Donald Trump nominated Sean Plankey to head the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), according to a White House email sent to journalists on Tuesday. Plankey has several years of experience working for the U.S. government. In 2013, Plankey gave cybersecurity support to U.S. forces deployed in Afghanistan, then worked at U.S. Cyber Command,

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CISA election security officials placed on leave: report

Security /

The U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) has reportedly placed several members of its election security team on administrative leave. The Associated Press, citing a person familiar with the situation, reports that 17 CISA employees have been placed on leave pending review.  The employees had worked with election officials to counter a range of

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CISA says ‘no indication’ of wider government hack beyond Treasury

Security /

U.S. cybersecurity agency CISA said in a brief statement Monday that there is “no indication” that any other U.S. federal agency was hacked during a recent cyberattack at the U.S. Treasury Department in December. The Treasury confirmed the breach on December 30, attributing the intrusion to China government-backed hackers, telling senior U.S. lawmakers in a

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CISA director Jen Easterly to depart agency on January 20

Security /

Jen Easterly, the director of the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), will depart the government agency after more than three years at the helm. Both Easterly and the agency’s deputy director Nitin Natarajan will depart CISA on January 20 as the new Trump administration begins, according to NextGov, which first reported the departures,

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US confirms China-backed hackers breached telecom providers to steal wiretap data

Security /

The U.S. government has confirmed that hackers with links to China breached multiple U.S. telecommunication service providers to access the wiretap systems used by law enforcement to surveil Americans. In a joint statement published on Monday, CISA and the FBI said they had uncovered “a broad and significant” cyber espionage campaign that saw PRC-affiliated actors

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