Articles

Cyber LEAP Act aims for innovations through Cybersecurity Grand…

lead centered=”no”New bill seeks to set up competitions across the US to spur security breakthroughs./lead

The Senate Commerce Committee approved last week what could prove to be an essential piece of legislation for cybersecurity researchers: The Cybersecurity Competitions to Yield Better Efforts to Research the Latest Exceptionally Advanced Problems, or Cyber LEAP Act of 2020. Sponsored by Commerce Committee Chairman Roger Wicker (R-MS) and Senators Cory Gardner (R-CO) and Jacky Rosen (D-NV), the bill establishes a national series of Cybersecurity Grand Challenges so that the country can “achieve high-priority breakthroughs in cybersecurity by 2028.”

The challenges set up under the legislation will offer prizes, including cash and non-cash prizes, to competition winners, although the prizes aren’t yet spelled out. The legislation directs the secretary of commerce to set up the competitions in six key areas:

Economics of a cyber attack, focused on building more resilient systems while raising the costs for adversaries
Cyber training, to give Americans digital security literacy and boost the skills of the cyber workforce
Emerging technology, to advance cybersecurity knowledge in emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence
Reimagining digital identity, aimed at protecting the digital identities of US internet users
Federal agency resilience, to reduce cybersecurity risks to federal networks and improve the federal response to cyberattacks
Other challenges as determined by the secretary of commerce

This article appeared in CSO Online. To read the rest of the article please visit here.

Articles

Executive order boots “foreign adversaries” from US electric grid…

lead centered=”no”White House action implies that China is “creating and exploiting” vulnerabilities in the US power grid. Experts say hardware backdoors have the potential for doing significant damage./lead

On May 1, the Trump Administration issued an Executive Order on Securing the United States Bulk-Power System. According to the order, the administration found that “foreign adversaries are increasingly creating and exploiting vulnerabilities in the United States bulk-power system, which provides the electricity that supports our national defense, vital emergency services, critical infrastructure, economy, and way of life.”

The executive order (EO), which also encompasses “malicious cyber activities,” determines “that the unrestricted foreign supply of bulk-power system electric equipment constitutes an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security, foreign policy, and economy of the United States.” It declares “a national emergency with respect to the threat to the United States bulk-power system” and prohibits the purchase or installation of specific equipment from foreign adversaries.

The prohibition applies to only a specified list of electrical equipment that poses an undue risk of sabotage or subversion of the equipment’s design, or poses a national emergency with respect to the threat to the United States bulk-power system or otherwise poses an unacceptable risk to the national security of the US or the security and safety of US persons. The order requires the energy secretary to work with other agencies “to identify bulk-power system electric equipment that poses the types of risks associated with prohibited transactions” and to adopt rules and regulations to implement the order within 150 days.

This article appeared in CSO Online. To read the rest of the article please visit here.