Today’s business environment continues to be a challenge. Businesses whether small, or large leverage third-party vendors to provide critical services like data handling (security, transmitting, and storage), cloud storage/applications, and systems security monitoring.

Each business must ask themselves a few simple questions about one of their most valuable assets “Data”. If or when it leaves your secure working environment:

• How secure is your customer data in transit and storage?
• Do your third-party vendors handle your “critical information”?
  • Provide a secure environment for processing?
  • Comply with a proven Cyber Security Framework?
  • Perform a “Due Diligence” on-boarding step for the Nth vendors (how many vendors handles your specific data) in your cyber supply chain?
  • Follow security agreements and service level agreements catered to information security?
  • Ensure data privacy is an important element of their InfoSec Program?

Bipartisan legislation was introduced in the House last week to boost U.S. supply chains and foster domestic manufacturing of “critical goods” by creating a Supply Chain Resiliency and Crisis Response Office in the Department of Commerce.

The Building Resilient Supply Chains Act was introduced by Rep. Tom Malinowski, D-N.J., along with Reps. Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill., and Lisa Blunt Rochester, D-Del.— members of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce.

In addition to creating the supply chain office within Commerce, the bill would authorize $45 billion for the office to create grants and loans that support the “expansion of domestic manufacturing of critical goods and services, industrial equipment, and manufacturing technology.

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The head of the U.S. cybersecurity enforcement agency “is a huge supporter” of bipartisan legislation to mandate that operators of critical infrastructure report data breaches to the government.

Jen Easterly, director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, said she backs draft legislation from the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee to require certain private companies, federal agencies and government contractors to report cyberattacks to the agency.

The proposed legislation is partly in response to a surge of major cyberattacks that targeted government agencies and critical industries, including Colonial Pipeline Co. and meat producer JBS SA. The hacks increased pressure on the Biden administration to bolster U.S. cyber defenses and fueled calls for federal legislation to require companies to share incidents with the federal government to assist in response and recovery. 

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WASHINGTON – The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), and National Security Agency (NSA) published a cybersecurity advisory today regarding increased Conti ransomware cyberattacks. The advisory includes technical details on the threat and mitigation steps that public and private sector organizations can take to reduce their risk to this ransomware.

CISA and the FBI have observed over 400 attacks using Conti ransomware against U.S. and international organizations to steal files, encrypt servers and workstations, and demand a ransom payment to return stolen sensitive data. While Conti is considered a ransomware-as-a-service (RaaS) model ransomware variant, there is variation in its structure that differentiates it from a typical affiliate model. It is likely that Conti developers pay the deployers of the ransomware a wage rather than a percentage of the proceeds from a successful attack..

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At this point, the maddeningly unpredictable Delta variant has changed the expected course of the coronavirus pandemic so much that it can be hard to know exactly what you’re waiting for, or if you should continue waiting at all. Is something like before-times normalcy still coming, or will Americans have to negotiate a permanently changed reality? Will we recognize that new normal when it gets here, or will it be clear only in hindsight? And how long will it be before you can buy a new couch and have it delivered in a timely manner?

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WASHINGTON: The US government issued a joint advisory Thursday warning of the ongoing “active exploitation” of a “critical” vulnerability in a popular password management solution, which “poses a serious risk to critical infrastructure companies, US-cleared defense contractors, academic institutions, and other entities that use the software.”

A Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) official told Breaking Defense after this report’s original publication, “As exploitation of this product can lead to full identity compromise, CISA is taking this vulnerability very seriously and requests information from any organizations that may have been impacted.”

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Sen. Gary Peters, D-Mich., chairman of the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, said on Sept. 15 that the United States’ supply chains are not resilient, and strengthening those supply chains is going to be critical for U.S. competitiveness going forward.

During a Politico event on Sept. 15, Sen. Peters described how the shortage of semiconductor chips and the overreliance on foreign manufacturers for critical supplies poses a huge concern for the United States.

“Although we have highly efficient supply chains, they are not resilient, and they’re not resilient to disruptions,” Sen. Peters said during the event. “We’ve got to create more resilience in our supply chains and particularly critical equipment, whether it’s medical supplies or as was mentioned, chips, which are basically in all of our products.”

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The House Energy and Commerce Committee was still in the process late Monday of marking up its portion of the $3.5 trillion budget reconciliation bill working its way through the House, but at our deadline was making a big splash with $10 billion of proposed funding for supply chain security.

The E&C committee’s portion of the legislation features billions of proposed spending for supply chains, distance learning, and more.

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The purpose of this study is to investigate how artificial intelligence (AI), as well as machine learning (ML) techniques, are being applied and implemented within supply chains (SC) and to develop future research directions from thereof.

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WASHINGTON: The Defense Department has created a new task force dedicated to addressing ongoing challenges with its supply chain visibility and resiliency, including ways to mitigate risk.

Gregory Kausner, who is currently handling the duties of under secretary of defense for acquisition and sustainment, stood up the Supply Chain Resiliency Working Group on Aug. 30, the Pentagon said last week.

“A comprehensive strategic approach will take time, dedicated attention, and resources,” Kausner said in a Department release announcing the task force. “Effective implementation begins with understanding our vulnerabilities and the necessary responses, so we can focus our efforts to build greater resiliency across critical supply chains.”

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