National Security Risks of Late-Stage Capitalism

Early in 2020, cyberspace attackers apparently working for the Russian government compromised a piece of widely used network management software made by a company called SolarWinds. The hack gave the attackers access to the computer networks of some 18,000 of SolarWinds’s customers, including US...

The Effect of NIST 800-171A on Government Contractors

NIST 800-171A introduces a standardized opportunity to perform a more structured and granular level of assessment leveraging the National Institute of Standards and Technology NIST Special Publication SP 800-171 framework...

DFARS 7012 Compliance

At Coalfire, we field a lot of questions from government contractors about compliance with National Institute of Science and Technology NIST Special Publication SP 800-171. We also address requests for help with "DFARS 7012," which is a commonly used shorthand for Defense Acquisition Regulation...

NIST SP 800-171: What U.S. Government Contractors Need to Know

In December 2016, NIST released Special Publication 800-171, Revision 1: Protecting Controlled Unclassified Information in Nonfederal Systems. Since that publication, I have worked with dozens of government contractors to help them understand this publication and determine if and how it applies t...

Shortage of Skilled People Could Hamper Military's Offensive Security Capabilities

MIAMI BEACH–The U.S. military has been attempting to build up the offensive cybersecurity capabilities in its various services for several years now, but is running into the same obstacles and challenges that private sector firms in the same space are: a shortage of skilled workers and not enough...

DoD Program Expanded, Designed to Share Threat Information

The Pentagon on Friday invited a slew of government contractors to meet and share classified information on cyber threats going forward, part of an initiative that the department hopes will reduce the risk of intrusions to government systems. The information sharing model that the Department of...

Federal CIO Criticizes Gov't Contractors, Urges Consolidation of Data Centers

Federal Chief Information Officer Vivek Kundra warned of “an IT cartel” of vendors in a discussion with President Barack Obama and his scientific advisors on Friday, according to a report from Network World. During a talk with the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology PCAST,...

E-Mails Hacked By Anonymous Hackers Raise Concerns !

Late last year, activists attacked websites belonging to companies that refused to do business with WikiLeaks, an online group that has disclosed classified U.S. government documents. When the activists, who called themselves Anonymous, found out they were being investigated by the Internet...