Page 10 - FCW, March 30, 2016
P. 10

Trending
55% of federal IT workers surveyed by SolarWinds said the replacement of legacy software has
reduced their cybersecurity risks
DHS official: Einstein key to data-driven cyber defense
CRITICAL READ
WHAT: “The GroundTruth about Encryption and the Consequences of Extraordinary Access,” a white paper from the Chertoff Group.
WHY: The Chertoff Group sides with Apple in a dispute with the FBI over whether to provide law enforcement agencies with spe- cial software to bypass security features in the iPhone. Apple executives have argued that developing software to unlock the phone of one of the San Ber- nardino, Calif., shooters would unleash a technological “cancer” that could affect tens of millions of customers.
The Chertoff Group said it could not find evidence of a successful terrorist attack that would have been stopped by law enforcement’s use of decryption technologies, and social media has been a more effective inves- tigative tool than breaking into smartphones.
Furthermore, mandating exceptional access threatens to hobble or outright damage inno- vation in the U.S. encryption and security technology markets, the Chertoff Group concluded.The paper also notes several cases in which damaging, long-term intrusions were perpetrated with the use of pilfered encryption keys.
VERBATIM: “In the absence of any decisive demonstra- tion of need, our instinct is to permit the market of ideas and technological develop- ment to function without governmental interference.”
FULL REPORT:
is.gd/FCW_Chertoff
Even if the Office of Personnel Man- agement had had the latest version of the Department of Homeland Security’s multibillion-dollar Einstein firewall in place last year, it still would not have prevented the massive hack of OPM that compromised the data of some 22 million Americans. Phyllis Schneck, deputy undersecretary for cybersecu- rity and communications at DHS, read- ily admits this.
Nonetheless, she said the intrusion- detection and prevention system for civilian agencies should be viewed as a foundation for a more sophisticated, data-driven cyber defense.
She added that in the coming months, officials will pair Einstein 3A, the latest version of the firewall, with cyber intelligence to more quick- ly detect and thwart hackers like the OPM intruders.
DHS is also testing a “reputation scoring” system by using cyberthreat information from the intelligence com- munity and the private sector to come up with a “credit score” for a cyber adversary, Schneck said.
Einstein came under fire in the after- math of the OPM breach last summer, especially after it was revealed that hackers had access to OPM networks
for 10 months before their malware signatures were plugged into Einstein. At the time of the breach, OPM had deployed the first and second versions of Einstein, according to DHS. Those systems provide only threat detec- tion and not blocking. OPM has since
deployed Einstein 3A.
A recent GAO report found that
Einstein provides a “limited ability to detect potentially malicious activ- ity entering and exiting computer networks at federal agencies.” More- over, the program “does not monitor several types of network traffic, and its ‘signatures’ do not address threats that exploit many common security vulnerabilities and thus may be less effective.”
Schneck described the report as well intentioned but based on out-of- date information. Any suggestion that Einstein wouldn’t pass muster in the private sector is misguided, she added.
She defended the system by saying that Einstein picks up some threats a commercial firewall might miss and vice versa. “One system, one set of eyes watching the entire set of civil- ian agencies is invaluable,” Schneck said.
— Sean Lyngaas
GSA Great Lakes
@GSAGreatLakes
We cleaned up at 2016 Federal Computer Week Fed 100 Awards — http://1.usa.gov/1WTsFSQ @FCWnow
Reply Retweet Favorite
9:11 AM - 1 Mar 2016
Join the conversation
FCW usesTwitter to break news, field questions and ask our own.
Learn more atTwitter.com/FCWnow.
10 March 30, 2016
FCW.COM


































































































   8   9   10   11   12