Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency Archives

Hackers’ Confab Shows Vulnerabilities in Election Machines Amid Testing Concerns Ahead of November

August 16, 2024 Just the News

Hackers at a conference last weekend found numerous vulnerabilities in election machines while the U.S. Election Assistance Commission (EAC) confirmed that current voting systems to be used in the November election have not been tested by third parties for vulnerabilities.

While many vulnerabilities were found in election machines at the conference, Georgia is set to use outdated election machines for the November presidential election, and the EAC doesn’t have a standard testing process in place to search out vulnerabilities in election equipment.

Gaetz Demands DHS Hand Over Docs on Big Tech Ties, Alleged Censorship of Trump Assassination Attempt Info

July 31, 2024 Admin

Republican Rep. Matt Gaetz demanded Wednesday that Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas provide any key documents that could shed light on his agency’s ties to Big Tech and alleged efforts to censor online information surrounding the assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump.

Harris Promoted Paper Ballots Before 2020 Election, but Democrats Now Push Back on Election Integrity

July 24, 2024 Just the News

Vice President Kamala Harris promoted using paper ballots for elections the last time she was a presidential candidate, but since then, Democrats and the Biden administration have largely pushed back against election integrity laws that Republicans have promoted.

Five years ago, Harris was part of a bipartisan effort to encourage the use of paper ballots. However, since the 2020 presidential election, Democrats have called Republicans “election deniers” for promoting such election integrity measures, and the Biden administration is focusing on suing states with election integrity laws.

Crowdstrike: Global Tech Outage Not a Cyberattack

July 19, 2024 The Center Square

Cybersecurity firm Crowdstrike said Friday a major technology outage is not a cyberattack but is due to a defect in a single content update.

Commentary: Deepfakes, Disinformation, Social Engineering, and Artificial Intelligence in the 2024 Election

May 27, 2024 Virginia Star Staff

Artificial intelligence (AI) and its integration within various sectors is moving at a speed that couldn’t have been imagined just a few years ago. As a result, the United States now stands on the brink of a new era of cybersecurity challenges. With AI technologies becoming increasingly sophisticated, the potential for their exploitation by malicious actors grows exponentially.

Because of this evolving threat, government agencies like the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), alongside private sector entities, must urgently work to harden America’s defenses to account for any soft spots that may be exploited. Failure to do so could have dire consequences on a multitude of levels, especially as we approach the upcoming U.S. presidential election, which is likely to be the first to contend with the profound implications of AI-driven cyber warfare.

DHS Warned of Integrity of Mail-In Voting in 2020 Election but at the Same Time Censored Questions

January 24, 2024 Just the News

The Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) was aware of the issues with mail-in voting during the 2020 election cycle but censored social media narratives about the risks as alleged disinformation, according to agency documents.

CISA documents were released on Monday by America First Legal, showing the agency’s concerns about mail-in voting while it was also monitoring online opinions about such concerns.

Commentary: Government Cannot Become Big Brother

December 14, 2023 RealClearWire

Anyone who lived through 2020 observed that some messages received treatment online that stood in stark contrast to other messages. Conservative voices and messages were censored and banned, while progressive voices and messages flowed freely. If a person spoke against COVID-19 lockdowns—and later vaccines—there was a good chance that a social media platform would take down the post. If one were to suggest that suspicious activities occurred surrounding the 2020 election, the label “misinformation” might appear.

The primary vehicle to censor internet speech is to label disfavored messages as dis-, mis-, or mal-information. While the category of malinformation is seemingly the most offensive – true information that government censors believe lacks sufficient “context” – the other categories can be just as malignant. Mis- and disinformation require someone to determine what is true and what is not.

Homeland Agency Expanded Authority to Wage ‘Domestic Surveillance and Censorship,’ House Report Says

June 28, 2023 Just the News

Secret documents obtained by the House Judiciary Committee show that a Department of Homeland Security agency “expanded its mission to surveil Americans’ speech on social media, colluded with Big Tech and government-funded third parties to censor by proxy, and tried to hide its plainly unconstitutional activities from the public,” according to an interim staff report released Monday night.

Commentary: Congress Authorized DHS and CISA’s ‘Disinformation Governance Board’ Activities in 2018

May 3, 2022May 2, 2022 Virginia Star Staff

In 2018, Congress unanimously passed legislation, H.R. 3359, that authorizes the Secretary of Homeland Security and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) to disseminate information to the private sector including Big Tech social media companies in a bid to combat disinformation by potential foreign and domestic terrorists.

According to the agency’s website, CISA says it “rout[es] disinformation concerns” to “appropriate social media platforms”: “The [Mis, Dis, Malinformation] MDM team serves as a switchboard for routing disinformation concerns to appropriate social media platforms and law enforcement.”

FBI Looking into Fake Emails Sent from Real FBI Account

November 16, 2021November 15, 2021 Virginia Star Staff

The FBI is currently investigating an incident where fake emails were sent out from an official FBI email account to over 100,000 inboxes, as reported by Breitbart.

In a press release, the FBI said that “the FBI and the CISA [Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency] are aware of the incident [Saturday] morning involving fake emails from an @ic.fbi.gov email account.”

Virginia U.S. Rep Spanberger Co-Introduces Bill to Designate Systemically Important Critical Infrastructure

October 11, 2021October 10, 2021 Eric Burk

Representatives Abigail Spanberger (D-VA-07), John Katko (R-NY-24), and Andrew Garbarino (R-NY-02) co-introduced a bill directing the designation of systemically important critical infrastructure.

“Earlier this year, Central Virginia families and businesses felt the serious impacts of the cyberattack on the Colonial Pipeline. In our communities, we saw how critical infrastructure — such as the Colonial Pipeline — plays a fundamental role in our daily lives and in the day-to-day success of our regional economy,” Spanberger said in a Thursday press release.

Virginia Congresswoman Luria Cosponsors Pipeline Security Act

May 22, 2021May 21, 2021 Eric Burk

Congresswoman Elaine Luria (D-Virginia-02) is cosponsoring the Pipeline Security Act, which requires the Travel Security Administration (TSA) to update its pipeline security policies, develop a staffing strategy for the Pipeline Security Section, and improve congressional oversight. On Tuesday, the bill reported out of the House Homeland Security Committee.

“Cybersecurity is a dangerous and emerging threat, and the recent attack on the Colonial Pipeline proves we need to do more to protect our vital infrastructure,” Luria said.

Industry Officials: Deregulation Helps Freight Industry Thrive Without Federal Bailout

May 25, 2020 Virginia Star Staff

After $3 trillion in federal stimulus money went to individuals, corporations, hospitals and numerous industries, the Class 1 freight industry has maintained its transportation operations and provided critical resources nationwide without asking for, or receiving, federal taxpayer money.

Other industries and lawmakers can look to how the freight industry has weathered the economic downturn and coronavirus restrictions without receiving any federal bailout money, analysts note.

“The freight rail industry is one of the most cost-effective and efficient transportation networks in the world,” the American Railroads Association (ARA) argues. “Fueled by billions of dollars in annual private investment – $25 billion on average – railroads maintain and modernize the nation’s nearly 140,000-mile private rail network to deliver for America.”