Journalist based in Johannesburg. Previously: @washingtonpost @politico @nextgov DM for Signal etc. Perennial English major. Iowa born. He/him.
Nov 9, 2021 • 6 tweets • 1 min read
Fun fact: The $1 billion cyber grant program for state and local govs in the infrastructure bill specifically bars using any of the grant money to pay a ransom to hackers.
Also, the apportionment of the funds are crazy complex.
1% to each state; 0.25% to American Samoa and other territories totaling 1 percent, 3 percent to tribal governments. That's 54%.
Nov 8, 2021 • 5 tweets • 2 min read
AG Garland is closing his announcement re. the REvil indictments and clawing back $6 million in ransomware proceeds by calling for legislation to mandate that companies report ransomware attacks to government. He wants DOJ in the loop on those alerts.
Monaco makes a similar call to businesses: “This case is the reason you want to work with law enforcement. Know that if you pick up the phone and you call the FBI this team is waiting for you on the other end of the line.”
Dec 16, 2020 • 17 tweets • 5 min read
“While elections are sometimes messy this was a secure election, off that I have no doubt,” @C_C_Krebs says at #HSGAC hearing on the 2020 contest, which has otherwise mostly been a rehash of debunked fraud claims.
Some of the clearest details yet from Krebs re. CISA's rumor control page. Says his staff was approached by the administration about some entries but he was never approached directly. He told staff any requests needed to come directly to him.
Dec 15, 2020 • 10 tweets • 4 min read
Trump took the nation in the wrong direction on cybersecurity, experts say. Today's Cybersecurity 202 w/ @TonyaJoRileywashingtonpost.com/politics/2020/…
“Much of the work done … [during the Trump administration] was weakened by a president who didn’t prioritize cyber-issues and who, in many cases, actively undercut any actions or messaging against our adversaries,” said @C_Painter
Nov 18, 2020 • 8 tweets • 3 min read
And it's official. This comes after a week of rumors Trump would fire @CISAKrebs -- essentially for not backing the president's baseless claims of election fraud. He's scheduled to speak publicly at two events tomorrow. We'll see how that goes.
FWIW, Krebs has made several statements affirming the election was free of significant cyberattacks and fraud. Here's the most recent - after rumors of his imminent sacking were already swirling.
2. It was aimed at a few dozen cyber and election security policy folks whose tweets I sometimes embed and who I also speak w/ frequently. Most of them have told me to f*** off in the comments (I hope/ think also humorously).
Jun 15, 2020 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
.@RonWyden exercising the nuclear (rhetoric) option in a new Medium post. "If Congress and states don’t act immediately, our country could face an electoral Chernobyl this fall." medium.com/@RonWyden/figh…
Here's the closer: "If Americans see a repeat of what happened in Georgia across the country, many will rightfully question whether the results — and by extension, the government itself — are truly legitimate."
Feb 24, 2020 • 9 tweets • 10 min read
Americans should not be confident about security of the 2020 election, our experts panel says. Today's Cybersecurity 202 w/ @TonyaJoRiley: washingtonpost.com/news/powerpost…@TonyaJoRiley “There are no signs that any part of our institutions are capable of providing an election that is reasonably secure from tampering and manipulation,” -- @daveaitel
Mar 23, 2018 • 10 tweets • 1 min read
Just in: Treasury Sanctions Iranian Cyber Actors for Malicious Cyber-Enabled Activities Targeting Hundreds of Universities:
Cyber sanctions vs. one Iranian entity and 10 Iranian nationals.
