Aug. 4, 2020

Pioneering Codebreaker Elizebeth Friedman Honored by U.S. Coast Guard

FORT MEADE, Md. — Elizebeth Friedman, an original member of the NSA/CSS Cryptologic Hall of Honor and known as one of America’s first female cryptanalysts, is being honored by the U.S. Coast Guard. The Coast Guard last week announced the 11th ship in its new Legend-Class National Security Cutter (NSC) program will be named in honor of Ms. Friedman, who worked with the Coast Guard during prohibition and became a crucial part of the effort to enforce the ban on liquor.

Aug. 4, 2020

How Mobile Device Users Can Limit Their Location Data Exposure

FORT MEADE, Md. — The National Security Agency released a Limiting Location Data Exposure Cybersecurity Information Sheet (CSI) today to guide National Security System (NSS) and Department of Defense (DoD) mobile device users on how they might reduce risk associated with sharing sensitive location data. The guide summarizes how and why mobile devices expose location data and explains potential risk that comes with using them. It provides mitigations to limit the sharing of this information, but warns there is no solution to fully mitigate a mobile device from being located.

July 30, 2020

NSA releases Cybersecurity Advisory on GRUB2 BootHole Vulnerability

FT. MEADE, Md. — The National Security Agency released a Cybersecurity Advisory (CSA) Thursday on a vulnerability (CVE-2020-10713) known as BootHole that poses a risk to a majority of Linux distributions and systems running on Windows 8 or later versions. That includes those on National Security Systems, Department of Defense (DoD) systems, as well as the Defense Industrial Base (DIB).

July 23, 2020

Protect Operational Technologies and Control Systems against Cyber Attacks

FT. MEADE, Md. — Cyber actors have demonstrated their willingness to conduct cyber-attacks against critical infrastructure by exploiting Internet-accessible Operational Technology (OT) assets. Due to the increase in adversary capabilities and activities, the criticality to U.S. national security and way of life, and the vulnerability of OT systems, civilian infrastructure makes attractive targets for foreign powers attempting to harm to US interests or retaliate for perceived US aggressive.

July 16, 2020

NSA Teams with NCSC, CSE, DHS CISA to Expose Russian Intelligence Services Targeting COVID-19 Researchers

FT. MEADE, Md. — In response to Russian Intelligence Services targeting COVID-19 research and vaccine development in the United States, United Kingdom and Canada, the National Security Agency, National Cyber Security Center,  Communications Security Establishment  and the Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency released a joint cybersecurity advisory to expose the malicious activity by the group publicly known as “APT29,” “CozyBear” or “The Dukes.”

July 2, 2020

University of North Georgia Recognized for Crushing Codebreaker Success

FORT MEADE, Md. — Desmond Henderson, a senior cyber security major at the University of North Georgia (UNG), thought the National Security Agency’s Codebreaker Challenge (CBC) would be just like many of the other Capture the Flag hacking events he’d participated in over the years, but he was wrong.

June 29, 2020

DHS S&T and NSA Test Automated Security Vetting for Mobile Apps

WASHINGTON — Ensuring the security of mobile application (app) software for use within the federal government no longer needs to be time consuming or expensive. Under a joint pilot program, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Science and Technology Directorate (S&T) and National Information Assurance Partnership (NIAP) within the National Security Agency (NSA) cybersecurity mission have demonstrated that the process can be automated.

June 17, 2020

50 Years of Pride: Celebrating NSA's Committment to Promoting Respect, Individuality, Diversity, and Equality

FT. MEADE, Md. — June 2020 marks the 50th Anniversary of Pride Month celebrations, where members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer/questioning, intersex, aromantic/asexual (LGBTQIA+) community, plus numerous other identities on the spectrum, come together to celebrate each other and raise awareness of issues facing the collective Pride Community.

June 9, 2020

“Cyber 9-Line” improves cybersecurity and enables election integrity

FORT MEADE, Md. — The “Cyber 9-Line” is a template of questions that participating National Guard units use to quickly communicate a cyber incident to USCYBERCOM. The data provided enables USCYBERCOM's Cyber National Mission Force to further diagnose a foreign attack and provide timely, unclassified feedback back to the unit, who shares with state and county governments to address the cyber incident. This process is a key aspect of how USCYBERCOM helps strengthen America’s cybersecurity, and enable election integrity.

May 28, 2020

Exim Mail Transfer Agent Actively Exploited by Russian GRU Cyber Actors

FORT MEADE, Md. — Russian military cyber actors, publicly known as Sandworm Team, have been exploiting a vulnerability in Exim mail transfer agent (MTA) software since at least last August.