NSA News & Highlights

July 30, 2020

NSA releases Cybersecurity Advisory on GRUB2 BootHole Vulnerability

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

May 22, 2020

Asian American Pacific Islander Heritage Month

Each May the United States celebrates Asian American Pacific Islander (AAPI) Heritage Month to commemorate the vital contributions of Asian Americans, Pacific Islanders, and native Hawaiians to the American story and to recognize some of the challenges they have faced along the way.

May 21, 2020

Secretary of Defense Visits NSA and U.S. Cyber Command

On Wednesday, Secretary of Defense Mark Esper toured the National Security Agency (NSA) and U.S. Cyber Command’s (USCC) Integrated Cyber Center (ICC) on Fort Meade.