Category Archives: NSA

The Biden administration has reawarded a massive $10 billion federal contract to Amazon, even as the president is facing mounting pressure to fulfill his promise to halt such contracts to companies that refuse to remain neutral in union elections. The contract decision came as Amazon responded to its workers first successful union drive by busting the organizing drive that followed.

At issue is Joe Bidens 2020 promise to ensure federal contracts only go to employers who sign neutrality agreements committing not to run anti-union campaigns.

Amid revelations of Amazonsaggressiveefforts to shut down a union drive among its workers, Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) last month sent a letter to Biden asking him to fulfill that promise . . . to make sure that federal dollars do not flow into the hands of unscrupulous employers who engage in union-busting, participate in wage theft, or violate labor law.

A day later,Nextgovreported that Bidens National Security Agency (NSA) ratified a $10 billion cloud computing contract for Amazon, which hired the brother of Bidens top aide as a lobbyistdays after the 2020 presidential election. The contract for the companys web services division is code-named Wild and Stormy, and is distinct from another massive Pentagon cloudcontracton which Amazon is also currently bidding.

A few days after Amazonreceived the NSA contract, the Amazon Labor Union lost its second union election bid by a two to one margin at another Staten Island warehouse, after Amazon mounted a furious campaignto halt the organizing drive.

In effect, while Amazon was doubling down on its union busting, the Biden administration was delivering a massive federal contract to the company, signaling to Amazon executives that he is so far not interested in fulfilling his pledge to use the governments purchasing power to be the most pro-union president.

Meanwhile in Congress, lawmakers are advancinglegislationthat could give Amazon new tax breaks and give $10 billion to company founder Jeff Bezoss space company. Most Democratic senators also voted Wednesday toreject a measure from Sanders demanding that tech companies that receive government subsidies remain neutral in union elections.

Amazon first received the NSA contract from the Biden administrationlast summer, months after Biden pledged to make such deals contingent on union neutrality. But the contract was soon challenged by Microsoft, which allegedthat its own competing proposal had not been properly evaluated.

In the interim, Biden could have signed an executive order to rescind such contracts for employers that do not remain neutral in union elections but he has declined to do so.

Now, his administration has gone a step further, ratifying the lucrative contract even as Amazon has been making international headlines trying to stop union drives at the company, as well as fieldingallegationsthat it has been violating labor law in the process.

The details of Amazons contract and the dispute will remain classified, due to anexemptionin public records laws for national security.

Bidens contract pledge underscored how much power federal, state, and local governments have in creating fair conditions for union elections. Major corporations rely on those governments for contracts and subsidies, giving public officials the power to make that money contingent on companies treating workers fairly.

The Amazon Web Services deal is a case in point. That division, which oversees its government contracting, fuels the companys overall profits. Indeed, the companyreceived double the amount of operating income from the division $18.53 billion of the rest of its sprawling North American operations. If Biden and state governments predicate their contracts on Amazon remaining neutral in union elections, it would force the company to choose between union busting and massive profits.

That was the core of Bidens 2020 campaign pledge.

Today, I am renewing my request to President Biden to fulfill that promise, Sanders said Thursday at aSenate hearing. In my view, however, the time for talk is over. The time for action is now. Taxpayer dollars should not go to companies like Amazon who repeatedly break the law. No government not the federal government, not the state government, and not the city government should be handing out corporate welfare to union busters and labor law violators.

Also on Thursday, Amazon Labor Union president, Chris Smalls, reportedthat during a White House visit, Biden had told him that Smalls had gotten [Biden] in trouble.

Biden was likely referring to his statement in April to a union group where he said Amazon, here we come a statement that Press Secretary Jen Psakiwalkedback almost immediately.

Link:
Amazon Is Busting Unions. Biden Is Giving Them Huge Federal Contracts Anyway. - Jacobin magazine

Researchers have uncovered a highly-evasive Chinese surveillance tool using the Berkeley Packet Filter (BPF). The malware, dubbed BPFDoor, is present on thousands of Linux systems, its controller has gone almost completely unnoticed by endpoint protection vendors despite it being in use for at least five years.

This is the second malware type using BPF in Linux for covert surveillance revealed this year, following Pangu Labs discovery of an apparent NSA backdoor, which they named Bvp47 in Feb 2022. Security researcher Kevin Beaumont suggested at the time that BPF (or extended BPF, eBPF) was being used by other threat actors.

Beaumont, who previously worked at Microsoft, warned then of the security implications of bring eBPF to other platforms beyond Linux, including Windows. I really, really hope Microsoft have threat modelled what will happen to security when they bake eBPF into the base OS, he said on Twitter. (Microsoft in March 2021 announced a new open source project to make eBPF work on Windows 10 and Windows Server 2016 and later.)

BPF was originally used for high-performance packet tracing and network analysis. But eBPF now allows sandboxed execution of code within an OS kernel, making it much more powerful and also a much more useful tool for attackers. eBPF programmes can be used for tracing, instrumentation, hooking system calls, debugging, and packet capturing/filtering. It has drawn increased attention from offensive security professionals.

Last week Beaumont posted a file to VirusTotal, quickly confirmed to be a controller from BPFDoor, which security researchers Ben Jackson and Will Bonner from PWC have been tracking since 2021, used by a threat actor PWC calls Red Menshen. The pair will present more details at the Troopers conference in June.

[BPFDoor] allows a threat actor to backdoor a system for remote code execution, without opening any new network ports or firewall rules. For example, if a webapp exists on port 443, it can listen and react on the existing port 443, and the implant can be reached over the webapp port (even with the webapp running), Beaumont wrote in a blog post rounding up available BPFDoor information and his own analysis.

Because BPFDoor doesnt open any inbound network ports, doesnt use an outbound C2, and it renames its own process in Linux (so ps aux, for example, will show a friendly name) it is highly evasive.

He said he swept the internet for BPFDoor in 2021, and found it installed in systems in the US and across Asia at organisations including government systems, postal and logistic systems, education systems and more. Beaumont said he believed the implant is present in thousands of systems.

He added: If anybody is wondering how many abuse complaints it generated scanning the Internet for an unknown implant zero. Nobody noticed

PWCs annual cyber threats report said of Red Menshen: This threat actor has been observed targeting telecommunications providers across the Middle East and Asia, as well as entities in the government, education, and logistics sectors using a custom backdoor we refer to as BPFDoor. This backdoor supports multiple protocols for communicating with a C2 including TCP, UDP, and ICMP allowing the threat actor a variety of mechanisms to interact with the implant.

It was not immediately clear why PWC had not chosen to disclose methods of detection or IOCs for a widely deployed backdoor. Beaumont provided several IoC/IoA resources, including YARA rules, the presence of files in /dev/shm such as /dev/shm/kdmtmpflush, and a sandbox report from 2019. He also posted a link to BPFDoor hashes on VirusTotal, but noted each implant has a unique hash, so hunting for file hashes is a BAD IDEA.

Nextron Systems Florian Roth also uncovered BPFDoor sourcecode from 2018.

And Sandfly Security founder Craig Rowland posted a technical analysis of the surveillance tool on Twitter, with useful information on where to look for BPFDoor, noting: [As the malware] goes resident it deletes itself from disk. The working directory is /dev/shm (Linux ramdisk). A system reboot ensures the area is wiped. You can see also where it masks the cmdline and command portions in /proc. A ps command shows the bogus name.

Read more from the original source:
BPFDoor: Chinese tool almost undetected for FIVE years is second BPF-based attack uncovered this year - The Stack

NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden early Tuesdayreacted to a Politico report citing a leaked draft opinion written by Justice Samuel Alito that said the Supreme Court is planning to overturn the historic 1973 judgment of Roe V. Wade.

"Someone may have put a lot on the line to warn you of this. It doesn't matter who they are or why they did it: their role is complete," Snowden, who now resides in Russia said."What matters now is how you respond."

The Roe V. Wade judgment ensured constitutional protection to abortion rights for women.

This is the first time Snowden has tweeted in over two months. The computer intelligence consultant sent out his last tweet in February to address Russia's invasion of Ukraine, which was in contrast to his predictions.

Read Next:Roe V. Wade Leak Draws Reactions: Elizabeth Warren Says 'Not Going Back,' Bernie Sanders Wants Codification, And More

Photo: Courtesy of Gage Skidmore via Wikimedia

The rest is here:
Edward Snowden Reacts To Roe V. Wade: 'Someone May Have Put A Lot On The Line To Warn You Of This' - Benz - Benzinga

As technologies continue to change and threat landscapes evolve, and the U.S. economy struggles to fill more than half a million vacant cybersecurity jobs nationwide, colleges and universities need to rethink the way they educate future talent, speakers said Wednesday at a conference in Washington.

In addition to degree-seeking students, schools also need to expand offerings for less-traditional learners seeking to join the cyber workforce, like military members transitioning out of duty, law enforcement professionals interested in cybercrime and people seeking an overall career change, Eman El-Sheikh, the director of the University of West Floridas Center for Cybersecurity, said at the Hack the Capitol event.

No matter how many students we get into cyber degrees, its not going to be enough, she said at the event, which is put on by ICS Village, a nonprofit focused on critical infrastructure.

El-Sheikh, whos also an associate vice president at the Pensacola university, said there are about 600,000 open cybersecurity jobs in the United States right now, which she called a low estimate. And while UWF does issue four-year diplomas in cybersecurity, she said other academic tracks are needed.

We cant expect to use the same antiquated methods, she said. Weve got a huge population of transitioning military veterans. The last thing you want to say to them is: Go back to school for four years, and by the time youre done the cyber world will be so different nothing you learn will matter anymore.'

The University of West Florida is one of 370 schools nationwide designated by the National Security Agency as a National Center of Academic Excellence in Cybersecurity and is in the middle of using a $9 million NSA grant to train more than 1,700 veterans and first responders as it leads the agencys new National Cybersecurity Workforce Development Program, which is also taking place at nine other universities around the country. CyberSkills2Work, as the program is known at UWF, offers training in 14 roles, including a three-month path for aspiring cyber defense analysts and a seven-month track for entry-level systems administrators.

Derek Eichin, the lead research analyst at the Air Forces chief data office, said organizations like the U.S. military and critical-infrastructure operators cant afford to wait for everyone to earn advanced degrees before joining the cyber workforce.

Were accelerating technology faster than academia and the pace of curriculum, he said during the panel discussion. We cant wait for Ph.D.

The University of West Florida program also features an assessment test to help potential students figure out their best career track and find appropriate programs and other academic opportunities, including scholarships. The university has also added learning environments to give students experience that future employers might demand, El-Sheikh said.

How can they get in to SOC roles if they cant get into a SOC? she said. So we built an educational SOC, a virtual one.

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Universities can't expect to grow cyber workforce with 'antiquated methods' - EdScoop

On 17 April, Delhi Police had arrested 35-year-old Ansar, who was allegedly involved in conspiring the communal clashes, an official said. The key accused, Ansar was also found to be previously involved in two cases of assault and was also arrested earlier under preventive sections and booked five times under the Gambling Act and the Arms Act.

Meanwhile, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) have been trading claims about Ansar, with AAP leader Atishi claiming on Tuesday that he has links with the BJP.

The AAP leader's claim comes a day after the BJP claimed that Ansar in fact had links with AAP.

Imam alias Sonu was arrested by the special staff of the North West Delhi district police on Monday. A video of him wearing a blue kurta opening fire during the violence had gone viral on social media.

At least 25 people have been arrested in connection with the violence that ensued on 16 April during a Hanuman Jayanti procession in Jahangirpuri. Two juveniles have been apprehended as well.

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Jahangirpuri: Five Accused Booked Under NSA Sent to 8 Days of Police Custody - The Quint

WASHINGTON The United States and allied cybersecurity authorities issued a joint Cybersecurity Advisory today on the increased threat of Russian cyber groups targeting critical infrastructure that could impact organizations both within and beyond the Ukraine region. The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) authored Russian State-Sponsored and Criminal Cyber Threats to Critical Infrastructure in partnership with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), National Security Agency (NSA), Australian Cyber Security Centre (ACSC), Canadian Centre for Cyber Security (CCCS), National Cyber Security Centre New Zealand (NZ NCSC), and the United Kingdoms National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC-UK) and National Crime Agency (NCA), and with contributions from industry members of CISAs Joint Cyber Defense Collaborative.The advisory provides technical details on malicious cyber operations by actors from the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB), Russian Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR), Russian General Staff Main Intelligence Directorate (GRU), and Russian Ministry of Defense, Central Scientific Institute of Chemistry and Mechanics (TsNIIKhM). It also includes details on Russian-aligned cyber threat groups and cybercrime groups. Some of these cybercrime groups have recently publicly pledged support for the Russian government or people and have threatened to conduct cyber operations in retaliation for perceived cyber offensives against Russia or against countries or organizations providing materiel support to Ukraine.The advisory recommends several immediate actions for all organizations to take to protect their networks, which include:

Given recent intelligence indicating that the Russian government is exploring options for potential cyberattacks against U.S. critical infrastructure, CISA along with our interagency and international partners are putting out this advisory to highlight the demonstrated threat and capability of Russian state-sponsored and Russian aligned cybercrime groups, said CISA Director Jen Easterly. We know that malicious cyber activity is part of the Russian playbook, which is why every organization large and small should take action to protect themselves during this heightened threat environment. We urge all critical infrastructure owners and operators as well as all organizations to review the guidance in this advisory as well as visit http://www.cisa.gov/shields-up for regular updated information to protect yourself and your business.Threats to critical infrastructure remain very real," said Rob Joyce, NSA Cybersecurity Director. "The Russia situation means you must invest and take action.Russia has significant cyber capabilities and a demonstrated history of using them irresponsibly, and state-sponsored malicious cyber activity is a real risk to organizations around the world, said Sami Khoury, Head, Canadian Centre for Cyber Security. By joining alongside our partners in releasing todays joint advisory, the Communications Security Establishment and its Canadian Centre for Cyber Security continue to support making threat information more publicly available, while providing specific advice and guidance to help protect against these kinds of risks.In this period of heightened cyber threat, it has never been more important to plan and invest in longer-lasting security measures, said Lindy Cameron, NCSC CEO. It is vital that all organisations accelerate plans to raise their overall cyber resilience, particularly those defending our most critical assets. The NCSC continues to collaborate with our international and law enforcement partners to provide organisations with timely actionable advice to give them the best chance of preventing cyber attacks, wherever they come from.Because evolving intelligence indicates that the Russian government is exploring options for potential cyberattacks, the cybersecurity authorities are providing this robust advisory with several resources and mitigations that can help the cybersecurity community protect against possible cyber threats from these adversarial groups. Executives, leaders, and network defenders are urged to implement recommendations to prepare for and mitigate the varied cyber threats listed in the Cybersecurity Advisory here.This advisory provides immediate actions defenders can take to prepare their information technology (IT) and operational technology (OT) networks against exploitation or destructive operations. It also includes general best practices for keeping networks secure and responding to cyber incidents.

NSA and its partners have assessed there is an increased threat and encourage vigilance as critical infrastructure networks could be targeted with destructive malware, distributed denial-of-service (DDoS), ransomware attacks, and cyber espionage.Read the full joint guidance here. Visit our full library for more cybersecurity information and technical guidance.

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CISA, FBI, NSA, and International Partners Issue Advisory on Demonstrated Threats and Capa - National Security Agency

Babagana Monguno, Nigerias national security adviser, has said the surrendering and reintegration of repentant Boko Haram elements has not engendered the desired result in stemming insurgency in the country.

Mongonu disclosed this after a meeting the President had with Service Chiefs and other major stakeholders in the country, Thursday.

The retired Major General also expressed President Muhammadu Buharis grief about the countrys security situation.

According to the Security Adviser, President Muhammadu Buhari has remained a sad man as a result of the persistent insecurity in the country which the nations security agencies have been unable to endHe revealed that the President cannot be happy when people are being killed on a daily basis.

Read also:Boko Haram is a perversion of religion- Buhari

He described the recent attacks on the Abuja Kaduna train as the last strawMongonnu noted that Buhari has consequently ordered the rescue of all kidnapped persons unhurt using the train attack as a fulcrum.

The NSA noted that the President feels that enough was not being done by the security agencies despite what has been provided.

Monguno stated that the President alone cannot completely receive the blame for the insecurity in the country as his part is to make strategic decisions which the NAA said he has been doing.

The NSA also spoke on the threats coming from the countrys vast land borders and the need to replicate in them what has been achieved in the maritime borders.

He also stressed the imperative of intelligence from ordinary citizens as he noted that unless the wider society is willing to provide the necessary intelligence, the problem of insecurity will linger beyond the time frame intended to end the menace.The meeting which lasted for over three hours, took place inside the Council Chambers of the Presidential Villa, Abuja,

He disclosed that the government is however intensifying behind the scene efforts to rescue the about 68 passengers abducted inside the Abuja-Kaduna train.

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Rehabilitation of 'repentant Boko Haram' not yielding desired result - NSA - Businessday

The Minister of Youth and Sports, Mustapha Ussif, has directed the Director General of the National Sports Authority (NSA), Professor Peter Twumasi to submit a full report on the state of national stadia in a bid to get them in shape to host international matches.

This decision was taken following reports from the Confederation of African Football (CAF) to withdraw the Baba Yara Stadium from hosting category A matches.

According to Jamaludeen Abdullah, a special assistant to the minister, the ministry was ready to begin works to renovate all national stadia in the country to be able to host international matches.

The minister has directed the NSA boss to present to him a full report on the state of our national stadiums in order for him to begin action to get them in shape and fit to host all international games, Mr Abdullah said.

The four national stadia likely to be renovated are the Accra Sports Stadium, Baba Yara Sports Stadium, Cape Coast Sp

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NSA tasked to submit report for renovation of stadia - Graphic Online

All of us at Tripwires Vulnerability Exposure and Research Team (VERT) are constantly looking out for interesting stories and developments in the infosec world. Heres what cybersecurity news stood out to us during the week of April 18, 2022. Ive also included some comments on these stories.

On April 13, the Department of Energy (DoE), the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), the National Security Agency (NSA), and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) released a joint Cybersecurity Advisory to warn that certain industrial control systems (ICS) and supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) devices can be targeted by advanced persistent threat (APT) actors who have the capability to gain full system access, reports Dark Reading.

For those in the CI (Critical Infrastructure) sectors, and more specifically, for those that are responsible for the security of their respective ICS and SCADA Systems, I hope you are paying attention to the news and advisories being published, for good reason.

Mid last week, CISA and a couple of the other lettered, federal agencies (DoE, NSA, FBI) released a new advisory warning that certain ICS and SCADA systems are being targeted by APT (Advanced Persistent Threat) actors to gain full system access and control.

Vulnerable products include:

Once compromised, the threat actors can then use custom-made tools to scan for additional vulnerable devices so they can take control of them too. Noted in the article is that there is a critical issue with Windows-based engineering workstations, whereby they leverage vulnerable motherboard drivers, whether they are in the OT or IT environment. From there, they could elevate their privileges and move laterally across the environment with the potential to cause greater damage.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has issued an alert on a new phishing scheme aimed at tricking victims into making money transfers to accounts controlled by cybercriminals, Security Week reports. The attack moonlights as a legitimate financial institution and targets users of digital payment applications, sending them a text and asking them to confirm that they initiated an instant money transfer.

Phishing schemes and their social engineering techniques appear to be getting more and more sophisticated, which is a problem for people who are unfamiliar with these types of schemes, or for those who may be more vulnerable.

Digital banking and payment apps are beyond commonplace now (pandemic aside, I cant remember the last time I stepped foot inside a physical bank branch), so its unsurprising that phishing has made its way to them. The FBI is warning of a Reverse Instant Payment scam.

As the article notes, if a recipient of an automated text message responds, the cybercriminal will call the potential victim from a spoofed 1-800 number that appears to match that of the financial institution. Additionally, the criminals are typically speaking English with no accent.

Diving a bit deeper into how the scam is perpetrated, the attackers look to have extensive information of the victims background, including past addresses, Social Security numbers, etc. Armed with this, they claim to represent the banks fraud department and walk the victim through a process thats meant to reverse a fake instant payment transaction (that the victim did not initiate in the first place).

From there, the victim is asked to remove their email address from the digital payment app and share it with the cybercriminal, who then adds it to a bank account that is controlled by the cybercriminals.

After the email address has been changed, they ask the victim to initiate a new instant payment transaction address to themselves which will cancel or reverse the original fraudulent payment. What is happening is that the victim is now sending the payment from their bank account to the one now controlled by cybercriminal.

From the FBI:

Cryptocurrency wallet maker MetaMask has warned its 21 million monthly users to be wary of Apple iCloud backing up their apps data by default, after attackers successfully stole $650,000 of funds and NFTs. In a blog on Bitdefender, Graham Cluley explains that once your Apple ID is compromised, hackers can gain access to sensitive data from any of your apps (like MetaMask) that backed up with default settings.

This is an example of how good social engineering and phishing is getting, as well as ensuring you review the default settings on an app when you choose to install it. A cryptocurrency wallet user revealed that he had fallen victim to a social engineering scam and had $650K worth of funds and NFTs stolen.

Here is how the scam was pulled off:

So now the attacker had access to the victims iCloud account. By default, that wont automatically provide access to a users separate cryptocurrency wallet. Here is where checking the app settings to see what is being backed up to your iCloud account is critical.

The default setting of MetaMask (the cryptocurrency wallet used by the victim) is to back up data to the users iCloud account, including the secret 12-word recovery phrase, which would be used in an emergency (by the user) if they cannot remember their password or access their account. There is no warning provided by the app to inform users that data is being backed up to the users iCloud Account, which is critical in my opinion.

The article and victim do not go into detail as to how the attacker then got access to the victims MetaMask encrypted vault, but it does suggest that if they had reused a password, chose an obvious one, or one that could easily be cracked, then they could go on to access everything in the crypto wallet.

Recommendations provided by the article, which I wholeheartedly endorse:

Amazon Web Services (AWS) has fixed four security issues in its hot patch from December that addressed the critical Log4Shell vulnerability (CVE-2021-44228), reports Bleeping Computer. This particular vuln affects cloud or on-premise environments running Java applications with a vulnerable version of the Log4j logging library or containers.

AWS looks to have addressed four issues from its initial hot patch release in December, which was meant to address the Log4Shell vulnerability, which affects Java applications running a vulnerable version of Log4j logging library or containers.

It is important to note that the hot patches are not exclusive to AWS Resources, which allowed escaping a container in the environment and taking control of a host.

For those unfamiliar with containers, and escaping a container, they can be broken down as follows. Containers are:

Escaping a container involves exploiting vulnerabilities which allow an attacker to break free of a containers isolation and access the hosts resources. This presents a large problem as they may be able to elevate privileges and cause additional harm.

Security Researchers discovered that the hot-fix solutions meant to address the Log4j/Log4Shell would keep searching for Java processes and patch them on the fly, without checking to see what restrictions should be enforced by the container. An additional problem that was created because of the patches was that the host processes were all provided with elevated privileges during the Log4Shell patching processes.

AWS Users that applied the initial hot patch can review the security bulletin which details the four new issues and what to do to address them.

This is a fitting example of why vulnerability management is such an important and critical piece of risk management and cybersecurity. If security practitioners and their leadership do not have a good handle on what vulnerabilities exist within their organization and what is being done to address them, then it is only a matter of time before malicious actors exploit these gaps in your digital defenses.

Vulnerability Management is a continuous and on-going exercise, which should feed into the larger cybersecurity policies. Look at the NIST Cybersecurity Framework for starters. While this is geared towards the Critical Infrastructure sectors, it has five distinct functions in its cycle, with specific sub-categories and outputs to help define an entire plan.

Cisco on Wednesday announced the release of patches for several high-severity vulnerabilities in its products, including a bug reported by the National Security Agency (NSA). Tracked as CVE-2022-20783 (CVSS score of 7.5), the NSA-reported flaw is a denial of service (DoS) issue in TelePresence Collaboration Endpoint (CE) and RoomOS software, which could be exploited remotely, without authentication, Security Week noted on April 21.

Cisco released another round of patches of high-severity vulnerabilities. Some key patches include fixes for a denial-of-service vulnerability that the NSA reported in their TelePresence CE and RoomOS software. They also patched an elevation of privilege vulnerability in their VIM product alongside about 10 medium severity vulnerabilities.

Want more insights from Tripwire VERT before our next cybersecurity news roundup comes out? Subscribe to our newsletter here.

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VERT's Cybersecurity News for the Week of April 18, 2022 - tripwire.com

PCC received a roughly $189,000 grant from the National Security Agency to create a repository for cybersecurity educational materials.

PORTLAND, Ore. The world has become increasingly more reliant on computers and technology. With that increased reliance comes people who want to take advantage.

In the world of cybersecurity, experts say theres a big shortage of workers. It's an issue especially because there's no shortage of people trying to steal or exploit sensitive information. As such there are major efforts underway to get more people into the cybersecurity field.

So a lot of different groups, you know from government, to different companies, to other types of organizations to educational institutions are trying to figure out how can we get more people with cybersecurity skills to fill these different positions, said Dr. Cara Tang, a Portland Community College professor who leads the cybersecurity program.

Tang said that the school just received a roughly $189,000 grant from the National Security Agency, or NSA.

The National Security Agency has a program that they call GenCyber that they've been running for a number of years now, and this program hosts camps for students from K-12 to get interested in cybersecurity, Tang said.

PCCs role will be supporting those camps through collecting vetted curriculum so theres a central location for each camp to draw resources.

This will be a public resource that can also be used by, you know, teachers at school even outside of the GenCyber program, if they want to teach cybersecurity in their courses, said Tang.

In a press release, PCC staff described the project as assembling a GenCyber instructor survival kit for middle and high school computer science and cybersecurity teachers across the country.

Its no accident that PCC has been chosen to head up the nationwide effort. Tang said that in 2018, PCC was recognized by the NSA as a center of academic excellence in cybersecurity.

The hope is that the creation of a repository containing quality cybersecurity educational materials will help promote interest in the cybersecurity field among more kids and teens from different backgrounds.

Tang said PCC will be working with SecurEd, a nonprofit that will host the material online. She said the nonprofit already has educational materials on its website but hopes that there will be more resources available by this summer.

The kit will be on the CLARK Curriculum Library, which hosts the largest compilation of high-value, high-impact cybersecurity curriculum in the country, PCC staff said in a press release.

Read more here:
PCC gets $189,000 grant to help get kids interested in the cybersecurity field - KGW.com