Daily Archives: October 20, 2023

FORT MEADE, Md. - The National Security Agency (NSA) and U.S. partners have released a new report describing the latest techniques in phishing attacks and the defenses organizations can deploy against them. The Cybersecurity Information Sheet (CSI) Phishing Guidance: Stopping the Attack Cycle at Phase One outlines tailored cybersecurity controls for Information Technology (IT) departments to reduce phishing attacks, also known as electronically delivered social engineering. The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), NSA, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), and the Multi-State Information Sharing and Analysis Center (MS-ISAC) co-authored the CSI. Knowing how to navigate phishing danger is essential because anyone can fall victim to these attacks, said Eric Chudow, NSAs Cybersecurity System Threats & Vulnerability Analysis Subject Matter Expert. Cyber threat actors are constantly evolving their techniques and harnessing new technologies to their advantage, including artificial intelligence. They are also finding it easier to deceive people who have transitioned to hybrid work environments and have fewer-face-to-face interactions. Cyber actors employ a wide range of technologies and platforms to conduct phishing attacks. Common vectors include short messaging system (SMS) text messages and chats in platforms such as Slack, Teams, Signal, WhatsApp, iMessage, and Facebook Messenger. Such attacks may lure users into divulging their login credentials or clicking a malicious hyperlink or attachment which then executes malware. The CSI provides detailed mitigations to protect against login credential phishing and malware-based phishing, as well as steps for identifying and remediating successful phishing activity. It lists more than a dozen best practices for IT professionals to follow to avoid their organization being compromised, including phishing-resistant multi-factor authentication (MFA), phishing filters for links and attachments, protective DNS, application allow-lists, and remote browser isolation. Additional guidance in the CSI focuses on software manufacturers implementing secure by design and default tactics and techniques. Software manufacturers should develop and supply software that is secure against the most prevalent phishing threats. The co-authoring agencies urge organizations to hold software manufacturers to a secure-by-design technology standard and build these and other mitigations directly into products to protect users and organizations from phishings malicious effects. Read the full report here. Read NSAs secure-by-design guidance. Visit our full library for more cybersecurity information and technical guidance.

NSA Media Relations MediaRelations@nsa.gov 443-634-0721

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How to Protect Against Evolving Phishing Attacks - National Security Agency

FORT MEADE, Md. - The National Security Agency (NSA) has released a Cybersecurity Information Sheet (CSI) to enable federal agencies, partners, and organizations to assess devices in their systems and be better poised to respond to risks associated with critical resources. Cybersecurity threats continue to increase, and traditional defenses cannot scale to provide effective security against these threats. Transitioning to a Zero Trust security framework places defenders in a better position to secure sensitive data, systems, applications, and services against nation-state actors and malicious actors seeking quick financial gains. The Advancing Zero Trust Maturity Throughout the Device Pillar CSI provides recommendations to effectively ensure all devices meet an organizations access criteria and security policies. The NSA advises National Security System (NSS), Department of Defense (DoD), and Defense Industrial Base (DIB) network owners and operators to implement the recommendations in the CSI to increase maturity levels of the device pillar capabilities. These include device identification, inventory, and authentication, device authorization using real time inspection, and remote access protection. Traditional security defenses have been shown to be insufficient to address the current threat environment said Alan Laing, NSAs Vulnerability Analysis Subject Matter Expert. Government organizations and critical system owners need to enhance management of their device inventories to improve detection of sophisticated threats as part of comprehensive cybersecurity strategy integrating effective and scalable solutions to secure sensitive data, applications and services. As indicated in the CSI, the device pillar is a foundational component of the Zero Trust security framework. It ensures devices within an environment or attempting to connect to resources in such environment are located, enumerated, authenticated, and assessed. A device is only authorized access if it meets the environments security policies. The device pillar is one of the seven pillars defined in the DoD Zero Trust Reference Architecture. The capabilities discussed in this CSI complement on the Advancing Zero Trust Maturity Throughout the User Pillar published on 14 March 2023. NSA advises progression of the capabilities in each of the seven pillars in the Zero Trust security framework should be seen as a cycle of continuous improvement based on evaluation and monitoring of threats. The NSA Zero Trust security framework adheres to the Presidents Executive Order of Improving the Nations Cybersecurity (EO 14028) and National Security Memorandum 8 (NSM-8), which direct Federal Civilian Executive Branch (FCEB) agencies and NSS owners and operators to develop and implement strategic plans to adopt a Zero Trust cybersecurity framework. Read the full report here. Visit our full library for more cybersecurity information and technical guidance.

NSA Media Relations MediaRelations@nsa.gov 443-634-0721

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NSA Shares Recommendations to Advance Device Security Within ... - National Security Agency

Published 6:34 pm Thursday, October 19, 2023

Nansemond Suffolk Academy fell to Norfolk Academy 1-8 in a conference match today at NSA courts. NSAs Kayla Kosiorek knocked off Anderson Legume 6-1, 6-2. Kosiorek and Emma Morgan fell in a hard-fought 8-6 doubles match to Legume and Nora Clingenpeel.

NSA falls to 9-4 overall, 6-2 in conference and #4 ranking in VISAA D-2 rankings.

Singles Kayla Kosiorek (NSA) beat Anderson Legume (NA) 6-1 6-2 Emma Morgan (NSA) lost to Nora Clingenpeel 6-0 6-0 Emma Graves (NSA) lost to Rhea Khanna (NA) 6-1 6-1 Izzy Rose (NSA) lost to Reagan Szakaly (NA) 7-5 6-0 Aubrey Council (NSA) lost to AR Furr (NA( 6-1 6-2 Paige Dowd (NSA) lost to Leighton Soderberg (NA) 6-1 6-1

Doubles Kosiorek/Morgan (NSA) lost to Legume/Clingenpeel (NA) 8-6. Rose/Council (NSA) lost to Szakaly/Khanna (NA) 8-2 Dowd/Rylea Nelms (NSA) lost to Furr/charlotte shumadine (NA) 8-0

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Nansemond-Suffolk tennis falls to Norfolk Academy Thursday - The ... - Suffolk News-Herald

The National Sheep Association (NSA) has called for a root and branch review of Red Tractor following the announcement of the assurance body's Greener Farms Commitment last week.

The association said the industry had been sideswiped' and that it was deeply concerned none of the detail of the new environmental bolt-on which requires farmers to adopt five environment standards.

Following an extraordinary meeting of the NSA English Committee earlier this week, the association has demanded a root and branch review of the assurance scheme and its governance.

NSA chief executive Phil Stocker said the NSA continued to support the concept of farm assurance as an open gate declaration of good practice'. But he continued: "We have long been frustrated that the scheme is losing its way and has become less relevant to sheep farmers with little acceptance of the unique nature of our sector.

"Most of the nation's sheep farms are not big businesses with layers of management, but are family farms and single operators, many with little land of their own, and our sector still offers a valuable first step on the farming ladder for young new entrants. Becoming Red Tractor Assured presents a huge hurdle for many sheep farms, and for most of the sector's routes to market it adds no value."

See also: Red Tractor crossed the 'red line on environmental module introduction

NSA said it believed the Greener Farms Commitment takes Red Tractor into the realm of setting environmental policy in isolation rather than getting behind the key environmental and sustainable farming schemes being introduced by Defra.

Following the meeting of the NSA English Committee on Monday, chair Kevin Harrison added: "It is quite telling that those responsible for the governance of the assurance scheme felt the need to work on this behind closed doors without even consulting their boards or technical advisory committees." NSA Chief Executive Phil Stocker continued:"Anyone who has had any contact with NSA will recognise that we are pro-environment, but the recent announcement of the Greener Farm Commitment, developed with no practical input from ourselves or the farming sector, is flawed and simply a step too far. We do not accept this will remain a voluntary scheme and additionality like this comes with a cost that needs to be supported via market premiums or by full alignment with Defra's Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) and Countryside Stewardship schemes.

"We are frustrated by the fact there has been no consideration for the hundreds of sheep farmers who operate as graziers on other people's land and have no influence on wider land management decisions, or direct access to SFI and similar schemes, yet do a great job within the boundaries of their authority. We are not prepared to put at risk the social and cultural makeup of our industry in this drive for more industrialisation, supposed professionalisation, and red tape."

See also: Red Tractor defends 'greenwashing' slur

Earlier this week, the NFU passed a resolution highlighting members' concerns around the detail of Red Tractor's new green module. The union was forced to act following the proposal of a resolution from the Midlands (Transitional) Region which called for an independent review of Red Tractor governance and a pause to further bolt-ons'.

According to the NFU, while members still recognised and embraced' the increasing role of sustainability in farm assurance, some felt more granular, technical and practical elements of the GFC' should have been consulted on more widely before the module was unveiled.

NFU deputy president Tom Bradshaw said: "Red Tractor has been a positive thing for our members and, indeed, is an organisation we helped establish for that very reason... We all accept the roll-out of the GFC has not been as any of us would have wished, but the issue is about procedures, not principles. We can and should work together to address those issues, get past this and move on for the benefit of farmers, growers, the wider supply chain and, crucially, consumers."

A spokesperson for Red Tractor said: "NFU Council have raised the importance of involving farmers in the continued development of Red Tractor's environment module. We agree about how important this is, and that there are benefits for farmers, growers, and the wider supply chain, from a common industry approach.

"Work to this point included trials with 25 farms last year, for example. As the main Red Tractor board agreed last month, our existing Technical Advisory Committees and Sector Boards are meeting over coming weeks to provide their feedback on technical and practical considerations.

"But we recognise there is always more we can do to listen to farmers' feedback and understand their point of view. The new Development Advisory Panel (DAP) is being created and will meet for the first time next month and will have a critical role to ensure that the Greener Farms Commitment (GFC) takes full account of the first-hand experience of farmers."

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NSA calls for a 'root and branch' review of Red Tractor - Farmers Guardian

In a significant development, Israel's national security adviser, Tzachi Hanegbi, has warned that the United States may intervene if the ongoing Gaza conflict escalates further and draws in Iran and Hezbollah in support of Hamas. This warning comes in the wake of expressions of support from U.S. President Joe Biden. During a televised briefing, Hanegbi highlighted President Biden's actions, which include deploying U.S. naval forces in the Mediterranean and publicly cautioning both Hezbollah and Tehran to stay out of the hostilities. "He is making clear to our enemies that if they even imagine taking part in the offensive against the citizens of Israel, there will be American involvement here," Hanegbi stated, emphasizing that "Israel will not be alone." The heightened tensions are palpable on both sides of the Israeli-Lebanese border. Israeli and Lebanese residents in the region have begun to evacuate their homes due to the fear that their towns could become the main battleground in a conflict between Israel and Hezbollah. Smadar Azoulai, a displaced resident of Kiryat Shmona in Israel, expressed the anxiety felt by many, stating, "This time it's a whole different kind of anxiety - terrible fear." Meanwhile, in Lebanon, residents of towns and cities near the border have fled north in anticipation of potential Israeli military action. Uncertainty looms over the region as it could become a second front in a broader Middle Eastern conflict, with Israel's expected invasion of Gaza in response to a surprise attack by Hamas potentially provoking a strong response from regional adversaries. The recent attack on October 7th, resulting in more than 1,300 Israeli casualties, marked the deadliest single day in Israel's 75-year history. In retaliation, Israel has initiated its most intense bombardment of the blockaded Gaza Strip, resulting in over 2,700 Palestinian casualties, with plans for a large-scale ground offensive. As the situation unfolds, the northern border with Lebanon, a hilly region by the sea, stands in stark contrast to the Gaza Strip, located 200 kilometers (130 miles) to the southwest. While the two areas may seem distant, Iran's support for Hamas and Hezbollah has raised concerns. Iran has recently warned of "preemptive action" against Israeli assaults on Gaza, further escalating tensions. Israel has taken precautionary measures, including the evacuation of 28 villages near Lebanon, relocating affected families to tourist resorts in the south. Lebanese residents have sought refuge further north, hoping to avoid Israeli military operations. With the situation in flux, the region remains on edge, and the potential for further escalation keeps residents and observers on high alert. The memory of the 2006 war between Hezbollah and Israel, which began suddenly and without warning, still looms large, with fears of a similar conflict mounting since October 7th. At the Sea of Galilee, hundreds of Israelis from northern kibbutzes are living out of suitcases indefinitely. The prevailing mood is one of fear and uncertainty as people anxiously await the resolution of the crisis and wonder about the future of those affected by the conflict. Amidst these developments, there have been reports of continued violence in the border areas, with Israel's military announcing the killing of individuals attempting to plant an explosive device on the Lebanon-Israel border. Both sides have exchanged fire and targeted military posts and equipment, further heightening the tensions. The situation remains fluid, with the risk of escalation persisting, as regional powers and international actors closely monitor the evolving crisis. (with inputs from Reuters)

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Israel's NSA warns of US intervention as Gaza conflict escalates - IndiaTimes

A few months ago, as a debate was heating up over whether to renew an FBI surveillance authority known as Section 702, I was looking for an unsealed court document from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC). I asked a colleague if FISC had a website where I could find these opinions. Oh, thats easy, my colleague said. Just check their Tumblr.

Sure enough, I found the document on the Tumblr in question: IC on the Record, a website created at the direction of the President of the United States and maintained by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, which promised direct access to factual information related to the lawful foreign surveillance activities of the U.S. Intelligence Community.

How did the Office of the Director of National Intelligencea senior-level agency representing the entire intelligence community including the CIA and the National Security Agencycome to host some of the most important docson a platform better known for cat gifs, LGBTQ+ discourse, and indie sleaze? And why, 10 years later, after the internet moved beyond the cat gifs, Tumblr alienated its queer communities, and Gen Z went through a cycle of Tumblr-aesthetic nostalgia, is the government still in its Tumblr era?

That era began in 2013, when a 29-year-old National Security Agency contractor named Edward Snowden leaked thousands of highly classified documents revealing sprawling global surveillance programs carried out by the United States and several allies. It was the biggest leak in intelligence history. The fallout was swift and the public outcry loud. James Clapper, the director of national intelligence at the time, publicly apologized and admitted that his testimony to Congress earlier that year, in which he claimed that the NSA did not collect data on millions of Americans, had been clearly erroneous.

The Snowden disclosures created a huge crisis of legitimacy for intelligence agencies in the public mind, and it was very clear to us that we needed to be more proactive in getting information out to the public, remembered Alex Joel, who led the Office of Civil Liberties, Privacy and Transparency at the Office of the Director of National Intelligence at the time.

But the civil libertarians werent the only ones up in arms. Everyday Americans began to pressure the Obama administration for greater transparency on the surveillance programssomething the intelligence community wasnt accustomed to doing. Before the Snowden leaks, agencies like the CIA and NSA prioritized the protection of classified information and national security secrets, not public access to that information. The question was less about where and how to disclose information, but whether to disclose anything at all.

I remember being enormously frustrated, Joel told me. Because there might be a story circulating that was clearly overblown and false in terms of concerns about some intelligence activities that people speculated were going on, and I wanted to be able to respond to those publicly. And the answer typically was, No, were better off just letting it die down.

It soon became clear that the Snowden story wasnt going to die down. The leaks raised serious questions about surveillance programs undertaken in the name of national security, and the government had to answer themespecially if these agencies wanted to retain the programs in whole or in part. Transparency has become the new buzzword in intelligence circles as officials attempt to preserve as much of their post-9/11 surveillance powers as they can from congressional restrictions, read one Guardian story at the time.

For Joel and others at the ODNI, the Snowden revelations urgently exposed the need to get ahead of disclosures and respond in real time, and the refrain shifted from let it lie to weve got to get ahead of the story. But they couldnt seem to get ahead of the Snowden story, no matter how many carefully crafted statements by Clapper they released on their website. Their public engagement options were limited: They could issue a no comment, write a long statement, or write a short statementand that was about it.

It became clear that people needed to read more than statementsthey needed to read the actual underlying documents. How could we get these documents efficiently cleared and released? Joel remembered asking. And where would we post them? Publishing documents on their own website was a laborious process that moved at the speed of bureaucracythat is, painfully slowly.

The idea to post everything on Tumblr came from Michael Thomas, who joined the ODNI from the private sector in 2012 to head up social media and digital strategy. By using Tumblr, which allowed virtually anyone to spin up a ready-to-go website quickly, ODNI could circumvent the clunky process of posting documents on their own site by getting them up quickly and reactively on an accessible, easy-to-navigate website.

As Thomas got to work on creating the first-ever public-facing blog for the intelligence community, the president gave him an unexpected push. On Aug. 9, 2013, Obama addressed the growing controversy at a press conference in which he promised a few steps to move the debate forward on transparency and public confidence in the surveillance programs. In addition to the appointment of a civil liberties and privacy officer at the NSA, Obama announced, The intelligence community is creating a website that will serve as a hub for further transparency. And this will give Americans and the world the ability to learn more about what our intelligence community does and what it doesnt do, how it carries out its mission, and why it does so. At that point, no one could have guessed that the website would have a Tumblr.com URL.

Well, no one outside of the ODNI. As Clapper wrote in his 2018 memoir, as soon as Obama announced the website, our social media manager, Michael Thomas, realized the president had just announced live on national television the Tumblr site he was in the process of building. He gaped at the TV screen, as Public Affairs Director Shawn Turner patted him on the back, asking, So, hows that website coming?

The ODNI launched Obamas promised hub on Aug. 21, less than two weeks after Obamas speech. Tumblr had enabled the office to quickly build a minimal viable product, in Silicon Valleyspeak, because the road map to a better tool would have been impossibly long. But the buzzy social media platform had other advantages, too. Tumblr allowed users to hack the site by creating banners and design elements, and a built-in community satisfied one of the guiding tenets of digital communication: You cant wait for people to come to your websiteyou have to go where the people are.

By the end of September, the ODNI had declassified and published 1,800 pages of FISC opinions on IC on the Record. This wasnt simply a pile of unclassified documents wed been sitting on, or a collection of improperly overclassified papers, but actual classified court opinions, including requests for surveillance warrants, wrote Clapper. We knew our adversaries would see them, and that making them public, to some degree, posed a risk to national security. But we judged that if we didnt take drastic steps like this, national security could be undermined more by the erosion of trust of the American public and its elected representatives.

Above all, simply choosing Tumblr was a benefit in and of itself. It was a mic drop moment, to borrow a popular term from the era. If you put this stuff on the ODNI or NSA website, no one cares, Thomas told me. But if you put it on Tumblr the, buzzy, hot place full of ironic mustaches and cat gifs, its gonna be a record-scratch in the conversation. Tumblr gave us an opportunity to reenter a public conversation that had fully run away from us.

The gamble seemed to pay off, as a chastened ODNI won media attention, much of it positive, for its unorthodox choice. NSA and Intelligence Community Turn to TumblrWeird but True, read one CNET headline. Even mainstream media seemed bemused enough to cover the blogs launch. If surveillance from government intelligence agencies has you concerned, now you can at least follow them backif only on Tumblr, read one New York Times story. Liba Rubenstein, who was Tumblrs director of causes and politics, doubted the viral potential of IC on the Records posts, but called the move really smart.

Of course, not all the attention was good. Some Tumblr users felt the intelligence communitys How Do You Do, Fellow Kids?style entry onto the platform had ushered in its premature death. The feds are using tumblr. So thats over now, read one Tweet at the time. Other problems included heavy redactions, a lack of search function, and the inability to copy and paste. One TechCrunch journalist remained skeptical, writing, The site is a good idea on the surface, but such great portions of the declassified documents are (and, I presume, will continue to be) redacted that it wont end up being a big help. After mentioning the sites accompanying Twitter handle, the journalist quipped, Hopefully the office will be able to string together 140 characters without redacting anything.

While some had hailed the choice of Tumblr as a brilliant marketing maneuver, others attacked it as just that: a rebranding exercise to distract from the sprawling and at times illegal surveillance program that had just been revealed to the public. In March 2014, national security journalist Spencer Ackerman criticized IC on the Record for failing to add critical disclosures and other important context, including the many instances when the government published declassified documents to the Tumblr only after it lost a transparency case. Marcy Wheeler, a journalist who writes about national security and civil liberties, quickly dubbed the effort I Con the Record.

As Wheeler told an interviewer at the time about the intelligence community, They said, heres where you can come for facts, suggesting that if you go to the Guardian or the Washington Post, youre going to get something that isnt the facts. Problem is, you know, every time they roll out these documents, we learn more and more about the deceit and misrepresentations of the government. But at least the public didnt have to rely on a massive leak every now and then to take a look at these classified opinions. Though often reactive, by April 2015, IC on the Record had released more than 4,500 pages of documents, exceeding the 3,710 pages collected and leaked by Snowden.

Though Tumblr may have seemed out of left field to observers at the time, Taylor Lorenz, a Washington Post columnist covering technology and online culture, pointed out that Tumblr may not have been that odd of a choice in 2013. Theres no other platform that it would have started on at that time, except Tumblr, Lorenz told me. That was peak Tumblr, in terms of its utility to reach the public. When IC on the Record launched, Tumblr already hosted over 30 U.S. government blogs, including sites for the White House, Department of Defense, and the IRS. Lorenz described a heady techno-optimism at the time, especially in the Obama administration, which maintained a cozy relationship with tech companies and a social team in the White House experimenting with different platforms and technologies.

To be fair, the Obama administration officials werent the only ones going all-in on tech and social media, nor were they the first. As journalist Vincent Bevins chronicles in his new book If We Burn, this thinking was pervasive. The Atlantic published a piece titled The Revolution Will Be Twittered, and in the New York Times, Nicholas Kristof wrote that in the quintessential 21st-century conflict on the one side are government thugs firing bullets on the other side are young protesters firing tweets. One former deputy national security adviser in the Bush administration wanted to award Twitter the Nobel Peace Prize. Former U.K. Prime Minister Gordon Brown suggested that the 1994 genocide in central Africa would not have happened in an age of social media.

Today, that period of techno-optimism may seem like a quaint fever dream. But in that era, some people found it exciting to feel like they had direct access to government agencies and the bureaucrats who populated them. In February 2016, for example, Clapper hosted an AnswerTime, a Tumblr equivalent of Reddits Ask Me Anything. Around 2014, while IC on the Record remained on Tumblr, most government agencies migrated to Twitter as the platform rose to prominence. At the time, Twitter provided the government agencies the ability to interact with the public in a controlled space that was difficult to find on other social media sites.

In the early 2010s, it was this novelty to interact with the White House or a politician online, said Lorenz. Like, Oh my god, this government official is Tweeting. But now, the novelty has worn off, and people want accountability. On social media, attempts at accountability can range from speaking truth to power through journalistic disclosures to dunking on power using well-known history and humor. Some dunks have grown into memes and, on occasion, hallowed annual traditions. For example, the FBI often chooses to honor Martin Luther King Jr. on MLK Day on Twitter, leaving out the Bureaus extensive spying and harassment of the civil rights herohistorical context that Twitter users are all too eager to provide. Lorenz suspects the novelty has worn off for the government as well.

A downside of picking a social platform is you may be subject to the reputation of that platform that may not be associated with what youre doing, Joel told me. You dont want it to seem like you deliberately made a choice to use this platform because of its reputation. Though IC on the Record has remained on Tumblr and ODNI on Twitter, other government agencies are now seriously debating whether to stay on the website now known as X.

As Government Technologys Lindsay Crudele wrote last November, It took years for Twitter to evolve from a platform for casual lunch updates to a vital tool for public information exchange [but] it took just days for [Elon Musks] chaotic, profit-driven strategy to dismantle the personnel and security functions that supported a once-reliable public resource. The Twitter chaos has thrown government agencies into crisis. At the annual Government Social Media Conference this summer, several government communications professionals bemoaned the hellscape Twitter had become, and openly wondered when it was time to time to pull the plug.

Today, hellscape feels like an apt description not just of Twitter, but of wide swaths of the internet. In 2013, choosing Tumblr to launch a serious, high-profile response to the Snowden allegations felt incongruous because of the reputation of the platform itself; today, it feels incongruous because the whole internet seems to be falling apart. Ultimately, this is a disservice to the public, which deserves information, accountability, and responsiveness from our public officials, said Lorenz. But its probably more of a headache than anything else in 2023, in this weird, fragmented, fraught platform ecosystem.

As the promise of social media and the open web fades, is there a limit to what we can expect to solve by posting documents online?

Future Tense is a partnership of Slate, New America, and Arizona State University that examines emerging technologies, public policy, and society.

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The U.S. government is still in its Tumblr era. - Slate