Category Archives: NSA

The intelligence community is trying to shed a long-held persona that its unwelcoming to employees from diverse backgrounds, but like much of government, its still struggling to retain and promote women and minorities.

The top leaders at five agencies within the intelligence community on Wednesday detailed their plans to improve diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility within their workforces.

Slowly, the intelligence community workforce has become slightly more diverse in recent years, officials said.

Minorities made up 27% of the intelligence community workforce in 2020, a half-percentage more than 2019. Women made up 39.3% of the IC workforce, Avril Haines, director of national intelligence, told members of the House Intelligence Committee Wednesday.

Like many federal agencies, data shows minorities and women often struggle to reach the upper-level ranks of the intelligence community. Minorities, for example, made up 15.4% of the Senior Executive Service within the IC.Hispanics make up just 3% of the SES within the intelligence community.

Within the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, minorities made up 20.5% of the overall workforce, and 16.7% of the agencys senior executive leadership corps.

In many ways, the intelligence community does a better job recruiting and hiring talent from diverse backgrounds than it does in retaining and promoting them, Haines said.

Weve learned through pulse surveys, exit interviews and retention inquiries something about why people stay and leave, she said. Weve found that the most common reason people leave the organization is a lack of promotion opportunities. Other causes of low retention include lack of fairness and equity in the workplace, insufficient mentoring and guidance and a lack of identification with the greater organization.

Haines said the IC agencies are seeking out more data on where their employees get stuck trying to move up the ranks. Specifically, theyre looking for barriers that might be embedded inside the promotion board process.

Its an ongoing process, she said. We need more data. We need to better understand what is in fact happening, but were also trying to communicate with the workforce as much as possible in order to address issues that we are finding.

CIA officers now have diversity, equity and inclusion metrics as part of their performance plans, the agencys director, William Burns, said.

All of the agencies said theyve expanded their partnerships with historically Black colleges and universities, minority-serving institutions and other affinity groups to help them expand their recruiting pool.

The National Security Agency said it has recruited a more diverse group of employees with each passing year. But its actively expanding its talent pool.

We have had a tendency to only recruit from a certain part of the United States and emphasis on a certain part of the United States, Gen. Paul Nakasone, NSA director, said. While we have been very focused on the East Coast we have to be much broader.

The CIA said its urgently focused on reducing the time it takes onboard new candidates. Currently, it takes candidates more than 600 days from the time they complete their application to the time they receive a security clearance to work at the CIA, Burns said.

The goal is to whittle that time down to 180 days over the course of the next two years.

Longer waiting times have historically disadvantaged minority applicants, many of whom dont have the means to remain in lengthy pipelines, Burns said.

The agency also launched a new directorate analysis program, which will give annual tuition assistance of up to $37,000 to minority students who apply, Burns said.

Theres a lot more we can do but we need your help with changing policies that hinder program execution, Haines said. For instance in a community that priorities resources by mission we found that policies that govern how we can allocate our recruiting dollars can actually hinder recruiting. For example, when one of our IC mission partners lacks the resources to send a recruiter to an event with an outreach partner, ODNI is prohibited from using its resources to include them. This is an area where we could use help from Congress.

ODNI has also created two separate offices for its equal employment opportunity division and diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility functions. The directors of those offices will both report to Haines.

I wanted to have an absolute focus, frankly, on diversity, equity and inclusion, somebody who is 24/7 so to speak focused on that issue, Haines said. Thats the number one reason. Number two, I find that both the equal employment opportunity office director and the person focused on diversity will report directly to me. Neither one of them are, in a sense, getting down further in the org chart. But both of them have to work through partnerships with different parts of the IC for different purposes.

The IC also created an enterprise-wide chief accessibility officer for the entire intelligence community, Haines added.

Not all committee members wanted to talk about diversity and inclusion initiatives at the IC. Members peppered the panel with questions about the recent operations in Afghanistan, vaccines, the border, intelligence on the origins of COVID-19 and a recent inspector general report on Michael Ellis, who the previous administration appointed to the NSA and its general counsel.

Mr. Chairman, we are simply going to have to retitle what we call our hearings, Rep. Mike Quigley (D-Ill.) said. Next time we do this, we need to title it diversity and oh my God, anything but diversity.

In his opening statement, committee Ranking Member Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) dismissed the topic of Wednesdays hearing altogether. He said the IC was distracted by better pronoun usage and woke obsessions and urged IC leadership to focus exclusively on deterring our enemies and winning wars.

The IC leaders, however, repeatedly made the case for workforce diversity and inclusion as a mission imperative.

A diverse workforce provides us with an asymmetric advantage that other nations simply do not have, Ronald Moultrie, undersecretary of defense for intelligence and security, said. We must find the means to appeal to this population, hire them into our most challenging fields and set conditions where they enthusiastically want to remain in our government.

Haines acknowledged the IC has long been known as a place that didnt welcome diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility. She said many agencies had open and stated policies that barred members of the LGBTQ+ community from serving at the IC.

Those policies are long gone, Haines said. But the IC still has a ways to go to improve.

Ensuring that we have an IC workforce made up of people who think differently, see problems differently and overcome challenges differently is a prerequisite to our success, she said. Their creativity makes us smarter, more innovative and more successful, and that makes our nation safer and more secure against the array of adversaries and the foreign threats that we face.

Read more here:
Intelligence community workforce is more diverse, but still struggles with retention and promotion - Federal News Network

GlobalData research has found the companies that trended the most in Twitter discussions related to cloud computing based on their performance and engagement online.

Using research from GlobalDatas Influencer platform, Verdict has named five of the top companies trending on cloud computing in Q3 2021.

Amazon Web Services (AWS) being named a leader in the 2021 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Cloud Infrastructure and Platform Services (CIPS) report, Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) monitoring enabled using Amazon CloudWatch monitoring service, and software company Elastics Logstash data processing pipeline were some of the major discussions around Amazon in Q3 2021.

Jeff Barr, vice president at AWS, shared an article on AWS being named a leader for the 11th consecutive time in the 2021 Magic Quadrant for CIPS report released by research and consulting company Gartner. The report ranked AWS at the top for execution abilities and completeness of vision. Gartner introduced a new Magic Quadrant for CIPS in 2020 to enhance the scope of their Magic Quadrant to incorporate platform as a service (PaaS) proficiencies and expand coverage across areas such as developer tools and serverless computing, the article noted.

Amazon is an online retailer and web service provider specialising in services such as digital streaming, cloud computing, and e-commerce. Headquartered in Seattle, Washington, US, the company also manufactures electronic devices such as Kindle e-readers, fire TVs, fire tablets, and echo.

Microsoft stating that the National Security Agency (NSA) should cancel its cloud computing contract with Amazon, preview of Microsoft Cloud for Sustainability launched by the company, and Microsofts collaboration with telecommunications company AT&T to run a core 5G network on its cloud platform were some of the popular discussions that took place around Microsoft in Q3.

Bill Mew, founder and CEO of crisis management firm The Crisis Team, shared an article on Microsoft stating that the NSA should cancel its $10bn cloud computing deal called the Wild and Stormy with Amazon. The technology company filed a formal bid protest with the US Government Accountability Office (GAO) stating that it would have won the contract if the bid was assessed correctly. The US GAO is likely to determine the outcome of the protest by the end of October.

The NSA issued the bid as part of its efforts to overhaul its computing and storage resources. The NSAs Wild and Stormy deal is part of its Hybrid Compute Initiative and is expected to integrate conventional cloud services with a leading companys hardware as a service (HaaS) offering, the article detailed.

Headquartered in Redmond, Washington, US, Microsoft is a technology company that develops, licenses and supports software products, services, and devices. The company offers operating systems, server applications, cloud-based solutions, software development tools, business solution applications, video games, and training and certification services.

Google Cloud strengthening its security due to an increase in ransomware attacks, Googles plan to expand its data centre in central Ohio, and the roll out of the Google Cloud retail search functionality were some of the discussions that made Alphabet trend in Q3.

Bob Carver, a threat hunter and manager of network security at telecommunications company Verizon, shared an article on Google Cloud bolstering its cloud security measures following a surge in ransomware attacks. The company announced two new capabilities including the Cloud IDS, which helps in detecting spyware, malware and network threats. The second capability launched by the company is Autonomic Security Operations, which includes a set of products, tools, and integrations to automate threat management.

Alphabet, the holding company of Google, is a technology company offering a wide range of services including search, ads, maps, YouTube, cloud, e-mail, as well as hardware products. It is headquartered in Mountain View, California, US.

An IBM report on the high cost of data breaches during the pandemic, the companys collaboration with digital infrastructure company Equinix to integrate cloud solutions in hybrid environments were some of the popularly discussed topics in Q3. Discussions about the company also included a report highlighting the growth of the Storage-as-a-service market due to disruptive services offered by cloud providers such as IBM and Red Hat.

Kurt Marko, an independent tech analyst, shared an IBM report that analysed data breaches encountered by more than 500 organisations. The report revealed that data breaches cost the surveyed companies $4.24m per incident during the pandemic, which is the highest recorded in 17 years. The report stated that security breaches became complex and expensive to curb owing to the changes in operational shifts carried out during the pandemic. The costs of security breaches increased by 10% from the previous year, the report highlighted.

IBM is a cloud solutions and technology company offering information technology and software consultation services. Headquartered in Armonk, New York, US, the company offers software, computer hardware and hosting services across areas such as nanotechnology and mainframe computers.

Oracles strategic role in banking, Oracle Fusion offering a full suite of cloud applications for customers, and Oracles appeal to a court in Jerusalem to cancel the selection of AWS and Google as part of the Nimbus cloud tender were some of the popular discussions around Oracle in the third quarter.

Doug Henschen, a technology analyst at technology research and advisory firm Constellation Research, shared an analysis on Oracles strategic role in banking. Oracle has partnered with Germanys largest bank Deutsche Bank to modernise its database technology. The company is modernising the banks current database management systems in addition to moving its Oracle database systems to Oracle Exadata Cloud@Customer.

The move is expected to help the bank create a single platform for all its systems and services, such as payments processing, regulatory reporting, trading, and capital planning, thereby significantly reducing costs and complexity, the article noted.

Headquartered in Austin, Texas, US, Oracle Corp is a technology company that sells services such as enterprise software, database software, technology, and cloud engineered systems. The company also offers database management tools and middle-tier software systems, human capital management (HCM) software, customer relationship management software (CRM), and supply chain management (SCM) software.

Related Report Download the full report from GlobalData's Report StoreGet the Report

Latest report from Visit GlobalData Store

The rest is here:
Cloud computing: The most trending companies on Twitter in Q3 2021 - Verdict

Public Relations Officer of the National Sports Authority, Mr. Charles Amofa has stated categorically clear that, they have no idea about the new policy introduced by the GFA prior to the start of the season.

The President of the country's highest football governing body, Kurt E.S Okraku at the 27th GFA Congess last Thursday, announced the introduction of 'No Vaccinations, No Entry' and E-Ticketing policy to be used by all the 18 teams in the league.

The idea means supporters who haven't gone through the Covid-19 vaccinations will not be handed access to any of the league centres.

Speaking to KYZZ FM in Takoradi, the Spokesperson of the NSA, Charles Amofa has disclosed there hasn't been any consultation between them and the GFA on the issued policy

He added by saying the only policy they know about it right now is the approval of 25% fans to the various stadia, as issued by the COVID 19 Task Force. He said;

"The GFA have not been in consultation with us about these measure.

We take instructions from the COVID 19 Task Force Team with regards to COVID 19 preventive measures."

"What we have on our table now from the COVID 19 TASK FORCE TEAM is the approval of 25% fans to be allowed entry into the Stadium during league matches."

"If the GFA wants to implement the 'No Vaccination, No ENTRY' and E- Ticketing policy then they should come to us for consultations first."

The 2021/22 Ghana Premier League will start this evening as newly promoted side Accra Lions FC host Elmina Sharks at the Ohene Gyan Stadium in the opening fixture of the new season

By: Iddriss Abdul Rahim

Read the original post:
We are not aware of the 'No Vaccination, No Entry and E-Ticketing policy - NSA PRO - Kickgh.com

Russian demonstrators hold anti-American posters outside the U.S. Embassy in 2015. From the 1960s through the 1980s, the U.S. said the Soviet Union beamed microwave signals at the U.S. Embassy in an attempt to collect intelligence. Alexander Zemlianichenko/AP hide caption

Russian demonstrators hold anti-American posters outside the U.S. Embassy in 2015. From the 1960s through the 1980s, the U.S. said the Soviet Union beamed microwave signals at the U.S. Embassy in an attempt to collect intelligence.

In 1996, Michael Beck and a colleague at the National Security Agency were sent to a "hostile country" on a brief assignment. After being detained at the airport for about an hour, they were allowed to go, but they knew they were being closely watched.

A few days into the assignment, Beck woke up at his hotel feeling terrible.

"It was extreme fatigue and weakness. I was a bowl of jelly and couldn't get moving," said Beck. He was suspicious of the cause, but the symptoms went away.

A full decade later, Beck was diagnosed with early onset Parkinson's disease at age 46. At almost exactly the same time, his colleague from that trip, Chuck Gubete, received the very same diagnosis. Gubete, who died several years later, had a family history of Parkinson's, but Beck didn't.

Beck came to believe that his illness was caused while on that trip, and he filed a workers' compensation claim with the NSA. As part of the process, the NSA sent Beck a short but striking letter in 2014.

"The National Security Agency confirms there is intelligence information from 2012 associating the hostile country to which Mr. Beck traveled in the late 1990s with a high powered microwave system weapon that may have the ability to weaken, intimidate or kill an enemy over time and without leaving evidence," the letter said.

"This weapon is designed to target the living quarters in microwaves, causing numerous physical effects, including a damaged nervous system," the letter added.

Beck, now 61 and living in Maryland, is still battling to prove his claim. The country he traveled to remains classified. But his attorney Mark Zaid notes that the NSA letter was written in 2014 two years before the first Havana Syndrome cases were reported.

"Here we have an unclassified document from a U.S. intelligence agency admitting it knows of this before Havana," Zaid said.

A 2014 letter from the NSA to Michael Beck acknowledges that there's U.S. intelligence indicating an unnamed foreign country has a microwave weapon. Mark Zaid hide caption

A 2014 letter from the NSA to Michael Beck acknowledges that there's U.S. intelligence indicating an unnamed foreign country has a microwave weapon.

The U.S. government says it's still trying to figure out what's causing the mystery ailments known as Havana Syndrome, which began afflicting mostly U.S. diplomats and intelligence officers in the Cuban capital five years ago.

There are reportedly more than 200 cases in multiple countries, with many saying they've suffered debilitating migraines, dizziness and memory loss.

While that investigation continues, the U.S. government has documented one country, and its intelligence services, going to extraordinary lengths to target a U.S. Embassy and personnel.

"The Russian services are very aggressive. They would use whatever means possible to collect [intelligence] against us," said John Sipher, a retired CIA officer. Sipher served in Moscow in the 1990s and in the early 2000s led the spy agency's Russia operations at CIA headquarters.

"I've stayed in touch with a lot of folks, and it is a general view that the Russians have probably taken actions that have impacted the health of American diplomats and intelligence officers," said Sipher.

Sipher acknowledges that his information is anecdotal, not scientific. He points to numerous former colleagues who came down with cancer at relatively young ages.

What has been firmly established is Moscow's long history of surveilling the U.S. Embassy like the intricate, hand-carved wooden seal of the United States that Soviet schoolchildren presented as a gift to the American ambassador in 1945. That seal contained a listening device that eavesdropped on countless conversations of U.S. ambassadors before it was uncovered seven years later.

And in the 1970s and '80s, the Soviets intercepted IBM electric typewriters in transit from the U.S. to the embassy. The Soviets installed monitoring devices that picked up most every keystroke for years.

One of the longest-running operations, dating to the 1960s and lasting for decades, was beaming microwaves at the embassy.

Memos from the CIA, the State Department and presidential advisers routinely refer to this practice, especially in the 1970s and '80s.

"This would seem an appropriate opportunity to reiterate at a high level, our standing demand that microwave signals directed at Embassy be shut off forthwith," Jack Matlock, the embassy's No. 2 official at the time, wrote in a 1978 memo.

A 1978 telegram from Jack Matlock, the No. 2 official at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow, calls on the U.S. to again demand that the Soviets stop beaming microwave signals at the embassy. There are many such memos from the 1970s. U.S. State Department hide caption

A 1978 telegram from Jack Matlock, the No. 2 official at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow, calls on the U.S. to again demand that the Soviets stop beaming microwave signals at the embassy. There are many such memos from the 1970s.

The Soviets were presumably seeking intelligence, and health concerns were mentioned mostly in passing in these memos.

Of course, the spying runs both ways, with the U.S. pursuing Russian secrets as well. But the Havana Syndrome cases, first reported in 2016, have generated so much attention because so many U.S. officials have reported falling ill. Cases have since been reported in multiple countries, including Russia, Germany, Austria, China and Colombia.

U.S. diplomats and intelligence officers at the U.S. Embassy in Cuba began reporting mystery ailments in 2016 that have become known as Havana Syndrome. Pablo Martinez Monsivais/AP hide caption

U.S. diplomats and intelligence officers at the U.S. Embassy in Cuba began reporting mystery ailments in 2016 that have become known as Havana Syndrome.

Dr. James Giordano, a professor of neurology at Georgetown University, was asked by the State Department to start looking into the initial cases from Havana.

"It wasn't just accidental. Clearly, these individuals were getting hit with something which would have put them in the line of fire," said Giordano.

As more cases are reported, he says he's seeing strong similarities.

"I think what's important to understand, and this is an important term, is a constellation of effects, which is a generalized pattern of effects," he said. "If you're going to categorize them within a set of objective signs and subjective symptoms, they fall very squarely, and I would say rather neatly, within that definable set of characteristics."

At the request of the State Department, the National Academies of Sciences compiled a report last December.

"The mechanism that we found most plausible was a form of microwave radiation that occurs in a pulsed or intermittent form," David Relman, the Stanford professor who led the study, recently told NPR.

But Relman noted that the report was not definitive. Others have cast doubt on the microwave theory.

"We believe, although we can't show with direct evidence, that this [microwave] phenomenon could account for at least some of the clinical features," he added.

The Biden administration is making a push on multiple fronts. The CIA has ramped up its investigation. The Senate Intelligence Committee is getting regular briefings. President Biden signed a law this month providing compensation for those injured in Havana Syndrome cases.

When the first reports emerged five years ago, John Sipher and his former CIA colleagues immediately suspected Russia.

"The Russians have never hesitated to use technology that could hurt our health," he said. "But there was always a reason. It was always part of a process to break into our computers or to turn on listening devices. When this first happened, I thought this must be some technology that has gone wrong."

Now he's questioning that assumption.

"This hurting people and it is hurting their families and their children," he said. "But it's continuing to happen. The Russians if it is the Russians would have to be pretty bold to continue to do so when they now realize that they're harming the health of Americans."

If the U.S. government decides it has enough evidence to attribute the Havana Syndrome cases to a specific cause and a specific country that immediately raises an explosive question: How will the U.S. respond?

Greg Myre is an NPR national security correspondent. Follow him @gregmyre1.

See the rest here:
Long before Havana Syndrome, the U.S. reported microwaves beamed at an embassy - NPR

TheCybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency(CISA), Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), and National Security Agency (NSA) published acybersecurity advisorytoday regarding BlackMatter ransomware cyber intrusions targeting multiple U.S. critical infrastructure entities, including two U.S. food and agriculture sector organizations. The advisory includes technical details, analysis, and assessment of this cyber threat, as well as several mitigation actions that can be taken to reduce the risk to this ransomware.

First seen in July 2021, cyber actors leveraged BlackMatter with embedded, previously compromised credentials that enabled them to access the network and remotely encrypt hosts and shared drives. When the actors found backup data stores and appliances on the network, not stored offsite, they wiped or reformatted the data. BlackMatter is a ransomware-as-a-service (Raas) tool, which means the developers are able to profit from cybercriminal affiliates (i.e., BlackMatter actors) who deploy it.

This advisory highlights the evolving and persistent nature of criminal cyber actors and the need for a collective public and private approach to reduce the impact and prevalence of ransomware attacks, said Eric Goldstein, Executive Assistant Director for Cybersecurity, CISA. CISA, FBI and NSA are taking every step possible to try to make it harder for cyber criminals to operate. Americans can help us in this long-term endeavor by visiting Stopransomware.gov to learn how to reduce their risk of becoming a victim of ransomware.

The FBI, along with CISA and NSA, is dedicated to preventing, disrupting, and combating the evolving ransomware threat, said Bryan Vorndran, Assistant Director of the FBIs Cyber Dvision. Unfortunately, too many ransomware incidents go unreported, and because silence benefits the cybercriminals the most, we ask targeted entities to contact their local FBI Field Office and speak to a cyber agent. By reporting a cyber incident, targeted entities are enhancing our ability to respond and investigate with the goal of disrupting cybercriminal operations. We will continue to leverage our unique authorities and capabilities to protect the American people from this threat; however, we cannot accomplish this alone. We remain committed to providing the public and our private sector partners with information that will bolster their ability to decrease vulnerabilities and increase awareness of potential exploits.

The threat of ransomware goes beyond specific impacts to a victim company it has risen to a national security issue, said Rob Joyce, Director of Cybersecurity at NSA. NSAs technical skills and threat intelligence will continue to support our partners across government and industry to degrade adversary footholds into networks where they launch ransomware. Employing the mitigations in the joint advisory with CISA and FBI will protect networks and mitigate the risk against BlackMatter and other ransomware attacks.

CISA, FBI and NSA are unified in emphasizing the value and importance for organizations to apply best practices to protect their networks, systems and data, such as (1) implement and enforce backup procedures; (2) Use strong, unique passwords; (3) Use multi-factor authentication; and (4) implement network segmentation and traversal monitoring. All organizations striving to protect their networks from a ransomware attack and ensure their systems are resilient should read the joint advisory for the full spectrum of recommended mitigations. Detection signatures are also included in this advisory that may be used for detecting network activity associated with BlackMatter activity.

This advisory includes analysis of a sample of BlackMatter ransomware and information from trusted third parties. The adversary actors behavior is mapped to the MITRE ATT&CK framework, a common lexicon of adversary behaviorrecommended by CISA.

The advisory can be found hereand is available on the new, whole-of-government ransomware website,StopRansomware.gov.

Read more at CISA

Follow this link:
CISA, FBI, and NSA Release BlackMatter Ransomware Advisory to Help Organizations Reduce Risk of Attack - Hstoday - HSToday

A joint advisory issued by the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the National Security Agency (NSA) has warned that the BlackMatter ransomware group has targeted multiple organizations deemed critical infrastructure, including two organizations in the U.S. food and agriculture sector.

The agencies did not name the victims, but Iowa New Cooperative, an Iowa-based farm service provider, was last month hit by a ransomware attack that saw hackers demand a $5.9 million ransom to unlock their systems. The attack was followed by a similar attack on Crystal Valley, a Minnesota-based farm supply and grain marketing cooperative.

The advisory provides an overview of the BlackMatter threat, its tactics (which includes the wiping of backup data stores and appliances, rather than encrypting them), detection signatures, and mitigation best practices. It also lends credence to the wider belief that BlackMatter might be a possible rebrand of the now-defunct DarkSide ransomware operation, which the FBI said was behind the attack on Colonial Pipeline.

BlackMatter provides ransomware-as-a-service (RaaS) that allows other groups to rent its infrastructure, taking a cut of the ransom if a victim pays. The advisory notes that BlackMatter ransom demands have ranged from $80,000 to $15 million in cryptocurrency.

The advisory urges organizations, particularly those in critical infrastructure, to shore up cybersecurity defenses and to follow security best practices, including the use of strong passwords and multi-factor authentication. The three agencies also recommend keeping all operating systems up to date, using a host-based firewall and ensuring all backup data is encrypted.

The agencies also urge any organization hit by a ransomware attack to report it immediately and to refuse to pay the hackers ransom demands.

Paying a ransom may embolden adversaries to target additional organizations, encourage other criminal actors to engage in the distribution of ransomware, and/or may fund illicit activities, the three agencies warned. Paying the ransom also does not guarantee that a victims files will be recovered.

BlackMatter has also hit Japanese technology giant Olympus, which forced the shutdown of its European, Middle East and Africa network.

View original post here:
CISA, NSA, FBI say BlackMatter ransomware group is targeting the US food industry - TechCrunch

The No Surprises Act (NSA), signed into law in December 2020, seeks to protect patients from surprise medical bills and prohibits balance billing for certain out-of-network care. The Transparency in Coverage Rule (TiC), published October 2020, provides consumers better insight into the cost of services before obtaining care and receiving a bill.

We know what you're thinking. The deadline for compliance is rapidly approaching.

We've got your back.

We also provide legislative expertise and guidance to help plans manage the complexity introduced by both the NSA and the TiC Rule.

And while these new requirements will add complexity to healthcare claim processing and administration, both pre- and post-service, the ruling's most significant impact lies in two key areas: transparency and member engagement and out-of-network (OON) claim processing and payment.

Zelis Machine-Readable Files will address out-of-network (OON) MRF data requirements for Zelis-priced OON claims. We will also offer in-network (INN) MRF data with median INN rates for clients whose primary networks are owned or managed by Zelis.

Zelis Member ID will enable enhanced ID card capabilities to print compliant ID cards with additional required information including member deductible, out-of-pocket maximum, and information on where to find in-network providers.

Zelis Member Communications will publish compliant AEOBs (both print and digital) with the ability to handle increased volume.

Zelis will offer compliant directories for clients whose primary networks are owned or managed by Zelis.

Zelis Market-Based Pricing offers payers a fully outsourced solution that meets No Surprises Act (NSA) compliance immediately upon implementation. Moreover, we provide the Qualifying Payment Amount (QPA), provider payment amount, provider settlement and support in an Independent Dispute Resolution (IDR.)

Market-Based Pricing calculates reasonable and acceptable reimbursements benchmarked by procedure, provider and geography.

Zelis Claims Negotiation succeeds through a combination of expertise, proactive provider outreach and a demonstrable validity of market rates, driving a high rate of successfully retained savings prior to payment.

Because providers can no longer balance bill the member for NSA claims, their billing practices on these claims are likely to change. Zelis will offer expert guidance for negotiating with providers and incorporating market median data for NSA claims.

Zelis Claims Settlement manages the settlement process on your behalf to ensure compliance by defending, negotiating, and providing data needed for successful settlement, all within the timeframes required by the NSA.

As part of the IDR process, Zelis Claim Resolution will leverage our negotiations and claim settlement expertise, provide data, analytics and reporting to support and defend clients in IDR, all within the time frames specified in the NSA.

Some providers may use the threat of arbitration to persuade payers to settle for higher reimbursements. Zelis will help you understand the impact of various pricing strategies and their likelihood of acceptance. Zelis will collect, aggregate and analyze claims settlement and arbitration data to develop a predictive model that illustrates the overall effectiveness of pricing and arbitration results, and how those evolve over time.

The No Surprises Act and Transparency in Coverage Rule will impact all healthcare organizations, from large health plans and systems to small medical offices and individual providers. As such, leaders across the healthcare industry must directly understand the details of the legislation prior to implementation or have a trusted advisor with legislative expertise who can guide them to appropriate solutions.

Zelis can help.

To further explore getting started with NSA compliance, reach out to your Zelis representative or connect with us here.

For access to additional information, visit Zelis'No Surprises Act Information Hub.

See the original post here:
Zelis helps address new NSA and TiC regulations - Healthcare Dive

Federal agencies fighting cyber adversaries must truly integrate their efforts and build a real partnership with the private sector to counter cyber threats, six public and private sector cyber security experts said Oct. 19 in a special panel discussion hosted by Auburn Universitys McCrary Institute for Cyber and Critical Infrastructure Security.

Companies and federal agencies need to go beyond information-sharing and create a joint operational approach, said experts from the White House, NSA, FBI and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, or CISA.

The discussion was moderated by McCrary Institute Director Frank Cilluffo, who described the participants as the Mount Rushmore of cyber security experts.

The cyber experts representing the public and private sectors were:

In the past, we focused on collecting various pieces of evidence to try to connect the dots and identify a potential threat, said Chris Inglis, the White House National Cyber Director. But today, the challenge is how to collaborate to discover a threat that none of us could have discovered alone.

The private sector is now on the front lines, as it builds, maintains and defends critical parts of our infrastructure. The government needs to shift to a more supportive role, bringing its resources to help secure the private sector. We need a structure where a transgressor in cyber space would need to beat all of us to beat any of us.

While the federal government is tasked with leading the fight, more than 85 percent of the nations critical infrastructure, including cyber networks, remain in private hands, enhancing the national security threat. Federal initiatives will have little impact if they are not built into private sector security operations, the participants noted.

What were undertaking now on the cyber side is a form of terrorism that holds companies unable to function. This requires an elevated level of collaboration like weve never seen before in the private sector, said FBI Deputy Director Paul Abbate.

Companies handle proprietary and sensitive information all the time, said NSA Director of Cyber Security Rob Joyce. What Ive seen in NSA in the last several months is weve been able to take that sensitive information, get it down to that unclassified level where its operational and work with companies in the defense industrial base. For years, weve had things go up, over, around and down. Frankly, thats too slow and often misinterpreted. Those are the kinds of things weve got to get to right.

To best protect private cyber infrastructure, panelists suggested becoming a more difficult cyber target through collaboration, trust, resilient cyber networks and building a strong, cyber-educated workforce beginning at an early age.

Cyber security is a team sport, said Department of Homeland Security CISA Director Jen Easterly. It really matters to have those trusted relationships. This is all about the future of partnerships, which is operational collaboration. The federal government is really just a co-equal partner with the private sector and state and local colleagues. It truly is about a collective defense, in particular given that we live in a highly digitized, highly connected and highly complex threatened environment, which is evolving every day.

If a company cant afford to protect itself, it probably cant afford to be in business, added Berkshire Hathaway Energy CEO William J. Fehrman. I know some companies share a significant concern about data being provided to the government. Will it be used for the purposes of national defense and critical infrastructure protection? Or will it be used for regulatory and legal reasons that could come back and hurt the companies? Moving this forward, there must be a confidence built across companies that when the collaboration is occurring, its occurring for the purposes of national defense and defensive critical infrastructure.

McCrary Institute Director Frank Cilluffo noted, Sometimes we have a plandemic of plans. Plans have no value unless we are ready to work together and act on them. I have grappled with the challenge of collaboration for decades, but I believe we finally have the team in place to get this done.

Read more from the original source:
Leading cybersecurity officials call for real collaboration between the public, private sectors to fend off threats of cyber threats - Office of...

(UPDATE 10/20/2021 1 p.m.) NSA Bethesda announced that the shelter remained in effect at the Walter Reed center however the NSABs commanding officer lifted the shelter in place at all other locations.

NSAB also authorized the opening of Gates 1 and 3 for outbound traffic only.

Those inside the Walter Reed Bethesda shelter should standby as the shelter in place orders will be lifted building by building.

BETHESDA, Md. (WDVM) The Naval Support Activity Bethesda reported a bomb threat, putting the base on lockdown including the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center campus on Wednesday morning.

The Walter Reed Bethesda Twitter page stated that all appointments had been canceled.

Around 8:45 a.m. the Naval Support Activity Bethesda said there was a bomb threat to building 10. There was also an active shooter investigation in which the Twitter page showed there was no indication of a shooter around 10 a.m.

Security personnel have responded to the scene.

All people were asked to stay clear of Walter Reed Bethesda, and the public was asked to go indoors to the nearest building and to shelter in place.

All gates were closed to non-emergency traffic.

Around 10:15 a.m. Stone Ridge School of the Sacred Heart enacted a shelter in place protocol announced on its Twitter page. The school assured that all students were indoors and safe. Classes were also resuming at this time.

For more local stories and news tips, follow @EliseKimTV onFacebook,InstagramorTwitter.

See original here:
UPDATE: NSA Bethesda on lockdown due to bomb threat, shelter in place orders lifting - phl17.com

The University of North Georgia (UNG) has received a two-year STARTALK grant of more than $327,000 from the National Security Agency (NSA) to provide instruction on the Chinese language and astronomy for high school students.

Through the grant, UNG will offer tutoring in Chinese and cultural workshops for more than 150 high school students in spring 2022. It will also provide a free two-week Chinese language and astronomy academy for 20 students on UNG's Dahlonega Campus in summer 2022, as well as post-camp activities designed to reinforce that learning throughout 2022-23 for the 20 academy participants.

Dr. Yunjuan He, associate professor of Chinese, is the principal investigator for the grant.

"In addition to improving students' Chinese language proficiency, we hope to help them develop their interest in federal careers such as NASA and other astronomical institutes," she said.

Ying Feng Kline, a lecturer of Chinese from Penn State University, will serve as lead instructor for the summer academy. Dr. Yanfei Zhu, UNG associate professor of visual arts, and faculty members from the Georgia Institute of Technology, Carnegie Mellon University, High Point University, Hamilton College and other schools will offer online talks for the pre-camp and post-camp activities.

"It's rare to have the chance to tackle both science and Chinese language learning at the same time, and yet, Professor He's dedication to this initiative will provide a truly special learning experience," Dr. Christopher Jespersen, dean of the College of Arts & Letters, said. "We look forward to hosting the STARTALK camp at UNG."

UNG has hired four professional tutors and two UNG Chinese Language Flagship students who are on the advanced track to work with students in spring 2022.

The mission of STARTALK is to support "student education and teacher development programs of less commonly taught and critical-need languages that meet the national security and defense priorities."

Dr. D. Brian Mann, department head of Modern and Classical Languages, said research shows teaching Chinese earlier helps the knowledge become more ingrained for students, and it will set them up well for advanced studies at UNG.

"This makes it possible for them to go further in their Chinese proficiency," Mann said.

Applications for the spring 2022 tutoring are open through Nov. 1. Accepted students will meet individually with their tutor online for half an hour weekly for 17 weeks during the spring semester.

There will be a separate application process for the June 5-18 residential camp, but students who receive tutoring will be encouraged to apply. Students who participate in the camp will have access to post-camp learning activities.

This press release was produced by University of North Georgia. The views expressed here are the author's own.

More here:
UNG : NSA Grant Will Fund Chinese And Astronomy Education - Patch.com