Heather Kuldell

The Office of Management and Budget announced Grant Schneider will be the second federal chief information security officer. As such, Schneider will lead cybersecurity strategy across the executive branch and chair the CISO Council. Schneider has been filling the CISO role in an acting capacity and is the National Security Council’s senior director for cybersecurity.

Both chambers of Congress have passed a bill, the Connected Government Act, that will mandate federal websites to be mobile friendly, an effort to ensure people will be able to access the websites and the services made available through them on mobile phones. “As mobile devices continue to surpass desktop use for accessing the internet, it is important that the federal government is up to speed with the latest technology that allows our people and economy to thrive,” said Sen Maggie Hassan (D-NH). 

Attorney-general nominee Sen Jeff Sessions (R-AL) emphasized a need for cyber rules of engagement during the first day of his confirmation hearings. “Partnerships will also be vital to achieving more effective enforcement against cyber threats. The Department of Justice clearly has a lead role to play in that essential effort,” Sessions said in his opening statement. “We must honestly assess our vulnerabilities and have a clear plan for defense as well as offense when it comes to cybersecurity.”

The presidential nominees agree that the nation’s cybersecurity will be a priority for the winner of the November election. And that’s where the agreement ends. During the “Securing America” segment of Sept 26’s presidential debate, Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton and Republican nominee Donald Trump offered some of their thoughts—and colorful quotes—on who is attacking US institutions and how to fight them. Here’s what we learned:

• Clinton said the nation faces two types of cyber adversaries: hacking groups motivated by profit and "increasingly" states.
• Clinton attributed the Democratic National Committee e-mail breach to Russia, a step the White House has not publicly taken despite pressure from lawmakers.
• Trump questioned whether Russia orchestrated the DNC breach, offering China or “someone sitting on their bed that weighs 400 pounds” as alternatives.
• Clinton shared a positive view of the nation’s cyber capabilities: “We need to make it very clear, whether it's Russia, China, Iran or anybody else, the United States has much greater capacity. And we are not going to sit idly by and permit state actors to go after our information, our private-sector information or our public-sector information, and we're going to have to make it clear that we don't want to use the kinds of tools that we have.”
• Trump appeared to have doubts: “As far as the cyber, I agree to parts of what Secretary Clinton said, we should be better than anybody else, and perhaps we're not.”
• Trump’s 10-year-old son Barron Trump is good with computers: “He is so good with these computers, it's unbelievable.”
• Trump said the US has lost control of the Internet: “And I think Secretary Clinton and myself would agree very much when you look at what ISIS is doing with the Internet, they're beating us at our own game. ISIS. So we have to get very, very tough on cyber and cyber warfare.”
• Clinton suggested partnerships to avoid social media recruiting: “I think we need do much more with our tech companies to prevent ISIS and their operatives from being able to use the internet to radicalize, even direct people in our country and Europe and elsewhere.”

Agency chief information officers will need to get a better handle on their software license inventories and prepare to show savings to the Office of Management and Budget under a new law. Signed into law July 29, the Making Electronic Government Accountable By Yielding Tangible Efficiencies, or MEGABYTE, Act requires executive agency CIOs to develop a comprehensive software licensing policy in order to track spending on software, identify unused licenses and avoid duplication.

“There is considerable waste in software license expenditures, and implementation of the MEGABYTE Act will rectify this to the benefit of American taxpayers,” said Rep Matt Cartwright (D-PA) who sponsored the bill. The MEGABYTE Act requires CIOs to inventory 80 percent of software license spending and enterprise licenses, regularly track and maintain licenses, and embrace metrics such as software usage data to make cost-effective decisions. The act also requires CIOs to report financial savings or cost avoidance that results from software license management.