WASHINGTON DC – The month of August has seen Melissa Hathaway resign the Acting Cyber-security Coordination Post and it has not been permanently filled since President Obama announced that he would make Cyber a top priority back in June. Also noteworthy, the State of Missouri’s Governor Nixon announced that $1.5M in federal grants were provided to fund a cyber-crimes task force which will provide training, tools, and personnel to support electronic crime investigations.
On the legislative front, many of the Bills mentioned in the last issue of the newsletter are still being marked up and discussed when it comes to cyber-security issues. The following two have been introduced since our last issue.
The Chemical Facility Antiterrorism Act of 2009 – H.R. 2868
This vital legislation makes the Chemical Facility Anti-Terrorism Standards (CFATS) permanent and looks to reduce the consequences of a terrorist attack directed at chemical plants.
COPS Improvements Act of 2009 – S.167 / H.R.1139
This bill extends the Community Oriented Policing Services to 2014 which provides funding for local law enforcement across the country. It also provides funding for educational programs targeting gangs and illicit drug use in schools.
On the general news front, at Blackhat & DefCon Security conferences, security researchers have shifted their focus to mobile security devices, smart-grid technologies, and application middleware. As a result of numerous vulnerabilities announced at both conferences, vendors quickly released patches this month.
David McIntyre, INMA Board of Directors
Houston IMA, Co-written by Laura Spencer,
Integrative Center for HLS
The InfraGard Program began in 1996 as a collaborative effort between private sector cyber professionals and the FBI field office in Cleveland, Ohio. The FBI later expanded the program to every field office in the country. In 2003 the private sector members of InfraGard formed the – InfraGard National Members Alliance‖ (INMA). The INMA is a non-profit Delaware LLC with 501(c)3 status. The INMA LLC is comprised of 86 separate 501(c)3 InfraGard Members Alliances (IMAs) that represent over 31,000 FBI-vetted, InfraGard Subject Matter Experts. The INMA has a dual-focus value proposition. It provides its members with unmatched opportunities to promote the physical and cyber security of their organizations through access to a trusted, national network of Subject Matter Experts from the public and private sectors. And, it provides government stakeholders, across the local, state, and Federal levels, with unmatched access to the expertise and experience of critical infrastructure owners and operators. For more information about InfraGard, please visit www.infragard.net. For more information about the INMA, please click on infragardmembers.org
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