GovConJudicata Weekly Debrief (2/24–28)
This week's Weekly Debrief covers a number of interesting topics, including how industry can help the FBI identify cybercriminals, the need for regulations in the wake of data breaches, GSA schedule consolidation update, spy law reauthorization postponed, and commentary on GOTS.
Cybersecurity
FifthDomain – How private companies help the FBI identify more cybercriminals
"Private companies have a crucial role to play in assisting the Department of Justice and FBI as they gather information to charge malicious cyber actors with crimes, especially as the department views criminal charges as a form of indictments, a top FBI cyber official said Feb. 26 at the RSA Conference."
NextGov – In RSA Showdown, Analyst Says U.S. Must Choose Between Surveillance and Security
"The threat presented by Huawei is not—as U.S. officials have been warning allies—about espionage, a leading academic on the issue told participants at the hottest ticket of this year’s RSA cybersecurity conference. 'There is a lot more to [Fifth Generation Network] security than supply chain,' said Harvard Kennedy School security technologist Bruce Schneier before an audience of hundreds of security professionals. '5G is insecure primarily because the protocols are insecure, because governments, like the United States, like to use the systems to spy.'"
GovExec – Growth In Data Breaches Shows Need For Government Regulations
"Do you remember when 40 million was a large number? Forty million dollars in sales, 40 million customers, 40 million Twitter followers, 40 million protesters — all once conveyed something substantial. Were it only so for data breaches."
GSA
FederalNewsNetwork – An update on GSA's schedule consolidation
"Like a DC-3, the General Services Administration’s Multiple Awards Schedules program has churned along decade after decade. It’s one of the government’s premier programs for buying common goods and services, and it generates billions of dollars in sales. Now GSA is in the midst of consolidating 24 schedules into one sort of master schedule. For a progress report, the Federal Drive with Tom Temin turned to the director of the MAS management office, Stephanie Shutt."
Capitol Hill
FCW – Spy law reauthorization postponed to avoid tough privacy votes
"A House Judiciary Committee vote to reauthorize the USA Freedom Act was abruptly postponed Feb. 26 after reports surfaced that Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.) planned to introduce five privacy-related amendments. Lofgren's office confirmed her intentions to FCW, but declined to provide insight into the substance of the amendments that will be offered. Lofgren has been among the most vocal critics of the law and has led several charges among House Democrats in recent years to reform the Call Detail Records (CDR) program and other surveillance programs."
Tech
"The modern open-source software (OSS) movement can be traced back to the early 1980s with the birth of Richard Stallman’s GNU Project and the Free Software Foundation.This revolution ushered in a new era of egalitarian software development, untethered from corporate interests. At the time, it would have been impossible to fathom what is now a truism— that OSS is one of the best things that has happened to commercial, for-profit software makers."
. . .
