At least one federal conference is being postponed this week because of a potential government shutdown. The National Institute of Standards and Technology is postponing its Cloud Computing and Mobility Forum this week “because we could not guarantee NIST’s facility would be open on the first day of the meeting, Oct. 1,” according to an agency spokeswoman. “The meeting has not been rescheduled.” More than 500 people had registered for the conference, including about 130 federal employees. Many federal employees would be forced to stay home without pay if Congress doesn’t strike a budget deal by midnight. Just at DoD, some 400,000 employees…
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Federal officials unveiled details of a new public-private partnership aimed at speeding industry’s development of secure information technology products. The new National Cybersecurity Center of Excellence (NCCoE) launched in February is a project of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). It aims to bring companies together to create and discuss security management solutions that can be used by agencies and private companies. Acting Executive Director Donna Dodson on Tuesday said NCCoE’s vision is to provide a world-class collaborative environment for integrating cybersecurity solutions that stimulate economies and national economic groups. Initially, the center will focus on adopting secure…
The National Institute for Standards and Technology wants to demystify cloud computing. NIST released a special publication on Tuesday to “explain cloud systems in plain language” and provide information technology executives with recommendations, concerns and the benefits of migrating to the cloud. The 81-page document explains the level of service agencies can expect in various cloud environments and what potential pitfalls they should be aware of, such as abrupt changes in service agreements by the cloud providers and scheduled service outages, depending on the type of cloud. Recommendations include: – Develop a plan for migrating data to and from the cloud and for…
The National Institute of Standards and Technology on Tuesday released proposed revisions to its requirements that govern how agencies secure their federal information systems. Proposed changes to Special Publication 800-53, Revision 4, address new challenges that agencies face, including insider threats, supply chain risk, mobile and cloud computing technologies, and other cybersecurity issues and challenges, NIST said in a news release. “The changes we propose in Revision 4 are directly linked to the current state of the threat space — the capabilities, intentions and targeting activities of adversaries — and analysis of attack data over time,” NIST fellow Ron Ross…