FDIC OIG Completes Website Refresh
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation’s (FDIC) Office of the Inspector General (OIG) completed a website redesign for ease of access on Dec. 3, according to a press release from FDIC OIG...
View ArticleCIGIE Elects NSF IG Lerner as New Chairperson
The Council of the Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency (CIGIE) has announced the election of Allison Lerner as the group’s new chairperson, effective in January. She is inspector general...
View ArticleBiden Picking Two Cyber Experts for Top DoJ, NSC Posts
President-elect Joe Biden has chosen cybersecurity veteran Lisa Monaco as his nominee for Deputy Attorney General at the Justice Department (DoJ), and according to a Politico report, is getting ready...
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Democratic Senators Press DoJ, Courts for More Info About SolarWinds Hack
Nine Democratic senators are pressing the Department of Justice (DoJ) and the U.S. Courts for a briefing and information about exactly what data was compromised by the SolarWinds hack in a letter to...
View ArticleDoJ Launches Global Action Against NetWalker Ransomware
The Department of Justice (DoJ) has launched a coordinated international law enforcement action to disrupt the NetWalker ransomware-as-a-service crimeware product. The NetWalker ransomware has targeted...
View ArticleDoJ Drops Lawsuit Against California’s Net Neutrality Statute
The Department of Justice (DoJ) has dropped a legal challenge to California’s net neutrality statute – a lawsuit filed by the Trump administration in 2018. The withdrawal of the lawsuit to block the...
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DoJ Indicts North Korean Military Hackers in $1.3B WannaCry Attacks
The Department of Justice (DoJ) announced it has indicted three North Korean military hackers as part of a series of cyberattacks intended to steal and extort more than $1.3 billion of money and...
View ArticleDoJ Warns of Fake Unemployment Websites
The Department of Justice (DoJ) is warning of fake unemployment websites after receiving reports that scammers created the websites to obtain consumer’s personal information and other sensitive data....
View ArticleGAO: DoJ Office Must Improve Data Transfer for Grant Assessment Tool
The Department of Justice’s (DOJ) Office of Justice Programs (OJP) assigned inaccurate monitoring priority levels for some Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) grants from...
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Hill Dems Query DoJ About Predictive Policing Algorithms
A handful of Democratic legislators have sent a letter to the Department of Justice (DoJ) seeking answers to what steps the agency takes to ensure predictive policing technology is effective, and...
View ArticleKevin Cox Taking Deputy CIO Job at DoJ; CDM to Seek New Program Lead
Kevin Cox, who has led the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency’s (CISA) Continuous Diagnostics and Mitigation (CDM) program for the past five-plus years, will be leaving the agency later...
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Matt Olsen Tapped for Key DoJ National Security Division Post
President Biden announced today he plans to nominate Matt Olsen for Assistant Attorney General (AG) for the National Security Division at the Department of Justice (DOJ). Olsen has served in the...
View ArticleDoJ to Invest $7.6M for SLG, Tribal Police Body-Worn Cameras
In a move to help increase law enforcement accountability, the Department of Justice (DoJ) announced that the Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA) is releasing $7.65 million in a competitive microgrant...
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Bill Introduced to Give Law Enforcement More Tools to Fight Cybercrime
A bipartisan bill introduced by Sens. Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, Thom Tillis, R-N.C., John Cornyn, R-Texas, and Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., seeks to improve cybercrime data collection and give Federal...
View ArticleFederal Agents Begin Using Body Cameras, DoJ Says
The first Federal agents will begin using body-worn cameras (BWCs), the Department of Justice (DoJ) confirmed in a press release. The DoJ said it was launching the first phase of its Body-Worn Camera...
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GAO: Data Analysis Needed in Effort to Curb Violence Against Indigenous Women
In the campaign to help combat violence against American Indian and Alaska Native women in the U.S., the Government Accountability Office (GAO) says that better efforts to create and analyze case data...
View ArticleDoJ Busts REvil Ring Players for Kaseya Ransomware Attack
The Justice Department said today it has arrested one alleged perpetrator and charged another for their participation in the REvil-enabled supply chain ransomware attack against American software firm...
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DoJ Charges Two Iranian Nationals for Cyber-Enabled Election Interference
The Department of Justice (DoJ) announced it has charged two Iranian nationals for their role in a cyber-enabled disinformation and threat campaign “to intimidate and influence American voters, and...
View ArticleWhite House Counter-Corruption Plan Features DoJ Cryptocurrency Team
The White House on Dec. 6 released the first-ever United States Strategy on Countering Corruption, which among other steps aims to utilize the Department of Justice’s (DoJ) newly established National...
View ArticleJustice Department CTO Ron Bewtra Moving On
The Department of Justice said that Ron Bewtra, who has served as the agency’s chief technology officer since 2015, will be leaving the agency later this month. “After nearly seven years with the...
View ArticleDoJ Announces Indictment of Crypto-Fraudster
The Department of Justice (DoJ) announced that the founder of an alleged fraudulent cryptocurrency trading platform, which at one time had a peak market of $3.4 billion, has been indicted by a San...
View ArticleDoJ Names Kevin Chambers Director of COVID-19 Fraud Enforcement
The Department of Justice (DoJ) has appointed Associate Deputy Attorney General Kevin Chambers to serve as the Director for COVID-19 Fraud Enforcement. In the new position, Chambers will lead the...
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DoJ Should Report Performance Data Limitations
The Department of Justice (DoJ) issues “Second Chance” grants to help nonprofits and state and local agencies to deliver services, with grantees reporting data to DoJ. However, DoJ hasn’t noted factors...
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GAO Highlights Open Source Data Use and Threat Products
Prior to the violent attack on the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, several Federal agencies were found to have used “open source” data for obtaining information about the impending incident, with...
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U.S. Signs Onto Beefed-Up Budapest Convention Cyber Pact
The United States on May 12 signed onto an expanded version of the Budapest Convention that governs international cooperation against cyber crime, and that in its expanded form will allow for easier...
View ArticleDoJ Changes CFAA Policy on Good Faith Hackers
The Department of Justice (DoJ) has revised its policies on enforcement of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA) which will help make sure that good-faith hackers are not breaking the law when they...
View ArticleDoJ Announces Seizure of Hacking Websites With International Partners
The Department of Justice (DoJ) along with the FBI and other international enforcement agencies have announced the seizure of three different internet domains selling malicious software and...
View ArticleSmita Patel Named CIO at Justice Department’s NSD
Smita Patel has been named chief information officer (CIO) at the U.S. Department of Justice (DoJ)’s National Security Division (NSD), according to her LinkedIn page. The National Security Division was...
View ArticleIG: Marshals Service Needs to Improve Management of Seized Crypto
A new audit from the Justice Department’s (DoJ) Office of the Inspector General (IG) found that the U.S. Marshals Service (USMS) needs to implement new policies and procedures to improve its management...
View ArticleDoJ OJP CISO Details ICAM Systems Integration Effort
Jaime Noble, CISO and Director of IT Security at the Justice Department’s Office of Justice Programs (OJP), explained this week how the organization is moving away from legacy systems as well as...
View ArticleMeriTalk Interview: Six-Year Trek to All-Cloud Nears Finish Line at ATF
Enduring success in the drive to foundational improvements in IT systems and infrastructure seldom comes fast, cheap, or easy – or without plenty of lessons to share for the next agency in line that is...
View ArticleDoJ IG: Only Two Components Complying with Supply Chain Risk Rules
Only two of the Justice Department’s (DoJ) larger component organizations have been following cyber supply chain risk management requirements over the past six years, according to new DoJ Office of...
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Senators Push for DOJ to Apply ADA to Internet Services
Sen. Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, is leading the charge on behalf of a group of senators who are calling for the Department of Justice (DOJ) to support online protections for Americans with disabilities....
View ArticleFBI Releases RFI for Network Infrastructure Refresh
The FBI is seeking input from equipment manufacturers for the evaluation of state-of-the-art network devices to support the agency’s aim for a network infrastructure technology refresh focused on...
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Senators Told Feds Must Create Accessible Tech for Disabled, Vets
A former Justice Department official implored members of the Senate Special Committee on Aging at a hearing today to make Federal technology more accessible for people with disabilities, and called for...
View ArticleDEA CIO Eyes Near-Term Finish for Major Cloud Project
The Justice Department’s (DoJ) Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) component expects to complete a major cloud-based system overhaul over the next year, according to DEA Chief Information Officer...
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Cloud Experts: Policy Mandates Should be Paired With Funding
Federal cloud experts from the Department of Justice (DoJ) said this week that while government policy mandates for zero trust migration and cloud adoption are key to advancing IT modernization and...
View ArticleFBI Thwarts Hive Ransomware Group Attacks
The Department of Justice (DoJ) announced on Jan. 26 a successful disruption campaign by the agency against the Hive network that has conducted numerous ransomware attacks across American...
View ArticleDoJ Announces New Cybersecurity Task Force
The Department of Justice (DoJ) announced on Feb. 16 the creation of a new task force that will combat growing cybersecurity threats by nation-state actors and other foreign entities. The initiative,...
View ArticleJustice, Commerce Security Leaders to Head New Tech Strike Force
The newly created Disruptive Technology Strike Force will be co-led by Assistant Attorney General Matthew Olsen of the Justice Department’s (DoJ) National Security Division, and Assistant Secretary for...
View ArticleMarshals Service Suffers ‘Major’ Ransomware Attack
The U.S. Marshals Service (USMS) is responding to a ransomware attack and data breach that has compromised law enforcement sensitive information, a USMS spokesperson told MeriTalk today. The Department...
View ArticleDoJ Shuts Down Genesis Criminal Marketplace
The Department of Justice (DoJ) today announced a coordinated international effort that successfully shut down the cybercrime marketplace known as Genesis Market, which illegally sold account access...
View ArticleRSA: DoJ Makes ‘Intentional’ Pivot to Prioritize Cybercrime Disruption
U.S. Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco closed out day one of the RSA Conference in San Francisco by detailing the recent shift the Justice Department (DoJ) has taken to prioritize disruption when...
View ArticleDoJ Takes Down Russian ‘Snake’ Malware
The Department of Justice (DoJ) announced the official disruption of a sophisticated Russian spy tool on Tuesday – noting that after 20 years of stealing sensitive documents from hundreds of computer...
View ArticleDoJ Prepares Potential New IT Infrastructure Project
The Department of Justice (DoJ) is looking to create a new contract opportunity that would help transition the department to an Enterprise Infrastructure Solutions vehicle in an effort to advance the...
View ArticleHouse Bill Would Boost DHS, DoJ Authorities on Illicit Drones
A bipartisan group of House members has introduced legislation that would give the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and Department of Justice (DOJ) authorities to take more aggressive action in...
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MeriTalk Q&A: DOJ CIO Rogers Grades Out IT Strategic Plan Progress
With the Justice Department’s (DOJ) IT operations at the midpoint of executing a three-year IT strategic plan, we asked agency CIO Melinda Rogers a few weeks back for a run-down on progress with the...
View ArticleDoJ Looks to Improve Web and Mobile App Access for People with Disabilities
As many government services shift online, the Department of Justice (DoJ) is looking to improve web and mobile applications access for people with disabilities – particularly at the state and local...
View ArticleDoJ Seizes Over $1.4B in Stolen COVID-19 Relief Funds
The Department of Justice (DoJ) announced on Wednesday that it has seized over $1.4 billion in COVID-19 relief funding stolen by criminals since the start of the pandemic, with over $200 million...
View ArticleFBI, Justice Department Take Down Qakbot Malware
The FBI and the Justice Department (DoJ) said on Aug. 29 that they have successfully disrupted and dismantled the malware and botnet known as Qakbot, which has been responsible for hundreds of millions...
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