The White House has unveiled its strategy to embed a zero trust approach to cybersecurity across the federal government.

The memorandum, published by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), sets out a series of specific security goals for agencies to establish a ‘never trusted, always verified’ model. This includes introducing stronger enterprise identity and access controls, such as multi-factor authentication (MFA). It also wants federal agencies to have a complete inventory of every device it operates and authorizes for government use and encrypt all DNS requests and HTTP traffic within their environment.

The strategy represents a key component of delivering President Joe Biden’s Executive Order last year, which mandated a drive to secure cloud services and zero trust across federal government departments and their suppliers.

Federal agencies must incorporate the additional requirements identified in the new memorandum into their plans to develop zero trust architecture within 60 days. In addition, they need to designate and identify a zero trust strategy implementation lead for their organization.

The latest requirements were developed in response to increasingly sophisticated cyber-attacks, including the Log4j vulnerability. The OMB said such incidents have demonstrated that the federal government can no longer depend on conventional perimeter-based defenses to protect critical systems and data.

Federal chief information officer Clare Martorana commented: “Security is the cornerstone of our efforts to build exceptional digital experiences for the American public.

“Federal agency CIOs and IT leadership are leaning into this challenge, and the zero trust strategy provides a clear roadmap for deploying technology that is secure by design and responsive to the needs of our workforce so they can better deliver for the American public.”

Responding to the memorandum, Vats Srivatsan COO of ColorTokens, pondered whether the UK will take a similar approach to mandating zero trust principles across the government. “This week the United States took a proactive step towards safeguarding the nation with resilient security. Government-wide zero trust mission completion will be a journey, and the path has been laid out in a set of goals and implementation efforts outlined in the OMB’s strategy. This undoubtedly sets a precedent for other countries and is a well laid-out model of implementation that the UK can and should borrow from.

“Zero trust is widely recognized as a highly effective, long-term approach to breach resilience; however, zero trust architecture can’t be achieved overnight. The sooner any institution embarks on a zero trust journey to modernize its cyber-defenses, the sooner zero trust maturity and breach resilience can be achieved. Boris Johnson is known to keep his eye on modern technology, so it is a surprise that the UK appears to be kicking the zero trust can down the road. That being said, the UK frequently follows suit on US policy, oftentimes with some initial hesitation. If the UK plans to stay ahead of the threat environment, it will certainly want to follow the US’s lead.”

Earlier this week, the UK government announced a new cybersecurity strategy designed to protect essential public sector services from being shut down by hostile actors.

The National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) has warned UK organizations to prepare for Russian cyber-attacks amid ongoing geopolitical tensions in Ukraine.

The new guidance follows numerous malicious cyber-incidents in Ukraine in the past month, which the NCSC said corresponds with past Russian behavior. These include more than a dozen Ukrainian government websites getting taken offline in a cyber-attack, while a major malware wiper campaign targeting government, IT and non-profit organizations across the country was recently detected by Microsoft.

The agency noted that such incidents resemble high-profile attacks like NotPetya in 2017 and cyber-attacks against Georgia in 2019, which the UK government attributes to the Russian government.

While no specific threats to the UK have currently been identified, the UK government’s support for Ukraine in the crisis is likely to make it a target of Russian threat actors.

The dispute revolves around Russian concerns that Ukraine will join NATO, and it has built up a substantial force on the border, leading to fears of invasion.

To prepare for potential attacks, the NCSC has urged UK organizations to take action to secure their systems. These include patching systems, enabling multi-factor authentication, implementing an effective incident response plan and checking that backups and restore mechanisms are working. This guidance is primarily aimed at larger organizations. The NCSC has also advised any organization that has fallen victim to a cyber-attack to report the incident to the NCSC’s 24/7 Incident Management team.

Paul Chichester, NCSC director of operations, commented: “The NCSC is committed to raising awareness of evolving cyber-threats and presenting actionable steps to mitigate them. While we are unaware of any specific cyber threats to UK organizations in relation to events in Ukraine, we are monitoring the situation closely and it is vital that organizations follow the guidance to ensure they are resilient.

“Over several years, we have observed a pattern of malicious Russian behavior in cyberspace. Last week’s incidents in Ukraine bear the hallmarks of similar Russian activity we have observed before.”

Commenting on the guidance, David Carroll, MD of Nominet Cyber, said: “Organizations should take heed of the NCSC’s warning today and prioritize its recommendations to increase their cyber-resilience in the wake of worsening relations with Russia. This guidance is in line with the cybersecurity reality that has emerged over the past decade, where geopolitical activity and real-world warfare are increasingly mirrored in the cyber sphere.

“Experience has taught us that government, public sector and private sector organizations can become targets for malicious activity from hostile states and the UK government is right to take a proactive approach to protection. Organizations should prioritize identifying and patching vulnerabilities in their software, which have traditionally been a vector for large-scale attacks in the past, and be actively monitoring for breaches or potentially suspicious activity.”

Bulgarian law enforcement has successfully taken down a network of online investment fraudsters responsible for losses of more than €10m.

The operation, supported by Europol and Eurojust, took place on January 26. This resulted in the arrest of one individual by the Bulgarian National Police on suspicion of defrauding mainly German and Greek investors out of at least €10m. In addition, 24 locations were searched, police officers interviewed 66 witnesses in Sofia and Burgas and a variety of electronic equipment, financial information and recordings were seized.

The scam was conducted by an organized crime group that set up bogus websites and call centers. Call operators speaking German, Greek, English and Spanish posed as financial consultants and contacted potential investors with promises of significant profits. This led to several hundred victims making substantial investments, which they lost entirely.

German and Greek investors who lost their investments notified law enforcement, leading to the investigation and subsequent action.

During the operation, two experts from Europol were on the ground to facilitate the information exchange and provide real-time operational analysis and technical expertise. The joint action was coordinated by Eurojust, who also provided cross-border judicial support.

Europol explained: “In 2019, Bulgarian authorities started investigations and Eurojust set up a joint investigation team (JIT) between Bulgaria, Germany, Greece, Serbia and Europol. Following five coordination meetings with Europol and Eurojust, the JIT members were able to identify the two fraudulent call centers in Bulgaria. The Bulgarian police, supported by the Serbian authorities, dismantled both call centers on the action day.”

Last November, Proofpoint warned consumers of a significant rise in call center threat activity, in which attackers use email alongside call center customer service agents to scam victims, sometimes out of tens of thousands of dollars.

Florida is seeking to outlaw the malicious distribution of sexually explicit images without the subject’s consent. 

New legislation advanced in the Florida Senate Criminal Justice Committee on Tuesday aims to curb the unauthorized digital trafficking of real and deepfake lewd content and establish new regulations around revenge porn.

Senate Bill 1798, introduced by senator Lauren Book, would prohibit someone from knowingly, willfully and maliciously disseminating deepfake sexually explicit images without the permission of the individual(s) pictured. 

It would also criminalize the theft of sexually explicit images from an individual’s phone or digital device with the intent to distribute or benefit from them in some way.  

Additionally, the legislation renames “child pornography” as “child sexual abuse material” to underline that all visual depictions of sexually explicit conduct involving a minor constitute abuse and exploitation. 

Senator Brook said: “This bill will transform the way the state of Florida prosecutes and enforces ‘cyber trafficking,’ where images are uploaded to the darkest corners of the internet for people to buy, sell, trade, and use however else they see fit.”

Brook, whose own childhood was marred by six years of sexual abuse at the hands of her nanny, was also victimized in adulthood when nude photos of her were stolen. The senator became aware of the theft only when a cyber-criminal threatened to expose the images unless she paid a ransom. 

An investigation into the theft revealed that the images had been traded on the internet since 2010. Discussions about the images online included requests for content showing Brook being raped, killed and tortured. 

“Horrifically, once these images are online, they never truly go away,” said Brook. 

“It’s time to give victims some hope and bad actors a reason to think twice.”

The new bill also seeks to allow victims of this form of cybercrime to be entitled to seek civil damages up to $10,000.

Speaking on Tuesday after SB 1798 won the Committee’s approval, Brook said: “Today is an excellent first step at updating our laws to reflect the added layers of terror and victimization that are emerging due to the digital world we live in.”