In a public service announcement (PSA) issued Oct. 4., the FBI and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) said they believe that “any attempts by cyber actors to compromise election infrastructure are unlikely to result in largescale disruptions or prevent voting.”

Federal officials urged state and local government and education leaders this week to focus on some of the Federal government’s top existing resources in the fight against ransomware attacks – including one principle that’s easy to say but harder to do – don’t meet ransom demands.

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) has opened their annual, voluntary cybersecurity assessment for state, local, tribal, and territorial (SLTT) entities across the nation and aims to provide a broad picture of the current cybersecurity gaps and capabilities.

The nation’s second largest school district is still recovering from a ransomware attack that took place over a month ago. In an Oct. 2 update, Los Angeles Unified School District’s (LAUSD) Superintendent Albert Carvalho said the syndicate group responsible for the cyberattack has leaked the stolen data.

The Federal government’s Joint Ransomware Task Force (JRTF) kicked off its inaugural meeting with a discussion of new initiatives to collaborate with state, local, tribal, and territorial entities to protect against ransomware intrusions and disrupt malicious actors, according to a September 14 press release from the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA).

The Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) is still taking steps to recover from a ransomware attack on its IT systems last week.

The Billington CyberSecurity Summit closed out day two with a discussion with the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency’s (CISA) Senior Election Security Advisor, Kim Wyman, on the necessity of voting infrastructure protection in the upcoming national elections.

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), along with the U.S. Election Assistance Commission, National Association of Secretaries of State (NASS), and the National Association of State Election Directors (NASED), held an annual election security exercise last week to test Election Day plans.

CYBER.ORG, an organization funded by the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), has declared June as National Cybersecurity Education Month to raise awareness of K-12 cybersecurity education.

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) has notified election officials of software vulnerabilities found in Dominion Voting Systems equipment deployed in several states, but also that the agency has found no evidence that those vulnerabilities have ever been exploited.