AMU Cyber & AI

Cyber Defense Brief 19 Jan 2017 – Jobs, CyberCareers.gov and Passwords

By James Lint
Faculty Member, School of Business, American Military University
Senior Editor for
 In Cyber Defense and Contributor, In Homeland Security

Open Letter to POTUS from A Long-Respected Cyber Expert

The week before the inauguration of the 45th U.S. President, Jim Christy, a long-term cyber defender and federal retiree, wrote an Open Letter to the President-elect and Cymmetria published it.  He mentioned the issues of cyber defense, but also described the need for digital forensics at federal, state and local law enforcement agencies. Every crime in today’s world has a cyber-element and law enforcement must get ahead of the criminals.

Mr. Christy also noted that in cyber security there are no cyber rules of engagement for nation-states. He advocated that it is a time to regulate cybersecurity of private sector critical infrastructures that impact our safety and national security.

Mr. Christy noticed the goal of the President-elect is to create jobs in America; there is a great need for resourcing cybersecurity training, education and equipment. We have a potential need for tens of thousands of high-paying, high-tech jobs.

OPM Launches New Cyber Careers Website

In a press release on the website of U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) on January 10, it was announced that CyberCareers.gov was not open for focused cybersecurity workforce recruitment. The new website is designed to assist job seekers, manager and supervisors, in addition to helping hiring managers and human resources professionals.

As Jim Christy advocated, there is a need to focus on growing the future cybersecurity workforce. The new OPM website is a step in the right direction, and there will need to be many more steps in the future.

New Keeper Security Study Publishes of Top 10 Weak Passwords  

Security Affairs described and listed the top 10 weakest passwords in a study by Keeper Security, who analyzed 10 million hacker accounts from breached data dumps. Many of these passwords have shown up on this list for years.

“Password” ranked eight out of the ten. As we recently saw in the news, politicians who used the word “password” for securing their email accounts risked having their email accounts hacked.

The most unsafe password was “123456.”  If you are using any of these weak passwords, it is safe to blush and go change your password.

This article highlights cyber news that influences cyber defenders. Information is retrieved from aggregators and credit given to them.

Privacy Legionnaire aggregated today’s information! Join the Legion! https://paper.li/Stevens12Chris/1387375494

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