Agencies most often targeted in attacks, it said, are VA, Justice, Education, FBI Criminal Justice Information Services, State, DHS, FAA and Energy. Image: Tomas Ragina/Shutterstock.com
By: FEDweek StaffCyber attacks against federal agencies have grown since the start of the partial government shutdown, says Media Trust, a provider of digital trust and safety solutions, which estimates an increase of 85 percent through October compared with September.
A spike in malware activity began in late September as the threat of a shutdown approached, and on the first day of the shutdown October 1 there was “a significant increase in phishing attacks. More than 90% of the attacks against the federal government from the end of September through today have been phishing attacks,” it said.
Agencies most often targeted in attacks, it said, are VA, Justice, Education, FBI Criminal Justice Information Services, State, DHS, FAA and Energy.
The data were released shortly after a survey by the Partnership for Public Service showed that about half of members of the public personally see an impact from the shutdown.
Meanwhile, a group of five House Democrats active in civil service issues has questioned reassignments and potential layoffs of DHS Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, noting that the agency itself recently issued an alert to agencies to “address vulnerabilities in widely used federal hardware that has been compromised by an imminent threat from nation-state hackers.”
Among employees potentially affected by RIFs or transfer to other DHS components such as ICE and CBP are those of CISA’s stakeholder engagement and infrastructure divisions, “the very teams responsible for coordinating with public and private partners to identify, mitigate, and prevent cyberattacks,” they wrote.
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See also,
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