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Creating 'Schedule F' Is a Stated Trump Priority
Newly sworn in President Donald Trump's plan to revive policy from his first term that eases the firing of federal employees could disrupt workforce stability, with federal unions and experts warning that weakening federal civil service protections could weaken national security.

Also: Bringing AML and Fraud Programs Together; the Global AI Arms Race
In this week's update, ISMG editors discussed a U.K. proposal to mandate ransomware payment reporting, tackling financial crime by bringing together fraud and AML teams, and the global AI arms race as countries compete to lead innovation while balancing regulation and ethics.

Department of Treasury Imposes Sanctions
The U.S. federal government said Friday it's traced the source of Chinese hacker intrusions into telecom networks to a government contractor located in hacking hotbed Sichuan. The Department of Treasury imposed sanctions on the firm, Sichuan Juxinhe Network Technology.

Experts Say Biden's Cyber, Tech and AI Legacy Faces Uncertain Future Under Trump
President Biden’s tenure has been marked by significant efforts to tackle cybersecurity challenges, from the SolarWinds attack to Salt Typhoon, but experts say his legacy remains uncertain as the new administration faces tough decisions on upholding his initiatives.

Poland, Israel, Nvidia and Oracle Question Need for Restrictions
A decision by the Biden administration to limit international access to American-made advanced artificial intelligence chips is facing backlash from countries whose purchasing power the rule affects. New export controls seek to choke the supply of advanced chips to China.

Legal Firm Joins Other Class Action Litigators Targeted by Hackers
Wolf Haldenstein Adler Freeman & Herz LLP, a law firm that represents consumers in data breach lawsuits, has reported to regulators its own 2023 hack affecting more than 3.4 million individuals. The incident isn't the first time a law firm that handles data breach litigation reported a major hack.

Acquisition Boosts Standardized Consent Frameworks, Identity Data Interoperability
Prove’s acquisition of Philadelphia-based startup Portabl focuses on enhancing interoperability and reusable identity solutions. The move supports emerging industry standards, bridging gaps between identity verification, authentication, and payments for seamless customer experiences.

Google Says Platforms Shouldn't Use Emails as Unique Identifiers
A security researcher purchased abandoned online domains belonging to failed startups and found he could recreate email addresses and access third-party services containing sensitive information collected by the shuttered companies by signing onto the platforms using "Sign in with Google."

Final Cybersecurity Executive Order Unlocks New Powers for Next Administration
Biden’s final cybersecurity order expands sanctions authorities to better target ransomware hackers and the financial facilitators and infrastructure providers enabling their attacks, a White House official said Thursday, as the administration aims to disrupt the broader cybercrime ecosystem.

UALink Crafts Alternative to Nvidia NVLink to Speed AI Accelerator Links
Device-maker Apple joined the board of a recently incorporated industry group that aims to establish open standards for directly connecting AI accelerator chip clusters in data centers. The direct connection optimizes the parallel computing and high data throughput that make GPUs efficient.

Working in Open-Source Intelligence: Get Paid for Something You Do Every Day
Open-source intelligence, commonly referred to as OSINT, is the collection, analysis and use of publicly available information from open sources. These sources include websites, social media, news articles, public records, forums and even multimedia content such as videos and photos.

Hackers Repeatedly Compromised GoDaddy's Web Hosting Environment
Internet registrar and web host GoDaddy agreed to two decades worth of third-party assessments over its cybersecurity practices in a settlement with the U.S. FTC. GoDaddy in February 2023 attributed a run of hacking incidents that began in 2019 to a "sophisticated threat actor group."

Cases are Latest in a Spate of HIPAA Settlements As Biden Administration Wraps Up
A medical supply firm will pay $3 million to settle issues found by a HIPAA investigation into a breach. Also, a public health system will pay $60,000 to resolve a right-of-access dispute. The cases are among the latest in a spate of HIPAA enforcement actions as the Biden administration wraps up.

US Cyber Defense Agency Was Not Initially Aware Hackers Were Part of Salt Typhoon
The U.S. federal government's first hint that Chinese hackers penetrated American telecommunications infrastructure came from telemetry on government networks, said Jen Easterly, director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency.

Hackers Exploit Malicious Macros in Diplomatic Documents to Target Asian Nations
Hackers possibly from the Russian Main Intelligence Directorate have been spying on neighboring government of Kazakhstan using legitimate documents that have been booby-trapped with malicious macros. The latest campaign, dubbed "Double-Tap," emerged in October 2024.

New Identity Infrastructure Streamlines Compliance Adherence in Regulated Settings
Identity management startup Orchid Security raised $36 million in a seed round led by Team8 and Intel Capital to tackle compliance challenges. The company's infrastructure addresses complex compliance and security needs for enterprises, enabling efficient application onboarding and integration.

US CISA Releases Guidance to Streamline AI Cyber Incident Information Sharing
The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency released a playbook Tuesday through its flagship public-private collaborative to help guide public-private information sharing around artificial intelligence cybersecurity incidents while detailing federal actions to strengthen shared defense.

Threat Actor 'Codefinger' Targets Cloud Environments
A ransomware group is targeting Amazon S3 buckets, exploiting the data stored there using AWS's server-side encryption with customer keys and demanding a ransom in exchange for the encryption key needed to unlock the data. The group uses compromised or publicly exposed AWS account credentials.

Executive Order Paves Way for Data Centers on Federal Land, Clean Energy Progress
The U.S. federal government will open up sites to developers of AI frontier models to build gigawatt-scale data centers with clean energy under an executive order signed Tuesday by President Joe Biden. AI applications are expected to drive soaring energy demands well beyond 2030.

British Government Proposals Also Include Payment Bans for Critical Infrastructure
Banning ransom payments by public sector and critical infrastructure entities, notifying the government of any intent to pay a ransom, and reporting incidents to authorities comprise three counter-ransomware initiatives proposed by the British government. Which ones will pass muster?