The Wrap: Labor CISO Talks AI, Quantum; ‘Schedule F’ Security Warning; $3 Billion Defense CHIPS

Welcome to The Wrap for Tuesday, September 17!

From the newsroom at MeriTalk, it’s the quickest read in Federal tech news. Here’s what you need to know today:

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Labor CISO Talks AI, Quantum

Paul Blahusch, who has been chief information security officer at the U.S. Department of Labor since 2018 and recently snagged a 2024 Cyber Defenders award, lays out the security opportunities and challenges surrounding artificial intelligence, zero trust security, and the coming quantum computing wave in an exclusive interview with MeriTalk. Please do click through to the whole discussion, including the importance of keeping a tight mission focus, and the CISO’s enthusiastic endorsement of collaboration up and down the line among Federal security leaders: “We used to say we need to do it more because the bad guys are busy collaborating on the dark web, and I think there is a lot more collaboration among the good guys now.”

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‘Schedule F’ Security Warning

A reboot of former President Trump’s 2020 Schedule F executive order that would make it easier for the White House to replace career civil servants at Federal agencies with presumably partisan personnel picks would not only disrupt the stability of the Federal workforce, but it would also weaken national security. That was the overriding theme today from witnesses and lawmakers at a Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee hearing at which committee Chairman Gary Peters, D-Mich., recalled that the Trump EO – which was cancelled by President Biden in 2021 – would have jettisoned as many as 50,000 top officials at agencies. “It would drain the Federal government of institutional knowledge, expertise, and continuity. It would slow down services, make us less prepared when disaster strikes, and erode public trust in government,” Sen. Peters said, emphasizing, “perhaps most importantly, it would weaken our national security and make us vulnerable to serious threats that continually face our nation.” Elaine Duke, the former deputy secretary at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), agreed, saying, “I’m opposed to any decision that has high potential to undermine effective national security policy and operations. I am concerned that Schedule F will do just that.”

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$3 Billion Defense CHIPS

U.S.-based semiconductor giant Intel Corp. is getting $3 billion in CHIPS and Science Act funding from the United States Department of Defense (DoD) and the U.S. Department of Commerce with the goal of boosting advanced semiconductor production for the U.S. military and strengthening the supply chain of those types of semiconductors for national security. The new funding is being allocated to the Secure Enclave program, which seeks to build a comprehensive semiconductor production capability for military needs. In a separate deal last year, DoD received $2 billion in CHIPS and Science Act funding which it used to establish the?Microelectronics Commons?– a national network of academic institutions, small businesses, and research entities focused on advancing microelectronics technology from the lab to prototyping and scaled production.

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CISA Aligns Cyber Priorities

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) late Monday took the wraps off its new FCEB Operational Cybersecurity Alignment (FOCAL) Plan?that aims to align collective operational defense capabilities across the Federal government and drive down cybersecurity risks to more than 100 Federal civilian agencies. The plan’s five priority areas cover some familiar security ground – asset management; vulnerability management; defensible architecture; cyber supply chain risk management, and incident detection and response – but CISA explained that the alignment of priorities ought to help everyone. Each agency, CISA said, “has a unique mission, and thus have independent networks and system architectures to advance their critical work. This independence means that agencies have different cyber risk tolerance and strategies,” But, the agency said, “a collective approach to cybersecurity reduces risk across the interagency generally and at each agency specifically.”

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Once again, let’s “call IT a day,” but we'll bring you more tomorrow. Until then please check the MeriTalk breaking news website throughout the day for the latest on government IT people, process, and policy. And finally, please hit the news tip jar [with leads, breaking news, or simply your two cents] at [email protected].