S&T’s Latest Impact Series Takes on Scary Cyber Threats

October is a spooky month. The buildup to Halloween leaves us with creatures, critters, and goblins on our brains. We take all sorts of precautions: we stock up on candy, we surround our homes and yards with creepy jack-o-lanterns, and then we dress ourselves as witches and wizards (or the occasional dinosaur) and stand guard as trick-o-treaters approach our front doors.

In all seriousness, though, October is also the time to highlight some very real spooky threats—to our networks, our critical infrastructure, our mobile devices, vehicles, medical devices, and more. In this ever-connected world we live in, we must do our best to remain vigilant.

At the mid-point of National Cybersecurity Awareness Month, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Science and Technology Directorate (S&T) is launching our latest S&T Impact Series case study, one that highlights many of precautions and actions we are taking to strengthen our nation’s cyber capabilities.

S&T supports the full spectrum of cybersecurity research and development, and the new Cybersecurity Impact Series focuses on specific efforts in three main areas: resilience, solutions development, and mitigation. For instance, how we bring together the best and brightest from academia, industry and government to identify new tools and tactics that can overcome emerging threats. Or, how we dive deep into the legal, economic, and behavioral aspects of cyber-threats to improve decision-making and share resources across the global community. And how we build models, trainings, and platforms to assess vulnerabilities and prepare action plans prior to an attack.

It’s all there, along with a brand-new video and links to several of our ongoing cybersecurity programs that you’ve heard about before, like the Software Assurance Marketplace (SWAMP), the Distribute Environment for Critical Infrastructure Decision-making Exercises (DECIDE), and the Mobile Application Security and Mobile Device Security projects. We even have an actual IMPACT—the Information Marketplace for Policy and Analysis of Cyber-risk and Trust.

We hope you will spend some time lurking (in a good way) around our new Impact Series and learning more about S&T’s cybersecurity mission. While you’re there, take a look at the other case studies in the series that focus on border security, critical incidents, and disaster response. You can also find some tips on how to strengthen your own personal cybersecurity in my last blog post. 

Have a safe and spooky Halloween, and be sure to follow us on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and YouTube for more S&T Impact Series updates!