The fourth meeting of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) Cybersecurity Advisory Committee (CSAC) was held in September 2022. Opening remarks were addressed to the committee by Ms. Megan Tsuyi, CISA CSAC Designated Federal Officer, The Honorable Jen Easterly, Director, CISA, Mr. Tom Fanning, CSAC Chair, and Mr. Ron Green, CSAC Vice Chair. – including the announcement and review of the 2023-2025 CISA Strategic Plan.

In July 2021, President Biden signed a National Security Memorandum on Improving Cybersecurity for Critical Infrastructure Control Systems. This memorandum required CISA, in coordination with the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the interagency community, to develop baseline cybersecurity performance goals that are consistent across all critical infrastructure sectors. These voluntary cross-sector Cybersecurity Performance Goals (CPGs) are intended to help establish a common set of fundamental cybersecurity practices for critical infrastructure, and especially help small- and medium-sized organizations kickstart their cybersecurity efforts.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and CISA have published a joint public service announcement that: Describes methods that foreign actors use to spread and amplify false information—including reports of alleged malicious cyber activity—in attempts to undermine trust in election infrastructure; and confirms “the FBI and CISA have no information suggesting any cyber activity against U.S. election infrastructure has impacted the accuracy of voter registration information, prevented a registered voter from casting a ballot, or compromised the integrity of any ballots cast.” The PSA also describes the extensive safeguards in place to protect election infrastructure and includes recommendations to assist the public in understanding how to find trustworthy sources of election-related information.

The  Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and CISA have published a joint public service announcement that: Assesses malicious cyber activity aiming to compromise election infrastructure is unlikely to result in large-scale disruptions or prevent voting; and confirms “the FBI and CISA have no reporting to suggest cyber activity has ever prevented a registered voter from casting a ballot, compromised the integrity of any ballots cast, or affected the accuracy of voter registration information.” The PSA also describes the extensive safeguards in place to protect election infrastructure and includes recommendations for protecting against election-related cyber threats.

CISA usually puts out an official Shields Up! advisory on long U.S. holiday weekends (based on the historical pattern of increased cyber activities directed at the U.S. during those weekends).

Although this weekend was not a holiday weekend, based on the recent cyber incidents and strategic threat vector activity itemized in this post, we put up the Shields Up! advisory starting on Friday to highlight recent CISA CSAs and Joint CSAs regarding ransomware, DNA resolution, recent targeting of the defense industrial base and other information threat vectors (Chinese hacking activity, etc.).

US authorities have warned of the possibility of disinformation campaigns ahead of the midterm elections. The authorities believe that it might be a target for foreign actors who want to create doubt about the results or sway public opinion. The warning was detailed in a Public Service Announcement published by

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency’s (CISA) continues to model an operational structure with an effective public/private partnership component that yields actionable results. 

The latest success is the evolution of the CISA Cybersecurity Advisory Committee (CSAC which meets quarterly) and its subcommittees, specifically the time-sensitive work of the Protecting Critical Infrastructure from Misinformation and Disinformation (MDM) Subcommittee. Following is the anatomy of a CSAC subcommittee, including the mission statement formulated in December 2021, followed by the subcommittee’s quarterly updates, reports, and recommendations. The case study concludes with the recently released public service announcement from the FBI and CISA  – which demonstrates the value and impact of the work of the subcommittee since December 2021.

On Tuesday, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CSA) released an advisory highlighting a threat targeting the Defense Industrial Base sector organization’s enterprise network. The advanced persistent threat group is leveraging the open-source toolkit Impakcet to gain initial access into target systems. After Impacket is successfully deployed, it launches the

The TMS300 CS water tank management system produced by Irish building materials company Kingspan is vulnerable to attack, according to security researchers. The management system is used in critical infrastructure locations across the world and enables the user to view tank level information via a screen, web server, application, online

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) has recently added six previously identified flaws to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities Catalog. The addition was made last week, and the vulnerabilities are a frequent attack vector for threat actors, the agency stated. The CISA also noted that the flaws, although old, post