Weekly News Roundup November 16-20, 2020

Well, dear readers, it’s likely none of us were surprised by what was probably the biggest industry headline of this week. Last Thursday, CISA Director Chris Krebs reportedly told Reuters he expected to be fired. Indeed, Krebs was dismissed on Tuesday, “after publicly pushing back against disinformation and misinformation surrounding the presidential election,” The Hill wrote.

Twitter had some good news this week. On Tuesday, the social media platform announced it has hired hacker Peiter “Mudge” Zatko as head of security. Speaking of social media platforms, Forbes Technology Council member, Gary Hayslip, offered some sage advice on “How to Manage Your Social Media Footprint in a Cybersecurity Career.”

As many basketball fans eagerly anticipate the start of the NBA season next month, Security magazine looked at Michael Jordan’s documentary, The Last Dance, on ESPN to explain why cybersecurity is akin to a team sport.

Let’s take a look at what other stories made industry headlines this week.

Nov. 20: Apple will continue with the scheduled updates to its mobile operating system, which will, “give users more information and control on tracking by apps on Apple devices,” Security Week reported.

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Nov. 19: According to Nextgov, the Department of Homeland Security is looking to hire a new chief data officer. DHS CIO Karen Evans said, “We have a chief human capital officer, we have the chief procurement officer, we have the chief security officer, the chief financial officer, all of those involve a lot of data.” 

Nov. 19: The UK announced its plans for a major increase in defense spending as part of what prime minister Boris Johnson called a “once in a generation modernization,” according to news from TechCrunch.

Nov. 19: “Computer researcher Katie Moussouris has dropped her gender discrimination lawsuit against tech giant Microsoft,” Infosecurity Magazine reported. “She urged organizations to support the Pay Equity Now Pledge (which she founded), as well as to make real pay, bonus, hiring, assignment and promotion rate changes that truly put all genders on equal footing as human beings.”

Nov. 18: DevOps.com reported that Devo, a cloud-native data analytics and security company has tapped Upesh Patel to expand the company’s cloud and technology partner ecosystem.

Nov. 18: After Chris Krebs was ousted from his role as CISA director, the agency is now being led by acting director Brandon Wales, “a 15-year veteran of DHS who is deeply familiar with CISA’s operations after serving as the agency’s top career civil servant,” CyberScoop reported.

Nov. 17: ZDNet reported that one of the largest providers of managed web hosting solutions, Managed.com, took down its servers after falling victim to a ransomware attack.

Nov. 16: The Department of Justice US Attorney’s Office for the Western District of New York announced that a 53-year-old male from Irondequoit, NY, was sentenced to two years in federal prison after being convicted of cyber-stalking.