[1]DHS vulnerability scanning program offline after Virginia office
  loses power:

    Two cybersecurity programs the Department of Homeland Security
    offers both states and the private sector have been temporarily
    knocked offline due to a power outage, while other services have
    been shifted to backup locations, multiple sources tell CyberScoop.

    The National Cybersecurity and Communications Integration Center
    (NCCIC), the 24/7 hub for monitoring cyberthreats across the
    government and critical infrastructure, has shifted operations to a
    backup location in Florida. The move was made after the Arlington,
    Virginia, building that houses NCCIC lost power last week due to
    heavy rains.

    Additionally, two other programs under NCCIC's National
    Cybersecurity Assessments and Technical Services (NCATS) - Cyber
    Hygiene vulnerability scans and Phishing Campaign Assessment - have
    been offline since July 26.

    The Cyber Hygiene program remotely detects known vulnerabilities on
    internet-facing services. The Phishing Campaign Assessment program
    is part of a remote penetration testing service. Both programs are
    used by hundreds of customers across the country. Thirty-four states
    have received vulnerability scans through the Cyber Hygiene program,
    [2]according to a DHS presentation given at the National Association
    of State Election Directors summer conference.

    DHS Assistant Secretary for Cybersecurity and Communications
    Jeanette Manfra told CyberScoop that the disruption to Cyber Hygiene
    is temporary, and that election systems will be the first to resume
    service once the program comes back online. Officials expect scans
    to resume Aug. 6.

    The building housing NCCIC suffered heavy damage on when portions of
    the façade ruptured due to the volume of rain that fell in the
    Washington, D.C., region. The roof of a restaurant on the building's
    ground level failed during business hours on July 26.

    … A number of DHS offices are in that building.

    CyberScoop has learned that due to the water damage, the building
    completely lost power, which prevented server rooms used by DHS from
    staying cool. Once the room reached a certain temperature, a
    sprinkler system was activated. Those sprinklers damaged servers
    supporting the Cyber Hygiene and Phishing Campaign Assessment
    programs.

    On Sunday, the NCATS office sent an email to its customers informing
    them that Cyber Hygiene and Phishing Campaign Assessment were
    offline and that contingency plans have been put in place.

    "In order to minimize the operational impact, we immediately
    implemented our contingency plans and transferred functions to other
    sites, including NPPD's facility in Pensacola, Fla.," the email,
    obtained by CyberScoop, reads. "We are working to restore these
    services as quickly as possible. We will let you know when the
    service and reports will resume."

    NPPD is the National Protection and Programs Directorate, which
    oversees NCCIC.

    …

    The power outage has had a "minimal impact" on DHS's cybersecurity
    operations, Krebs said. The incident has not, for example, affected
    the department's ability to respond to cyber incidents or issue
    warnings to the private sector.

    …

    DHS has been at the center of the federal government's efforts to
    fortify U.S. voting infrastructure following the 2016 presidential
    election, when Russian hackers probed systems in 21 states. Last
    week it was revealed that the same outfit of Russian hackers that
    meddled in the 2016 election appears to have targeted [3]Sen. Claire
    McCaskill's office.

  (Via [4]Cyberscoop)

  With the DHS looking to create a central Risk Management program,
  seeing stories like this does not instill confidence that the U.S.
  Government, and the DHS in particular, are up to the challenge.

  This slays me:

    Chris Krebs, the undersecretary of NPPD, told CyberScoop that the
    department is "taking this opportunity to get some efficiencies into
    the system, but also to build resilience and redundancy."

  Those are the words uttered after every such event.

  By the way for those not in the know, there is a well-known process
  call Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity Planning (DR/BCP) that
  has been around for decades to plan for just this sort of event.
  Also on:

  [5]Twitter
    __________________________________________________________________

  My original entry is here: [6]DHS vulnerability scanning program
  offline after Virginia office loses power. It posted Thu, 02 Aug 2018
  06:33:00 +0000.
  Filed under: business,

References

  1. https://www.cyberscoop.com/dhs-scans-offline-nccic-backup-flood-damage/
  2. https://www.nased.org/s/GCC-Update_Hale-and-Kolasky_July-2018.pdf
  3. https://www.cyberscoop.com/russian-hackers-targeted-2018-reelection-campaign-vulnerable-democrat/
  4. https://www.cyberscoop.com/feed/
  5. https://twitter.com/TokyoGringo/status/1024908743975333893
  6. https://www.prjorgensen.com/?p=1371

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