CISA issues sweeping federal directive for government cybersecurity

It comes as there has been two major hacks in the last 10 years.

The Biden administration is ordering federal agencies to fix hundreds of vulnerabilities in software and hardware that hackers have been known to exploit, according to a new government directive released Wednesday.

The first-of-its-kind directive, issued by the DHS Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, includes a list of vulnerabilities "that carry significant risk to the federal enterprise" with technical specifics that agency leaders are required to review and address within 60 days. Some areas will require a more immediate fix, according to CISA.

“Cybersecurity threats are among the greatest challenges facing our Nation," Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said in a statement Wednesday. "Organizations of all sizes, including the federal government, must protect against malicious cyber actors who seek to infiltrate our systems, compromise our data, and endanger American lives.”

U.S. information systems have fallen victim to an increasing number of cyber attacks in recent years targeting schools, hospitals and critical infrastructure.

https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/cisa-issues-sweeping-federal-directive-government-cybersecurity/story?id=80949645

Biden administration approves $650m weapon sale to Saudi Arabia

Pentagon says enabling kingdom to buy US-made, air-to-air missiles would ‘improve the security of a friendly country’.

The United States has approved a $650m sale of air-to-air missiles to Saudi Arabia, the Pentagon announced, in what would be the Biden administration’s first major weapons deal with the Gulf kingdom.

In a statement on Thursday, the Pentagon said the US State Department approved the sale to help Riyadh counter current and future threats.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/11/4/biden-administration-approves-650m-weapon-sale-to-saudi-arabia