Federal law enforcement officials are already using AI tools, and they’re eager to pilot more, despite pesky challenges like admissibility, privacy, and sustainability.

That’s according to federal officials who spoke at General Dynamics Information Technology’s (GDIT) AI conference in DC on June 4, where they explained how agencies like the DOJ, the FBI, and the State Department approach implementing AI technologies.

While the federal government has introduced basic guidelines on AI usage, they basically boil down to following whatever policy was already in place in any given department. Melinda Rogers, chief information officer of the DOJ, told attendees that buzz around AI doesn’t translate into easy gains.

“I would caution chasing the shiny new object,” Rogers said. “I’ve always said the technology part is the easiest part.” Far more difficult, she told attendees, is creating processes for using that technology that people use effectively.

Read more here.—TM

Do you work in IT or have information about your IT department you want to share? Email [email protected]. Want to go encrypted? Ask Tom for his Signal.

In the world of cybersecurity, identity and access management aren’t just cornerstones—they’re the foundation of enterprise resilience and agility. That’s why it’s essential your IT teams know the IAM game like the backs of their hands.

Need a little guidance? Good news: You can attend Gartner Identity & Access Management Summit 2024.

Hosted in Grapevine, Texas, Dec. 9–11, this conference is all about the growing importance of identity to orgs in our increasingly digital world.

We’re talkin’:

• 50+ expert-led sessions discussing just-released Gartner research
• networking and collaboration opportunities with 1,500+ peers
• tailored guidance on top IAM priorities in one-on-one meetings with Gartner IAM experts

Take your IAM organization to the next level.

Extortion, software-as-a-service, team attacks—ransomware is going through its own industrial revolution.

“It’s not a single group anymore that’s targeting a single company,” Druva CSO Yogesh Badwe told IT Brew. “It’s different groups, collaborating together in a way, with some sort of loose trust between them, and handing off incidents.”

Commoditization of different elements of the threat surface means that victims may be managing an attack vector involving multiple groups, as IT Brew has reported.

And while the threats continue to be a problem, Badwe said, those growing pains can contribute to an overall destabilization of the criminal enterprise, since unconnected threat actors copying stolen data can undermine victims' confidence that paying ransoms will be effective.

Read more here.—EH

Do you work in IT or have information about your IT department you want to share? Email [email protected].

When it comes to automotive cybersecurity threats, the dangers are, as Pantera once declared, far beyond driven.

Whether it’s EV chargers, wi-fi hacks, or key fob spoofing, your vehicle faces more threats than ever. That’s according to ForAllSecure CEO David Brumley, who told IT Brew at this year’s RSA Conference that automotive infotainment systems remain the best way for hackers to infiltrate vehicles.

“What continues to surprise me is how little thought is put into these systems,” Brumley, also a professor at Carnegie Mellon, said. “We were just looking at a major tier-one car manufacturer, and they’re running software that hadn’t been updated in five or six years.”

Keep reading here.—EH

Do you work in IT or have information about your IT department you want to share? Email [email protected].

Back it up. Microsoft 365 has many capabilities…but backing up all your data isn’t one of them. Good thing Veeam can help do it for you. Learn the benefits of cloud-based data protection in Veeam’s new e-book, and get all the deets on its backup service in this report.