Our picksDIY weapons; resiliency grants; the troubling failure of America’s disaster response, and more

Published 17 July 2018

•  Legal win opens Pandora’s Box for DIY weapons

•  All you wanted to know about nuclear war but were too afraid to ask

•  Grants to become available for coastal resiliency projects

•  The troubling failure of America’s disaster response

•  DHS will soon ramp up CDM program efforts

•  If your weapons aren’t cyber-hardened, expect to lose Pentagon contracts

•  Pennsylvania Department of Health system taken offline following security incident

•  What if your data could secure itself?

Legal win opens Pandora’s Box for DIY weapons (Wired)
Defense Distributed, the anarchist gun group known for its 3D printed and milled “ghost guns,” has settled a case with the federal government allowing it to upload technical data on nearly any commercially available firearm.

All you wanted to know about nuclear war but were too afraid to ask (Julian Borger and Ian Sample, Guardian)
The use of a nuclear weapon is now more likely than any time since the cold war, but the probability of humanity being wiped out entirely has diminished.

Grants to become available for coastal resiliency projects (Scott McLendon, Houma Courier)
The federal government is providing $30 million in grants for coastal resiliency projects, which could benefit south Louisiana.

DHS will soon ramp up CDM program efforts (Phil Goldstein, FedTech)
The Department of Homeland Security will accelerate work under its Continuous Diagnostics and Mitigation program this summer.

The troubling failure of America’s disaster response (Emily Atkin, New Republic)
Trump’s FEMA wasn’t ready for last year’s record-breaking hurricane season, and it wants the public to know that it’s not ready for another one.

If your weapons aren’t cyber-hardened, expect to lose Pentagon contracts (Marcus Weisberger, Defense One)
The Pentagon intends to start assessing its weapons’ resistance to hacks, instead of leaving that to manufacturers.

Pennsylvania Department of Health system taken offline following security incident (Dawn Kawamoto, GT)
The department’s vital records system received unauthorized changes to the internal site, resulting in the system being taken down for six days late last month.

What if your data could secure itself? (Gus Hunt, NextGov)
Building strong protections at the network perimeter are only part of the solution.