Harvey: Face of the future; wobbly flood insurance program; paying for Harvey aid, and more

critical infrastructure, advisory group says(Joseph Marks, NextGov)
U.S. infrastructure is in “a pre-9/11 moment” when it comes to cybersecurity and time is running short to shore up its cyber defenses, an industry advisory committee warned last week.

Cybersecurity 101: How universities are dealing with hackers(Alfred Ng, C|Net)
Welcome back to school! Don’t miss orientation, and watch out for hackers.

Trump FEMA chief backs reducing federal role in disaster relief, flood insurance(Christopher Flavelle, Insurance Journal)
President Donald Trump’s emergency management director said he’s pushing for an overhaul of disaster relief so that states, cities and homeowners bear more of the costs, and less of the risk falls on the federal government.

Cybersecurity requirements in New York: Determining compliance(Scott Lyon, Insurance Journal)
The New York Department of Financial Services (DFS) has issued cybersecurity requirements for financial services companies. It requires insurance and insurance-related companies as well as brokers, agents and adjusters licensed in New York to assess their specific cyber risk profiles and design cybersecurity programs that address such risk in a “robust fashion.”

How threat intelligence can help businesses turn the tide on cybercrime(Adelle Geronimo, Tahawultech)
In the recent past, we have seen an alarming trend – attackers becoming faster innovators than the defenders. With increasing complexities around cybersecurity, the need for threat intelligence is becoming more apparent.

Russian propaganda machine claims US covertly testing chemical warfare in Ukraine(Jason Murdock, International Business Times)
Russian media spread CyberBerkut claim that diseases were “dispersed intentionally.”

Robert Mueller is looking into Michael Flynn’s potential ties to Russian hackers(Andrew Prokop, Vox)
The Wall Street Journal has reported on how one Trump supporter reached out to hackers — and dropped Flynn’s name.

As Hurricane Harvey approaches, Trump appoints deputy chief of staff who failed to prepare for Katrina(Lee Fang, The Intercept)
Hurricane Harvey, a storm expected to bring catastrophic flooding to Texas, could be the first major disaster under the watch of President Trump, attracting new attention to how the administration has staffed its emergency response teams.

The roots of the Barcelona attack(Lorenzo Vidino, Foreign Affairs)
In Catalonia, Salafist terror is no surprise.

The secret history of diplomats and invisible weapons(Sharon Weinberger, Foreign Policy)
The alleged use of a “sound weapon” against U.S. Embassy officials in Cuba harks back to a Cold War medical mystery.

Senators want spies to disclose more about secret zero-day policy(Chris Bing, CyberScoop)
The Senate Intelligence Committee hopes to learn more about how American spies handle the disclosure of software vulnerabilities continuously discovered by federal agencies and occasionally used as weak points to hack into computer networks.

Did climate change make Hurricane Harvey worse?(Zoë Schlanger, Quartz)
Did climate change-driven factors make Hurricane Harvey more destructive?

Hurricane Harvey arrives as flood insurance deadline looms(Joel Scata, NRDC)
Major weather disasters, especially floods, have been increasing in frequency, leaving a significant impact on affected communities. Reauthorization of the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) presents a perfect opportunity to strengthen the nation’s resilience to flooding.

New York’s challenge to design a truly ‘blue’ dune(Claire Weisz, Jesse M. Keenan, GreenBiz)
Coastal processes are controlled by wind, waves ocean currents and the highly predictable tides that move water and sediment day in and day out. These forces of nature result in a materiality that is far superior in its capacity to mitigate the impacts of flooding and storm surge than the hard edge conditions of human interventions, which are extraordinarily capital intensive and limited in their operational life.