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Congressional Sledgehammer Drops On DHS Cyber Insecurity

Client Alert | 1 min read | 09.27.07

Following a series of tough investigations and oversight hearings on cybersecurity in April and June with more to come, the House Homeland Security Committee dropped the hammer on DHS and its contractors in a letter on September 21, 2007, finding that cyber attacks on federal and contractor IT systems "have resulted in the loss of massive amounts of critical information," characterizing DHS and contractor responses as "misleading" and subject to potential criminal penalties under 18 U.S.C. 1001, and demanding a DHS IG investigation -- and referral for "criminal investigation" if appropriate. With contractors operating over 1,100 federal IT systems subject to the Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA), future security breaches virtually assure Congressional investigations, as the Homeland Security Committee promised: "The Committee will continue to investigate security breaches, particularly those occurring among commercial contractors."

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Client Alert | 4 min read | 06.25.26

Twin Executive Orders Seek to Spur Quantum Leap in Technology and Cybersecurity

On June 22, 2026, President Trump signed two executive orders, “Securing the Nation Against Advanced Cryptographic Attacks” (Quantum Security EO) and “Ushering in the Next Frontier of Quantum Innovation” (Quantum Innovation EO), marking the most significant federal action on quantum technology since the Quantum Computing Cybersecurity Preparedness Act of 2022, which directed agencies to harden their information systems against quantum-enabled hacking. The orders seek to speed the development of quantum computers, which are advanced processors that can calculate multiple possibilities simultaneously and thus solve problems exponentially faster than traditional computers. At the same time, the orders look to protect against the danger that quantum technology can “break” traditional encryption by easily decoding it. Of particular note for government contractors, the Quantum Security EO directs agencies to update federal acquisition regulations to require contractors by 2031 to adopt information processing standards that resist quantum-enabled codebreaking....

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