The International Federation for Information Processing (IFIP) International Professional Practice Partnership (IP3) announced a cybersecurity specialism for information, communications and technology (ICT) professionals working in this discipline.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Science and Technology Directorate (S&T) awarded funding to five research and development (R&D) projects that will enhance the secure use of mobile applications for the federal government.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced final allocations of $288 million for six fiscal year (FY) 2017 DHS competitive preparedness grant programs. These allocations, in addition to the more than $1.3 billion in non-competitive grant funding announced by DHS in June, total more than $1.6 billion in FY 2017 to assist states, urban areas, tribal and territorial governments, nonprofit agencies, and the private sector with preparedness efforts.

The FCC encouraged communications service providers to implement the security countermeasures recommended by the Communications Security, Reliability and Interoperability Council (CSRIC), a federal advisory committee to the FCC, to prevent exploitation of carrier Signaling System 7 (SS7) network infrastructure.

Working in partnership with UNICEF, Australia’s University of Adelaide researchers created a best-practice toolkit to help developing countries rapidly generate and implement life-saving communications plans in the event of local emergencies.

Nearly 100 federal, state and local public-safety and private organizations gathered last week to test tactics and technologies to identify, locate and mitigate illegal jamming of communications systems, such as GPS, radio and wireless systems.

The Alliance for Telecommunications Industry Solutions (ATIS) published two resources on securing critical network infrastructure against growing and evolving cyber threats.

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is seeking information on the scope and sufficiency of efforts to educate and train the nation’s cybersecurity workforce and recommendations for ways to support and improve that workforce in both the public and private sectors. Responses to a request for information (RFI) are due Aug. 2.

Motorola Solutions Venture Capital led $8 million in series D financing to Nok Nok Labs (NNL), an authentication provider and a founding member of the Fast IDentity Online (FIDO) Alliance. All existing NNL investors, including DCM Ventures, DDS, DOCOMO Innovations, Korea Information Certificate Authority, Lenovo Group and ONSET Ventures, participated in the financing.

Lawmakers introduced legislation to combat cyber attacks and cyber crime against U.S. computer networks. The Promoting Good Cyber Hygiene Act instructs the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), in consultation with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), to establish a baseline set of voluntary best practices for good cyber hygiene that are made available online.