Jack Cable: Money Over Morals: A Business Analysis of Conti Ransomware

Jack Cable authored the first in-depth peer-reviewed research into the Conti leaks. We mapped over $80 million in new payments to Conti.

This paper was published in December as part of the APWG Symposium on Electronic Crime Research, for which we received the best paper award.

In February 2022, over 168,000 internal chat messages of the Conti ransomware group were leaked. Conti is one of the most prominent ransomware groups of all time. We sought to build a picture of Conti's (quite profitable) business based on on-chain analysis of Bitcoin payments.

To do so, we manually annotated all 666 Bitcoin addresses present in the leaks based on message context (our team included a native Russian speaker). We tag addresses as either a salary, reimbursement, or ransom payment address.

John Yaros: Idaho Dept. of Finance appoints Securities Bureau Chief

John Yaros was appointed as Securities Bureau Chief by the Idaho Dpt. of Finance

The Idaho Department of Finance announced John Yaros has been appointed the Securities Bureau Chief.

In this capacity, Yaros will manage a bureau of financial professionals who provide regulatory oversight for the more than 153,000 entities and individuals who are licensed or registered to offer securities and financial services to Idaho residents. While the securities bureau is focused on investor protection, education and enforcement of state securities laws, the bureau also licenses and regulates money transmitter companies, escrow companies and endowed care cemeteries.

RSA Conference 2023: The Future of Cyber Workforce - An Ecosystem View and Global Perspectives

Alumn Seeyew Mo was invited to participate in the RSA Conference 2023 as a panelist speaker.

The introduction of the US Cyber Workforce Strategy and EU initiative on cyber skills presents a critical opportunity to enable the workforce of the future – it also requires an entire stack, all hands on board approach. With new threats and requirements emerging, this panel of experts from government, industry and academia will distill latest developments and action needed to address these needs.

StateScoop: Why 2023 could be a year for civic-tech optimism

Founder and Executive Director Travis Moore co-authored “Why 2023 could be a year for civic-tech optimism”

This year has the potential to be a positive, transformational year for government at all levels.

You’d be forgiven for scoffing at that sentence. With a divided Congress, many are ready to call 2023 a wash and set their sights on 2024. But from our vantage point in the world of public interest technology, that would be a mistake. We’ve never been as poised to drive meaningful, lasting change in government.

It’s taking place at every level of government — federal, state and local — as a result of three key factors: Increased capacity for tech talent in government jobs, digital delivery being written directly into policy, and government systems changing right before our eyes. The potential impact is enormous and will be felt in policies large and small — remaking the social safety net, transforming how we file taxes, modernizing infrastructure and beyond.

FCW: How smaller agencies are working to close their technology talent gaps

TechCongress was mentioned in an article highlighting innovative fellowships bringing much needed tech expertise to Congress.

CFPB chief technologist Erie Meyer said she "frantically" recruits from fellowships like the TechCongress and Senior Congressional Innovation programs, which were launched in 2016 to place computer scientists, engineers and technologists on congressional teams as technology policy advisors for members of Congress. 

Tech Policy Press: An exit interview with a Hill Staffer

Alumn Anna Lenhart speaks on the Tech Policy Press podcast about her time on the hill working on tech policy.

So there’s this program called TechCongress, and they place mid-career technology fellows onto the Hill in various offices. So I got selected. It was an incredible opportunity. And when I showed up with the fellowship, I really thought I was going to go work on automated decision systems and algorithmic impact assessments and data rights, but I quickly got introduced to Congressman Cicilline’s antitrust committee team.

As I was starting to talk to them and really think about the work they were doing, I came to realize that a lot of the anti-competitive conduct they were looking at was happening at the hands of automated decision systems, right? So Amazon placing first party products in the buy box, or setting Alexa’s default shopping commands to Amazon eCommerce, or Google’s Ad Exchange is running real-time bidding on ad space that Google owns, right? Apple places their apps first in the App Store, right? This is a type of discrimination against new entries against startups, right?

George Mason NSI: Geoff Cain

Alumn Geoff Cain named as fellow at George Mason NSI

Geoffrey Cain is an award-winning foreign correspondent, author, technologist, and scholar of East and Central Asia. His first book, Samsung Rising: The Inside Story of the South Korean Giant That Set Out to Beat Apple and Conquer Tech, from a decade of his coverage of the world’s largest technology conglomerate, was published in March 2020 by Currency at Penguin Random House. It was longlisted for the Financial Times and McKinsey Business Book of the Year award, and was named a Cult of Mac best tech book of 2020.

A former correspondent at The Economist, Cain is a regular commentator in The Wall Street Journal, Time, Foreign Policy, The New Republic and The Nation, a contributing editor at The Mekong Review, and a frequent guest on CNN, MSNBC, BBC and Bloomberg. Cain writes about the ways that technology is upending our lives, communities, governments and businesses. His work takes him to the world’s most authoritarian and far-off places, from inside North Korea to the trans-Siberian railway across Russia, from investigations into genocide in Cambodia to experiments in technological surveillance in China.

Government Needs Diverse Public Interest Technologists to Improve Services

A former fellow, Victoria Houed, mentioned TechCongress in her blog post on the Stanford Social Innovation Review:

This feeling of empowerment as a newly minted public interest technologist prompted me to apply to TechCongress, a year-long fellowship that places technologists into a congressional office or committee. I had no idea when I applied that I would end up working for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi in 2020 or that two months after my arrival in Washington, DC, a deadly pandemic would begin.

New House Digital Services Office seeks to fill gaps to modernize Congress

The Federal News Network announced TechCongress’ role in contributing tech expertise to Congress:

The CAO, which first announced its plan to create a digital services office in March at a hearing of the House Select Committee on the Modernization of Congress, is hiring both new employees but also bringing in experts from the U.S. Digital Service as well as TechCongress, an innovation fellowship that places technologists with Congress for a year.

TechCongress Planning to Place 120 Technologists in Congress by 2026

MeriTalk announces TechCongress’ grant from the Knight Foundation, and reports on our goal to place 20 technologists in Congress by 2026:

Congress is due to get a big influx of skilled technologists who will act as advisers to congressional offices courtesy of the TechCongress Congressional Innovation Fellowship.

The Knight Foundation invested $2.5 million in the TechCongress organization, which places early and mid-career technologists in congressional offices. The funding will allow TechCongress to place up to 120 technologists on the Hill through the fellowship program, the Knight Foundation announced.

To date, TechCongress has already placed 65 fellows in Congress, and 15 of them have had their positions converted to full-time roles. The organization’s goal with the new investment is to increase its annual fellowship class size to 24 members, with the hope of converting one-third of those fellows into full-time positions.

“Understanding the mechanics of current, new and emerging tech is critical for governing in the 21st century,” Lilian Coral, the Knight Foundation’s director for national strategy and technology innovation, said. “By increasing technical expertise in Congress, TechCongress fellows help our elected officials better assess how technology impacts Americans’ lives.”

The investment will also allow TechCongress to increase its recruitment efforts and boost the representation of groups that have traditionally been underrepresented in tech.

The fellowship brings in data scientists, computer scientists, and computer engineers and places them in an equal number of Democratic and Republican offices. The fellows are then able to advise members of Congress on issues like IT modernization and technology policy.

“Our fellows are forward-thinkers that not only bring critical knowledge to urgent tech policy challenges but also bring new and creative methods to problem-solving by centering users at the heart of the policymaking process,” Travis Moore, founder and executive director of TechCongress, said.

“Fellows are ensuring that lawmakers are at the forefront of cybersecurity and privacy challenges, while also supporting Congress to leverage new and emerging tech to make government officials more responsive to the needs of their constituents,” Moore continued.

The application for TechCongress’ 2023 Congressional Innovation Fellowship class opens June 7 and will run through August 10.

TechCongress to place 120 more technologists with lawmakers

FedScoop reports on TechCongress’ new grant from the Knight Foundation and the work our fellows have done:

TechCongress plans to place about 120 early and mid-career technologists in key congressional offices to advise lawmakers on technology decisions critical to the success of cities.

The Knight Foundation invested $2.5 million in TechCongress’ Congressional Innovation Fellowship to embed data science, computer engineering and web design experts with the goal of having about 40 become full-time positions.

TechCongress began the effort in 2015 and has seen the Knight Foundation provide $3.9 million total in grants that sent 65 fellows to Congress, about 20 of whom were retained.

The fellowship launched, in part, because only seven out of about 3,500 congressional staffers had formal tech training in 2015.

TechCongress hopes about 40 of the 120 new fellows become full-time, bringing the number up to 60 in key offices it’s identified dealing with cybersecurity, IT modernization, tech antitrust, health care, and website issues.

Because TechCongress wants consensus around the technology solutions lawmakers support, it places diverse fellows in Republican and Democratic offices equally.

TechCongress also created a Congressional Digital Service Fellowship to help Congress transition to remote work during the height of the pandemic, and the body opted to make a House Digital Service permanent in January.

The hope is with 60 full-time technologists in key congressional advisory positions, that will become the standard, and TechCongress might move on to expanding the tech capacity of other government institutions like the judiciary.

Reforming Congress - Travis Moore, Founder and Executive Director of TechCongress

TechCongress’ founder, Travis Moore, recently interviewed with the Sunwater Institute about TechCongress and modernization in Congress and Washington:

TechCongress to place more technologists in Congress with a $2.5M investment from Knight Foundation

The Knight Foundation generously granted TechCongress with a $2.5 million investment:

TechCongress, a nonpartisan initiative that places early and mid-career technologists as advisers to members of Congress, will expand tech expertise on Capitol Hill thanks to a $2.5 million investment from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. 

HOW IT WORKS

Through its Congressional Innovation Fellowship, TechCongress pairs early and mid-career technologists with members of Congress. The fellows include data scientists, computer scientists and computer engineers, who serve as advisors on technology policy and congressional modernization efforts. The program places an equal number of fellows in Republican and Democratic offices, and has also placed fellows who identify as Independents.

Knight Foundation’s latest investment in TechCongress will allow the organization to:

• Upskill the tech capacity of Congress by bringing 60 technologists to Capitol Hill by 2026, expanding the Congressional Innovation Fellowship cohorts from 16 to 24 fellows annually, and converting one-third of the fellows into full-time Congressional staff

• Increase representation of underrepresented groups in tech

• Boost recruitment efforts to ensure political diversity on an issue critical to the future of U.S. democracy

WHY IT MATTERS

When TechCongress launched In 2015, only seven out of the 3,500 legislative staff in Capitol Hill had any formal technology training. Pew Research from 2021, however, found that 95% of American adults were online. 

“Understanding the mechanics of current, new and emerging tech is critical for governing in the 21st century,” said Lilian Coral, Knight’s director for national strategy and technology innovation. “By increasing technical expertise in Congress, TechCongress fellows help our elected officials  better assess how technology impacts Americans’ lives. ” 

IMPACT

Since 2016, TechCongress has sent 65 fellows to Congress. They’ve worked with members such as  Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), Senator Tim Scott (R-SC), Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) and Representative Darrell Issa (R-CA.) The fellows have also served in Congressional Committees, including the House Foreign Affairs Committee, the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, and the Senate Banking Committee. 

The impact of TechCongress was evident during the pandemic lock down in 2020. Fellows supported the House Modernization Committee to facilitate the work-from-home transition for Congress. A pilot Congressional Digital Service effort was put in place quickly and made permanent by the House in January 2022. The House Digital Service aims to adopt digital technology and platforms to improve the ability of members of Congress to deliver for constituents. 

Other examples of TechCongress’s impact include:

• Changing defense procurement rules to allow startups to better compete for contracts

• Helping draft the House Judiciary Committee’s Antitrust Subcommittee report on tech monopolies

• Advising the House Modernization Committee’s recommendations to make Congress more responsive and effective

• Helping pass the OPEN Government Data Act into law

• Raising the level of tech policy discussion in Congress, including around artificial intelligence, cybersecurity and tech procurement

WHAT’S NEXT FOR TECHCONGRESS?

“Our fellows are forward-thinkers that not only bring critical knowledge to urgent tech policy challenges, but also bring new and creative methods to problem solving by centering users at the heart of the policymaking process,” said Travis Moore, founder and executive director of TechCongress. “Fellows are ensuring that lawmakers are at the forefront of cybersecurity and privacy challenges, while also supporting Congress to leverage new and emerging tech to make government officials more responsive to the needs of their constituents.’

Will Senate move on guns? Most Dems don't think so.

Politico recently announced the funding that the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation granted TechCongress:

BIG $$ FOR TECH CONGRESS— No, not big tech $$ for Congress. That’s different. The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation is investing $2.25 million in the nonpartisan TechCongress initiative that launched in 2015 to build and expand tech expertise on Capitol Hill. Through its Congressional Innovation Fellowship, TechCongress places early and mid-career data scientists, computer scientists, and engineers with members of Congress in both parties. They advise on tech policy and congressional modernization. The funding influx will expand the fellowship cohorts from 16 to 24 fellows each year and convert one-third of the fellows into full-time Congressional staff.

“Fellows are ensuring that lawmakers are at the forefront of cybersecurity and privacy challenges, while also supporting Congress to leverage new and emerging tech to make government officials more responsive to the needs of their constituents,” Travis Moore, founder and executive director of TechCongress in a statement.

Government and Philanthropy Should Invest in Diverse Public Interest Technologists

TechCongress is mentioned by the Stanford Social Innovation Review:

More recently, seed investments in the highly effective TechCongress, a nonprofit that places technologists to serve as technology policy advisors to members of Congress through fellowships, served as a precursor to the launch of a new digital service team in congress.

Online Life Is Stressful. Reclaim Your Sanity With These 10 Tips

TechCongress’ founder, Travis Moore, recently spoke with the Washingtonian about ways to mitigate the effects of social media:

If hiding apps in folders doesn’t curb your usage as much as you’d like, try doing what Travis Moore, founder and executive director of the fellowship program TechCongress, does: delete the apps altogether and use the mobile web version. “It’s really clunky,” says Moore. For instance, videos on Instagram don’t autoplay in a web browser—unlike on the app, which doesn’t provide an option to turn off auto­play. “So all of the behavioral-targeting tricks just don’t work the same way. Like, they don’t work well at all, which makes it much better for me to be conscious and limit my time.” 

House Digital Services team expected to launch this summer

FedScoop announces the creation and impending launch of the new House Digital Services (HDS):

HDS is tasked with building intuitive solutions that improve on member offices’ most significant challenges. It comes after nonprofit groups, like TechCongress and others, have for years looked to inject tech talent into Congress through digital service fellowships.

House of Representatives to launch new digital services team

FedScoop announces the creation of the new House Digital Services (HDS) and mentions how TechCongress has contributed to its development:

The new service is tasked with building intuitive solutions that improve on member offices’ most significant challenges. It comes after nonprofit groups, like TechCongress and others, have for years looked to inject tech talent into Congress through digital service fellowships.

A better world with A BETTER TECH

A few weeks ago, TechCongress’ founder, Travis Moore, spoke as a panelist with A BETTER TECH alongside representatives of the Ford Foundation and Schmidt Futures. The theme of the discussion was how philanthropy can be used to build an ecosystem for public interest technology. 

Watch the full discussion below:

Politico's Morning Tech: All eyes on Rosenworcel's first public commission meeting

Politico’s Morning Tech announces the hiring of former TechCongress fellow Anna Lenhart:

Anna Lenhart, a former TechCongress fellow in the office of Rep. David Cicilline, where she supported the House Judiciary antitrust subcommittee’s investigation into tech market power, started Tuesday as senior legislative assistant on the staff of Rep. Lori Trahan (D-Mass.)